Mar 18, '10 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: colinng
I stumbled across the open source Unix app Apcupsd which gives me all the features I want from the Windows version of PowerChute: beep settings, battery change dates, and so forth. Furthermore, it can send email notifications for significant events. As someone who runs an old G4 as a home server, this is very nice to know.
After downloading and installing Apcupsd is installed, run this command from Terminal: sudo /sbin/apctest. This will display a simple text-based menu, and it's self-explanatory. If you get an error message that reads Cannot find UPS device..., it could be because:
- Only one tool can query the UPS, and the background monitoring process is running, so stop it with sudo /Library/StartupItems/apcupsd/apcupsd stop, then try again.
- The software might only work with PowerPC Macs at this point. It works perfectly on my G4, but not on my ICBM (Intel Chip Based Mac).
