Windows UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) service - turn off UPS?

Question

I'm using the UPS service to monitor the state of my UPS from an application -- the key at HKLM\SYSTEM\CCS\Services\UPS\Status has all the information you can get from the Power control panel. BUT -- I'd like to be able to tell the UPS to shut down from my app as well. I know that the service can tell the UPS to shut down -- for instance, after running a set number of minutes on battery -- and I'm wondering if there's some kind of command I can send to the service to initiate a shutdown manually.

I'm having trouble searching for this information -- people tend to misspell "Uninterruptible" (hrm, Firefox red-lined that but doesn't have an alternative) and "UPS" just gets hits for the shipping service. Maybe I can do something through System.ServiceController, or WMI?

CLARIFICATION: Yes, I am talking about powering down the physical UPS device. I know how to stop the service. I figured it would be a common problem -- I want my UPS to turn off with the PC. I had an idea I'm going to try, based on this page. You see, APC (and everybody else) has to supply a DLL for the UPS service to call, and since the function calls are well documented, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to P/Invoke them. I'll re-edit this once I know whether or not it worked.

Update: I tried invoking UPSInit, then UPSTurnOff, and nothing happens. I'll tinker with it some more, but the direct call to apcups.dll might be a dead end.

Answer 1

Please, tell in what language are you trying to do that... if you're using .NET you can do that with ServiceController class (read the docs).

For controlling services in Win32 API using C/C++, Service Functions (Windows).

For example to stop a service you can use ControlService function as follows (this is a quick and dirty example):

OpenService (hServMgr, TEXT("\\UPS_SERVICE_0"), SC_MANAGER_ALL_ACCESS);

SERVICE_STATUS stat;
ControlService (hUpsService, SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP, &stat)

Note that you need to provide a Service Manager handle in hServMgr and the \\UPS_SERVICE_0 name is the name that must match with your desired UPS service (either the Windows built-in or another).

Remember that to stop a service you need the proper security rights. This is not a problem with an Adminstration account, but keep in mind what happens when logging with a non-admin account.

Hope that helps.

About shutting down the physical UPS device, I remember back in WIn98 days I was able to poweroff the device talking with the UPS through the COM port, altough I don't remember the brand or how the programming interface was.

Answer 2

Check my comments to Herman, you want to shut the UPS down, not the UPS SERVICE, correct? I mean, you want that thing to shut off, kill the power, etc, right?

If so, you are looking it on a UPS by UPS model. I doubt two of them would work the same.

In your searches, instead of UPS, try "APC", or "battery". I think a lot of the code is what runs on laptops to deal with being on battery, etc...

Some place hidden in some dusty old files I have protocol information for APC UPS's, and the commands they respond to, and what they send to the PC etc. But this was WAY back in the day when we used to connect our UPS's to our computers with SERIAL cables... You could actually talk to a UPS with Qmodem or Hyperterm...

Learned it from talking to the guys at APC. They are very nice, and helpful. Now-a-days, I think you just post a URL coming from your Powerchute software, and it will talk directly to the UPS, and carry out your commands.

Answer 3

You're not talking about shutting down Windows, are you? If so, use ExitWindowsEx.

Answer 4

OK, I have the answer (tested!), but it's not pretty. My APC UPS communicates using the APC "Smart" protocol (more here). What you need in my case is a "soft shutdown", "S" command. But first you need to make sure it's in "Smart" mode ("Y"). Now, if you want to let the Windows UPS service monitor state, the service will have an iron grip on the COM port. So you can either a) let the Windows service turn the UPS off, or b) kill the service and turn the UPS off yourself.

The UPS itself has a "grace period" after it gets the "S" command, giving you time to shut down your OS. This means that to do (a) above, you have to:

• Kill utility (mains) power
• Wait for the Windows UPS Service timeout (default and minimum 2 minutes)
• Wait for Windows to shut down -- right near the end, it will send the "S" command
• Wait for the UPS grace period, after which it will actually turn itself off

I think we're going to opt for (a), just because (b) involves extra work killing the service and implementing the serial comms.