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Chowmain - APC Switched PDU Driver


alanchow

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Chowmain - APC Switched PDU

APC’s Switched PDU’s allow you to control the power of devices in your customer’s rack. This is extremely useful for energy saving and remote troubleshooting.

Integration into Control4 enables Control4 to do emergency shutdowns on low or high voltage levels or if the total power consumption is exceeding or lower than expected. This ensures that the health of your customer’s rack based equipment is maintained.

You may need to reboot a device that has locked up. Sending a technician on-site can be inconvenient and expensive. This driver will enable you to reboot a device remotely via 4Sight. An even better solution would be to integrate it with the Extra Vegetables ‘Ping’ driver. You can have Control4 automatically monitor devices and have the APC driver automatically reboot the device.

Features

  • Dynamically import outlets
    • Detects how many outlets are present on the unit
    • Imports the names of each outlet into the driver’s connections
  • Auto import device details into properties page
    • Unit Name
    • Contact Details
    • Location
    • Up Time
    • Model Number
    • Present Outlets
    • Switched Outlets
    • Metered Outlets
    • Max Current
  • Auto poll for device power consumption (once every 30 seconds). Available in properties page and in Control4 variables.
    • Total Current Power Consumption (in watts)
    • Total Energy Consumption since birth (in kWh)
    • Phase 1, 2 & 3 Voltage (in volts)
    • Phase 1, 2 & 3 Current (in amps)
    • Phase 1, 2 & 3 Power (in watts)
  • Outlet State Control & Feedback
    • On / Off / Toggle for all outlets (Instant feedback on switch from Control4 or once every 30 seconds when triggered elsewhere)

Usage Scenarios

  • Automatically power on or off power amps and other AV equipment when Control4 requires them.
  • Automatically power off equipment when high or low voltage is detected.
  • Power cycle a device through Control4's navigator interface.
  • Turn off all un-neccesary equipment when the security system is armed. Turn them back on when the security system is disarmed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any other cool things we can do with these drivers?

  • Automatically reboot a device if it is locked up (requires Extra Vegetables ping driver)
  • Report rack energy usage (requires Chowmain Event Logger Driver)

 

How do I find out more information about the driver?
Please see the links below for more information about the driver.

Chowmain Website

Download Installation Guide

How do I buy the driver?
This driver is developed by Chowmain software & apps and is distributed and supported by Houselogix, Inc. 

Download Driver / Purchase Licence

Who do i contact for technical support?
This driver is developed by Chowmain software & apps and is distributed and supported by Houselogix, Inc. 

Support

Do you provide trial licences?
All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 48 hour trial. This is activated once you add the driver to the project. No additional steps are necessary. 

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One of the installers for our sister company managed to reduce the idle power of a rack he is working on from 850watts to 450 watts (3.4 amps).  At 23 cents per kwh that equates to a saving of $788 a year!

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APC's website is and always has been horrible.  Any hints as to which models of APC PDU this will work with?  Hard to tell the difference between networked and non-networked ones using Google/Amazon searches.

 

I was thinking about trying to getting a few outlets controlled on my APC S20, but it would be pretty limited compared to this solution.

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  • 7 months later...

This driver will work with APC network switched PDU's that have telnet functionality.  Extra Vegetables has a driver for the APC S20 as well (http://www.extravegetables.com/products/apc-s20) however as you stated it is limited to the four outlets.

 

Hi Alan,

 

Will this work on the APC AP7901?  I have 4 of them in my house and was just wondering if you or anybody else might know?  They do have Telnet.  The only reason I ask is because the one you show is the AP8959 which has FW 5.14 (which you mention in the instructions as it being built for that AOS), but the AP7901's only go up to FW 3.7.4, I think because they are the 7XXX series so under different FW numbers.  Just wondering.  Thanks!

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Hi Alan,

Will this work on the APC AP7901? I have 4 of them in my house and was just wondering if you or anybody else might know? They do have Telnet. The only reason I ask is because the one you show is the AP8959 which has FW 5.14 (which you mention in the instructions as it being built for that AOS), but the AP7901's only go up to FW 3.7.4, I think because they are the 7XXX series so under different FW numbers. Just wondering. Thanks!

Unfortunately it won't (at least from what I've been told by dealers who have tested on the 7XXX series). You're welcome to test it for yourself though if you want to try. All of our drivers come with a 48 hour trial.

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Unfortunately it won't (at least from what I've been told by dealers who have tested on the 7XXX series). You're welcome to test it for yourself though if you want to try. All of our drivers come with a 48 hour trial.

 

Thanks Alan.  Is it possible to integrate the 7XXX series (if yourself or another driver developer were to take the task on) or is this series part of a closed API?  I'm just wondering if it's something that could similarly be created based on what you've already done with the 8XXX series or something that isn't possible at all.  These particular ones seem like something more folks might have in their homes as they are priced a little lower and smaller, so the demand might be there to make it worthwhile for you or somebody else who might want to take it on.   I know I'd buy it if it was available.   Thanks again. 

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Thanks Alan. Is it possible to integrate the 7XXX series (if yourself or another driver developer were to take the task on) or is this series part of a closed API? I'm just wondering if it's something that could similarly be created based on what you've already done with the 8XXX series or something that isn't possible at all. These particular ones seem like something more folks might have in their homes as they are priced a little lower and smaller, so the demand might be there to make it worthwhile for you or somebody else who might want to take it on. I know I'd buy it if it was available. Thanks again.

Thanks for the feedback. This driver was actually developed for a job that one of our sister companies installed. If I do get access to the physical hardware then I will probably write one.

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  • 2 years later...

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