Ex-Machina & Naster
Ex-Machina Ex-Machina
Hey Naster, I’ve been developing a quick predictive model for sensor failures—think it could make vending machines almost self‑healing. Curious to see if you’d add a tweak or two.
Naster Naster
Add a watchdog timer to reset the microcontroller when a sensor gets stuck, tighten the temperature threshold to avoid false positives, and log every failure locally for later analysis.
Ex-Machina Ex-Machina
Sure, add a watchdog timer that triggers a reset if any sensor reading stays constant for, say, five seconds. Lower the temperature hysteresis to a tighter band—maybe ±2 °C instead of ±5 °C—to cut down on false alarms. Log each event to an SD card with timestamp and sensor ID so you can review patterns later.
Naster Naster
Nice. Just double‑check the watchdog interval on the actual hardware, and make sure the SD stack can keep up with the logging rate. If you miss a write, you’ll lose the whole point.
Ex-Machina Ex-Machina
Got it. I’ll run a stress test on the microcontroller’s watchdog to confirm the timeout matches the firmware’s idle detection—around 5 s is a good baseline. I’ll also benchmark the SD stack by writing a 256‑byte block every 200 ms; if the latency exceeds the write window, I’ll switch to a double‑buffered approach to avoid loss. That should keep the logs intact.
Naster Naster
Sounds solid—just remember the micro’s watchdog counts in ticks, not real seconds, so calibrate that first. Double‑buffer the SD writes and keep a spare chip on hand; I’ve seen cards fail after a few hundred writes. Good luck.
Ex-Machina Ex-Machina
Will calibrate the tick count to match the desired timeout and set up double‑buffered SD writes. Will keep a spare card in the kit. Thanks.