Schlagwort: DIY Hardware Watchdog

  • More Memory and New Watchdog Features for Arduino Cloud Library

    More Memory and New Watchdog Features for Arduino Cloud Library

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Arduino Team — May 5th, 2021

    We have very big plans for Arduino Cloud this year, which took a major leap forward with the recent name change. But that’s not all we’re working on. We’ve already got some exciting new features to bring to you, including a watchdog timer that keeps your hardware ticking.

    WiFi Module Firmware Update

    First of all, we’re updating the WiFi module firmware on Arduino Cloud-compatible boards. It’ll be moving to a newer version (1.4.4), as well as the library used to connect devices to Arduino Cloud. 

    These measures will significantly reduce memory footprint on SAMD. The primary benefit of which is allowing for larger user sketches than was previously possible.

    Just follow the process below to update your boards to the latest WiFi firmware.

    How to Update Your Firmware

    • The WiFi module firmware is updated automatically when uploading a new sketch from Web Editor or Arduino Cloud interface. So you don’t need to take any action to do this.
    • If you want to manually apply a firmware update, go to “Devices” and select your device. Look for “NINA firmware” in device properties. If the device firmware is older than 1.4.4, an update button will be available. Please remember that if you update firmware this way, you’ll have to re-upload your sketch when it’s complete.

    Watchdog Function

    This release of the Arduino Cloud IoT library also adds watchdog functionality. It’s intended for all ATSAMD21G18-based cloud-connected boards such as MKR boards and Nano 33 IoT.

    The watchdog is essentially an electronic timer, counting down from a preset value. When it hits zero, the watchdog triggers a reset of the microcontroller. The timer is periodically reset to its starting value at the beginning of the loop() function, which means the software is running smoothly.

    Should something on your Arduino board crash, the starting value doesn’t get reset and the watchdog eventually restarts it. This will save you a lot of time as it helps to automatically recover from temporary hardware faults or unrecoverable software errors whenever you have an unattended or remote device. Watchdog enabled by default, but can easily be disabled, should you wish to.

    You can read more about the new watchdog functionality here. Come and join us on the forum to let us know how the new features are working out for you.

    You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
    You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    Website: LINK

  • A DIY hardware watchdog for your mining rig

    A DIY hardware watchdog for your mining rig

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    A DIY hardware watchdog for your mining rig

    Arduino Team — March 2nd, 2018

    Vadim Panov wanted a way to automatically restart a PC that was simple and cheap to make.

    For this task, he turned to an Uno due to its wide availability; however, any Arduino board with at least one digital I/O pin and a USB-enabled serial port will work.

    The device sends a “hello” string to the PC, to which it expects a “HELLO” back from the PC—running its own corresponding Java program—within 10 seconds. If it doesn’t receive this string, it assumes that the computer is frozen, and uses a reed relay to trigger the motherboard reset pin.

    Panov’s idea could be used to monitor and reset cryptocurrency rigs, but could be adapted to other PC setups as needed.

    Here’s how it works: the PC-side program tries to connect to every single serial port in your system within a period of 30 seconds (including the ports that appear during this process). To each port it’ll send the handshake string “hello” and monitor the input, expecting to receive uppercase “HELLO” back. When the handshake is finished, it’ll send ping strings once each five seconds.

    The watchdog program on Arduino scans the input for “ping” strings. If no such string has been received within 10 second period, the watchdog will forcibly restart your PC.

    Therefore, this scenario where you manually run it will be “one-off”, i.e. once the PC has been restarted, the watchdog will be stuck in the pre-handshake state. To make it work all the time, add the Java program to the startup list of your operating system of choice.

    You can read more here and check it out in action below!



    You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    Website: LINK