| WATCHDOG
SERIAL PORT FOR WINDOWS 98/NT/2000/ME |
http://www.pciwatchdog.com/
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| Brief Introduction:
Watchdog
Serial Port is an application that monitors the amount of
data going in and out of a COM/Serial Port. While monitoring the stream
of data, it would also perform tasks in reaction to the amount of data
being sent or being received in the COM/Serial port.
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Application of Watchdog Serial Port:
It could be used to restart a computer that might
have been exhibiting some problems. It also could be used to
restart devices that are directly connected to the serial port
whenever these devices hang or stop responding. This is done
by the application by continuously monitoring the amount of
data coming in and going out of the serial port. If the minimum amount
of data has not been achieved, it will perform some specified action
like restarting the motherboard or the external device.
For
example, Company A has a computer in a remote location outside
of town. This computer is connected to the internet via modem to send
important data to another remote system. Somehow the modem hanged and
was not processing data anymore, as a result no data is received from
the modem. Watchdog Serial Port would be able to see that no data is
coming from the modem and as a result, Watchdog Serial Port will
restart the modem (by shutting the power off and on again).
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How to use the Watchdog Serial Port application:
1.
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Select how many COM /
Serial ports you want to use. This is done by checking the
corresponding buttons in the Use column.
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2.
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Choose the COM port you want to
monitor. Do this by selecting from the list of COM ports in
the COM Port column.
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3.
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The Watchdog Serial Port
application works mainly by monitoring the amount of data
coming in and out of the serial port in a specified lapse of
time. The minimum amount of data that must transmitted or received
is specified in the Number of Bytes column. And the time lapse that is
needed is specified in the Duration column. For example, you have a
serial equipment that is known to transmit at least 30 bytes
per second and receives at least 10 bytes per 2 seconds. So
the setting would be as such:
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4.
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The next step is to specify what
the Watchdog Serial Port application will do when the
minimum no. of bytes in the specified amount of time is not
achieved. The options are to either Reset the Motherboard or
to Reset the Power Control Box For example, if the specified settings
in the previous example is not met, the following actions will be
taken. For the Transmit part, the Watchdog Serial Port
application should restart the computer if the specified
number of bytes are not achieved within the specified time
limit. As for the Receive part, the Watchdog Serial Port
application should reset the Power Control Box (to activate maybe
an alarm) if the requirements are not achieved. See the below for the
application of such scenario.
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5.
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Since there is an option to reset
the Power Control Box, there is also an option to specify how
long will be the transition of the Power Control Box from one
state to the other. For example, the Power Control Box is
initially turned OFF, and an alarm is attached to the box to
sound off any problem that might occur. The alarm should sound on for
10 seconds after the no. of bytes for receive part has not been
achieved as to warn any personnel about the problem. After 10
seconds has elapsed, the Power Control Box will revert back to
its previous state (OFF) and would eventually shut down the
alarm.
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6.
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Like in the above
example, the initial state of the Power Control Box was known
to be OFF, this option can be specified in the selection Initial State
of Power Box This setting defines the initial state of the
box whether it is ON or OFF. So if the box was initially ON, the
transition would be from ON to OFF then back to ON.
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7.
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Sometimes, there are equipments
that require warming up before reaching their normal
operation speed. Thus there is an option in the Watchdog
Serial Port application to delay a while before starting to
monitor the flow of data in the COM/Serial port. The value specified
in the Start After field signifies the amount of time (delay) that the
program will wait before it may begin monitoring the flow of data. As
an example, the program will start monitoring immediately as specified
in the Start After field below.
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8.
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There is also an option to save
every configuration/settings made. This is done by clicking
the SAVE button. So the next time the program is ran the
previous configuration are automatically set. So whenever the
user clicks the SAVE button the present configuration of the
application will be saved into a file called �swdconf.log?on
the root directory. And the same file is checked for previous
configuration upon the execution of the application.
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9.
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After everything has been set, the
user can now start the Watchdog Serial Port to work by
clicking the OK button.
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| SAMPLE APPLICATION |
FILE |
WATCHDOG
SERIAL PORT FOR WINDOWS 98/NT/2000/ME
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1.5Mb
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