ups_live_monitor.py

Realtime graph of UPS power draw via USB HID polling on Windows

What?

ups_live_monitor.py

Polls a UPS (APC-style) over USB HID and renders a live animated graph showing power draw in watts. Useful for visualising UPS behaviour in real-time, including load shifts and connected hardware impact.

• Graphs watt draw using matplotlib
• Calculates power from config-rated watts and percentage load
• Uses pywinusb to access raw HID feature reports
• Shows interactive cursor tooltip with timestamp and wattage

Features:

• Fully live graph
• Horizontal cursor hover to inspect values
• Static power config readout
• Zero-dependency Windows-only solution

Why?

• I needed a quick and dirty script to read my power usage from the ups.
• Just bought a new video card an people thought my PSU was on the low side
• So I, needed to understand how much total power I was pulling
• Built-in UPS software was garbage, total garbage, should be ashamed of themselves, garbage
• Wanted a realtime interactive visual instead of a log so i coult tab back and forth
• FYI, PSU is fine

Usage

Make sure the UPS is connected via USB. Then:

python ups_live_monitor.py

You can modify the script to log to file, run headless for alerts, or display other values like temperature or voltage.

Requirements

• Windows
• Python 3.x
• pywinusb
• matplotlib
• mplcursors

Install requirements:

pip install pywinusb matplotlib mplcursors

Improvements?

• Model testing
• Export data points to CSV
• Add CLI flags for duration or resolution, etc
• Rewrite to support any other platform but Windows

Known Issues

• Apparently some UPS models don't expose ConfigActivePower?

Status

Stable and functional. Ideal for internal use, hacking, and diagnostics.