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Reply to "Proposed Solution to DCS Watchdog in Yard Tracks (DCS-RC WD Gerber Files Added to First Post)"

gunrunnerjohn posted:

That's a pretty cool idea Stan.  Any reason you didn't go for more than one second for the watchdog signal?  It does seem to work fine with one second, just wondered if perhaps two seconds would give a better window for certain success.

Apparently that 6-pin connection on the DCSRC is for the programmer to update the processor code, I wonder why the convenient 3-pin connector with just the right signals?

I might be misunderstanding your first question but to improve the chances of success, I'd think a shorter duration between watchdogs is desirable.  By experimentation I noted the DCSRC generates the watchdog about 3/4 sec after it receives power (or after it resets/restarts).  Then it goes silent not generating any further watchdogs.  So I figured the idea would be to restart the microprocessor after 1 sec (or so) to create the 24/7 "perpetual" watchdog.  Stated differently, I see no way to generate watchdogs more frequently than every 3/4 sec since it appears that's how long the DCSRC needs to generate the one-time watchdog under normal operation.

There are 2 un-populated connectors (J1 and J2) on the DCSRC board.  This gets into the arcane but the board uses a PIC processor chip which as you point is essentially a sure-fire indicator that one of those connectors (J2 as it turned out) would have the standard Microchip programming pin-out of Reset*, +5V, and Ground in that order.  Only the first 3 pins of the J2 connector were needed for this; hence you'll note I used "J2" as the reference designator for the 3-pin connection to the DCSRC board!

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