bcmxcp_usb - Man Page

Experimental driver for UPSes supporting the BCM/XCP protocol over USB

Synopsis

bcmxcp_usb -h

bcmxcp_usb -a UPS_NAME [OPTIONS]

Note

This man page only documents the hardware-specific features of the bcmxcp_usb driver​. For information about the core driver, see nutupsdrv(8)​.

Note

This driver is a variant of the serial driver bcmxcp(8) and uses the same core code​.

Supported Hardware

This driver should recognize all BCM/XCP-compatible UPSes that are connected via USB​. It has been developed and tested on Powerware PW3501 hardware​. It also has been tested on PW5110 hardware​.

Extra Arguments

This driver supports the following optional settings in the ups.conf(5)​.

shutdown_delay = delay

The number of seconds that the UPS should wait between receiving the shutdown command and actually shutting off​.

Note

This driver does not currently support USB-matching settings common to other drivers, such as vendor, vendorid, product, productid, serial, device or bus​.

Default Values for the Extra Arguments

shutdown_delay =120

Instant Commands

This driver supports the following Instant Commands:

shutdown​.return

Turn off the load and return when power is back​.

shutdown​.stayoff

Turn off the load and remain off​.

test​.battery​.start

Start a battery test​.

Todo List

Report UPS alarm status

BCM/XCP supports reporting a wide range of UPS alarm conditions​.

Report UPS statistics information

BCM/XCP supports reporting of UPS statistics data​.

Experimental Driver

This driver has been tagged experimental, even if it has been reported to be stable​. Thus it is not suitable for production systems and it may be not built by default​. This is mainly due to the fact that it is a new driver​.

Installation

This driver may be not built by default​. You can require building it by using ​./configure --with-usb=yes (note that it will also install other USB drivers), or ​./configure --with-drivers=bcmxcp_usb​. Either way, you would need libusb-dev (libraries and headers package) or equivalent for other platforms​.

You also need to install manually the hotplug files (libhidups and libhid​.usermap), generally in etc/hotplug/usb/, to address the permission settings problem​. Lastly note that the libhidups file must have execution flag set (ie using chmod +x ​...)​.

Implementation

bcmxcp_usb only supports 1 UPS at this time​. You can put the "auto" value for port in ups​.conf, i​.e​.:

[pw3105]
        driver = bcmxcp_usb
        port = auto

Known Issues and Bugs

Got EPERM: Operation not permitted upon driver startup“”

You have forgotten to install the hotplug files, as explained in the Installation section above​. Don’t forget to restart hotplug so that it applies these changes​.

Authors

See Also

The core driver

nutupsdrv(8)

Internet resources

The NUT (Network UPS Tools) home page: https://www​.networkupstools​.org/historic/v2​.8​.5/

Info

10/07/2026 Network UPS Tools 2.8.5 NUT Manual