Using UPS to protect HDR

[Shaggy]

After my woes with frequent power cuts a few weeks ago corrupting the DLNA database on my HDR, Santa brought me a small UPS - this is primarily for use with my main NAS, but I've also plugged the Humax into it so that if the power does go off and I'm around, I can manually switch it off until power is stable again.

In addition to doing a controlled shutdown, the NAS has the function to act as a master UPS trigger to other devices on the network. I was wondering the following:

1. Would it be possible to get the Humax to react to such a message from the NAS? Not sure what format such a message is in - I'm assuming there's some kind of standard - nor do I know if it is something the CF could intercept and process (if not in standby).
2. Assuming the answer to the above is 'yes', how should the Humax behave? The following scenarios have occurred to me, but I'm sure there are more.

a) If in standby, there is no wake-on-LAN, so presumably no action. Not sure what should happen if a recording is scheduled before power is back on - presumably nothing different to usual.​

b) If watching at the time (live TV or a recording), the Humax could hunker down into some kind of protected mode or standby.​

c) If recording at the time, the recording could stop in a controlled way and the unit could go into standby. This would interrupt a recording, but without a UPS it would be interrupted anyway and there is a greater risk of corruption, so still an improvement.​

Of course, if the answer to (1) is 'No', then (2) is moot. What upset my HDR last time round was when the power went off, then on a couple of minutes later, then off again when the HDR was half way through it's boot up routine. A controlled shutdown resulting in a missed / curtailed recording would in any case be better than a corrupted disk.

This is just me thinking aloud, but I'd be interested in thoughts on whether this is feasible or worthwhile. Obviously if it's only me whose paranoid enough to use a UPS, it's not worth pursuing, and I'm not looking to create work for the BYT, but if I'm not the only one, there might be some mileage in the idea. But for now, I'm content with having the chance to switch off manually if I hear the UPS beep when the power fails.

 

[Ezra Pound]

If the Custom Firmware on the Humax can be informed of the Mains failure, then the ir (Web-If Remote control) commands could be used to terminate any recording / recordings and then place the Humax into standby e.g. STOP >> OK >> STOP >> OK >> STBY

 

[xyz321]

If the Custom Firmware on the Humax can be informed of the Mains failure, then the ir (Web-If Remote control) commands could be used to terminate any recording / recordings and then place the Humax into standby e.g. STOP >> OK >> STOP >> OK >> STBY

It might need three stop/OKs in case it was recording two and also in chase play mode.

 

[Ezra Pound]

It might need three stop/OKs in case it was recording two and also in chase play mode.

Fair point, I suppose you could also use the 'status' command to see what was happening, but too many STOP >> OK's wouldn't be a problem. The short on-off of the Mains would be more of a problem to work around

 

[Ravi]

Interesting idea.

I picked up a second UPS for my Hummy (since it's in a different room from my Synology NAS)

I just got a pretty basic UPS, rather than the APC one I have on my NAS. That one has a USB conector that plugs into a PC or NAS and gives stats back to the NAS, e.g. estimated battery time based on current usage.

If I'd though about this - I would perhaps have got another APC one, since there is probably a way of getting the info read by the Humax via one of it's USB ports. I would guess the info to do this is out there....

 

[Ravi]

This maybe able to do it.