Watchdog ©M. Franzen

1. Copyright 2. Overview 2.1 The Problems 2.2 The solution 3. Installation 4. Quick start 5. History -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Copyright Version 1.04 (c) Michael Franzen, 2002 michael.franzen@eplus-online.de Watchdog is freeware, Copyright 2001, 2002 by Michael Franzen. Redistribution of Watchdog is permitted as long as it is done in form of the original SIS-file. Usage is on your own risk. The author is not liable for problems which are caused directly or indirectly by this program. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Overview 2.1 The Problems: - Battery usage: The system's display of the power consumption is unreliable, since it doesn't count the Psion's off-time. But the internal real-time clock and the memory even drains battery current when the Psion is "off". Furthermore, the system does not estimate the remaining on-time or standby-time. And the build in battery alert doesn't work for rechargeable batteries (at least NiCd and NiMH). - Alarms: The system does not allow to restrict the duration of alarms. They ring as long as they are cancelled by the user. Without user intervention, alarms will go on until the batteries are empty. 2.2 The solution: Watchdog supervises at least in one minute intervals the power consumption and the state of the alarm server. The power consumption observed is used to estimate the remaining on-time and standby time as well as the remaining battery charge. Furthermore, the measured values are used to calculate the battery-capacity which will be stored in accompanying battery files. The accuracy of the capacity estimation will grow with the number of usage cycles of the batteries. The observation of the alarm-server leads to a automatic cancellation of ringing alarms after a configurable time duration. Since Watchdog runs only for a short time every minute if the device is turned on, the additional power consumption caused by the program is negligible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Installation Provided you have PSIWIN installed and your PSION is connected to your PC via the serial link, double-clocking the file "Watchdog.sis" is all you have to do to install Watchdog. Note that there are separate SIS-files for the english, the german and the dutch version. It is important to choose the same language as your EPOC-Version uses since Watchdog uses language specific shortcuts. If you own a Series 5 classic you have to install also the file DATEOPX.SIS using the same method. Beside the Watchdog files the SIS-file also installs two more OPX-files if they are not already installed: Sysram1.opx and System.opx. All three are copyrighted by Symbian and all three are available only in English. Redistribution is not allowed unless you use the SIS-file version as they can be found on the PSION web site. If you have an older version of Watchdog running on your machine, just close it and install the new version above that. It is not necessary to uninstall the older version first. Prior to starting the new version the file "System/Apps/Watchdog/Watchdog.ini" has to be deleted. After the new version was started, please have a look on the configuration and change it as desired. However, if you are using the "default"-profile for quite some battery-cycles now, it is a good idea to rename that one (System/Apps/Watchdog/BatPf/default.pbf) prior to installing the new version. Otherwise you will loose the statistics already collected. (Be careful to choose a name which ends with .bpf!) After starting the new version you then should switch to this renamed profile via the dialog "Battery/Select profile". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Quick start Normal operation of Watchdog is not very complicated. The best occasion to start Watchdog for the first time is right after you inserted a fresh (or fresh recharged) set of batteries. Watchdog will then present a dialog in which you have to choose a battery-profile. By pressing the "New"-button you proceed to a dialog, which allows to enter some values for a new battery profile: A name and the capacity (which is normally printed on the battery in case of rechargeable devices). Alternatively you can just accept the "Default" profile presented in the very first dialog. This profile is based on the template "StdAkku" and is suited for rechargeable batteries with about 1100 mAh capacity. Watchdog generates the new profile based on the template "StdAkku". If you use normal batteries, you should press the "Template"-button before entering anything else. Select then the template "StdBat" and quit the dialog by pressing "OK". This template-dialog allows, by the way, to choose between all templates which are stored in the folder "System\Apps\Watchdog\PatPf" and base your new profile on every pre-learned template which you can find for your battery (and machine) type. Now you only have to leave the "New battery-profile"-dialog by pressing "OK", choose the newly generated profile in the reappearing "Select battery-profile"- dialog, and terminate the whole process by pressing "OK" again. That's it! For completion of your first impression of Watchdog it would be helpful to have a look at the topics "The Display", "Warning-Messages" and "Battery insertion" in the online help. Enjoy! Note for users of non Series5-type equipment: Since I do not now to much about the battery management on your type of machine, battery observation is turned of by default after installation. Watchdog will start up without presenting the dialogs mentioned above and the Watchdog window will just show the program's icon. However, the alarm observation should work. If you own a battery powered device (e.g. Osaris, GeoFox), it is probably worth trying out the battery observation, albeit it will be not very accurate in the beginning. (But it will learn!). It can be enabled in the dialog "Battery/Select profile". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. History Version 1.0 (1.12.2001): - Initial Version Version 1.01 (13.01.2002): - Watchdog is now installable on drive D: - Added support for MC 218 - Corrected 5mx startup bug - updated help file - added readme.txt file (this file) to the zip-archive - added default-profile Version 1.02 (03.02.2002): - rudimentary support for non Series 5 machines (at least the alarm handling should work now on these machines) - it is now possible to disable the battery observation. (So if both alarm and battery observation are switched off the program does nothing useful any more :-)) - the Watchdog window can now be moved to any corner of the display - handling of silent alarms was made slightly more consistent - the quick-start section from the help-file was moved entirely to this file. Version 1.03 (10.02.2002): - corrected interference with password/personal information screen - split up the app into two separated SIS files (English/German) Version 1.04 (20.04.2002): - Watchdog now behaves well when switching time zones or daylight saving - deleted "silent alarm duration" in Alarm menu (it was too confusing) - new option in alarm menu: Alarm handling. Watchdog now can switch off the machine immediately when an alarm is detected. - Watchdog now detects when empty batteries are inserted instead of new ones - (internal) initialisation somewhat optimised Version 1.05 (22.06.2002): - version with dutch menus added (thanks to Zegert van Eijk) - corrected bug which showed empty batteries when EPOC reported very low power consumption Version 1.06 (14.07.2002): - Partly adapted help file for dutch version - New automatic statistic update: Instead of displaying the "mismatch" warning, Watchdog now starts collecting new data automatically while continuing with old values as long as the new statistic isn't valid. - Snooze option added in "Alarm/Configuration" - Default value for "minimal normal Power consumption" for 5mx was lowered to 144 mAh. - Watchdog now continues to work well even after clocks were synchronised to the PC. - Batteries are no longer treated as new if they occasionally lose contact - New command "Batteries exchanged" - Removed command "Battery/Add Record"