DOS watchdog utility for Advantech?

Hi,
I would like a DOS TSR utility that works with the watchdog on my PCM-5820.
Has anyone written such a program?  I know Advantech has watchdog drivers
for Win2K & XP, but I didn't see anything for DOS or Win9x.

thanks,
Jonathan

"Jonathan" <jonathan@sprintmail.com> wrote in message
news:MtKdnTylTK_0OGjdRVn-tw@speakeasy.net...
> Hi,
> I would like a DOS TSR utility that works with the watchdog on my
PCM-5820.
> Has anyone written such a program?  I know Advantech has watchdog drivers
> for Win2K & XP, but I didn't see anything for DOS or Win9x.
>
Hi Jonathan,
        First I'd ask what you expect such a utility to do.  If it's just to
accept the watchdog timer interrupt and kick the watchdog, then there's very
little point in activating the watchdog, it isn't going to ensure that your
code hasn't gone west, though it would ensure that you haven't clumsily left
interrupts off or unluckily gone west through a disable interrupts
instruction.

        If it's anything what you'd normally use a watchdog for (i.e. to
ensure that your code hasn't got stuck in some loop, gone off the deep end
of the stack, jumped through an uninitialised pointer, etc., etc.,) then the
TSR won't help much.  You're better off adding some judiciously purpose
built watchdogging code to your app.

Cheers,
--
Alf
alfkatz@remove.the.obvious.ieee.org

On 2004-07-14, Jonathan <jonathan@sprintmail.com> wrote:

> I would like a DOS TSR utility that works with the watchdog on
> my PCM-5820.

What do you want it to do?  A watchdog is pointless unless it's
being kicked by your application code.  Kicking the watchdog
based on an interrupt in a TSR is sort of useless if you're
trying to detect whether your application is running or not.

> Has anyone written such a program?  I know Advantech has
> watchdog drivers for Win2K & XP, but I didn't see anything for
> DOS or Win9x.

The interface for the watchdogs I've used for x86 machines
consisted of two I/O ports.  Under DOS they required exactly 1
line of code to enable or disable and 1 line of code to kick.

Why put it in a TSR?

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  .. One FISHWICH
                                  at               coming up!!
                               visi.com            

Point well taken about the purpose and use of the watchdog.

I have Win98 running on this machine, and it's been hanging randomly, as
older Winblows versions do.  I was just looking for the lazy man's way to at
least get the box to reboot.  Yes, I know addressing why it hangs is more
appropriate, and I intend to investigate that as well.

Additional thoughts?

thanks,
Jonathan

"Grant Edwards" <grante@visi.com> wrote in message
news:40f68e06$0$241$a1866201@newsreader.visi.com...
> On 2004-07-14, Jonathan <jonathan@sprintmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I would like a DOS TSR utility that works with the watchdog on
> > my PCM-5820.
>
> What do you want it to do?  A watchdog is pointless unless it's
> being kicked by your application code.  Kicking the watchdog
> based on an interrupt in a TSR is sort of useless if you're
> trying to detect whether your application is running or not.
>
> > Has anyone written such a program?  I know Advantech has
> > watchdog drivers for Win2K & XP, but I didn't see anything for
> > DOS or Win9x.
>
> The interface for the watchdogs I've used for x86 machines
> consisted of two I/O ports.  Under DOS they required exactly 1
> line of code to enable or disable and 1 line of code to kick.
>
> Why put it in a TSR?
>
> -- 
> Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  .. One FISHWICH
>                                   at               coming up!!
>                                visi.com