Sorry, I meant the prescaller when I said timer.

-Adam

Adam Davis wrote:
>
> On the topic of watchdogs, is there, or will the ever be, a PIC with a softwar
e
> configurable watchdog?  I know you can change the timer, but it seems that it
> would be nice to turn the dog on for critical parts of the program, and leave
it
> off for other parts.  I suppose if that's what was needed, one could certianly
> use an external chip, but there goes two pins.
>
> I like the analogy of visiting your aunt who has a dog who looks meaner and
> meaner by the second.  If you pet him every so often then he likes you, but he
> has a bad memory and soon forgets that he likes you, so you have to pet him
> again and again.
>
> But feeding the dog is good, if you don't feed him he will certianly become
> aggresive.
>
> -Adam
>
> Mark Willis wrote:
> >
> > Daniel Watford wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Caisson,
> > >
> > > Just a quick message to say thanks for the explanation.
> > >
> > > It does sound that if used properly the watchdog timer can be a very usefu
ll
> > > feature.
> > > Is it just a case that when using it you must issue the CLRWDT command.
> > >
> > > Thanks again
> > >
> > > Dan
> >
> >   Watchdog Timer's pretty much mandatory on life-critical systems (On
> > avionics, for example, you don't want a 747 crashing into the ground
> > because your ground proximity warning system's been hung for the last 3
> > hours, due to a cosmic ray ionizing things & crashing your GroundProx
> > system.)  Wouldn't be good if the CPU in someone's pacemaker crashed,
> > either...  I prefer "Feed the dog" to "Kick the dog" which some people
> > use when resetting the Watchdog Timer (Dogs're FAR happier when fed
> > treats, then when kicked!)  WDT isn't particularly necessary on LED
> > blinkers & so on <G>
> >
> >   Mark