[Beowulf] Watts Up Pro

[Robert G. Brown]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007, Greg Lindahl wrote:

> So, the thing that logs power usage over time seems to be the "Watts
> Up Pro", which says that it plugs into USB and has a Windoze program that
> graphs power usage. Does anyone have one, and can you access the data
> sans Windoze program? Are there any other cheap logging power meters?
>
> Also, can anyone recommend a USB temperature probe? Surfing at random
> I see some that are battery powered and have Windoze programs, ideally
> it would be powered by USB and readable from Linux, so you could leave
> it plugged in your cluster...

Some years ago I looked pretty hard for this sort of thing and have a
few bookmarks still preserved.  There is this:

   http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/ibuttons/thermochron.cfm

They allege to have C and Java source for at least serial port operation
-- I don't know that they are exactly what you are looking for though.

There are netbotz (as I'm sure you already know, and which I've used)
with a web interface among others -- very nice rackmount server room
appliances but pricey.  WAY pricey compared to USB environmental
monitors.

However, this seems more like what you are looking for:

   http://www.temperaturealert.com/product_p/tm-std30.htm

At least they say "contact us for linux drivers" on the ad, suggesting
that it can work with linux.  For server room products it's really
pretty insane not to, and if the devices appear to the computer as a USB
drive (effectively as R/W flash) one could probably read them in a
simple perl script.  However I never did end up getting one because
physical plant came and put in their own sensors and alarm system.  This
one is ALMOST cheap enough to buy for the fun of it, and there are USB
temperature sensors out there for as little as $50 (which IS cheap
enough to do for the fun of it) but it would be good to discover just
what the data interface is.

HTH.  There are eight million more, though, if it doesn't.

    rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu