Windows XP startup question

Full Acrobat or the Reader? What version?

Yep. I'd use your DTMF interface... battery powered, with a charger... discrete chips and components... latchable relays... beep, beep, beep reporting that mission was accomplished... NO uP ;-) ...Jim Thompson

I'd expect something mundane: A few uncommitted outputs. But it seems to have those.

Reader, 8 and 9. They get worse the younger they are, just like a lot of other sofware does.

It can be a uC though. While it took that industry seemingly forever to figure out how a good BOR works now there are some that are reliable enough. Some, not all. Texas has a nice app note on how to do that, with the code and all.

Or just get one for little money from EBay:

Probably water under the bridge by now since you built the boards but if your modem had RS232 this ought to be cool, your cabin would have two web pages:

AFAIR someone made one with an Ethernet connection a well.

On a sunny day (Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:58:52 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

I just did an interesting test with my Linksys web server (the modified wireless access point). As I added a SDcard and RS232 connector to it years ago, and also added telnet and netcat software,

This is the trick: The Linksys sees the RS232 port as /dev/console You can connect to it via a terminal for example, and type /tmp/var/bon/nc -l -p 8192 to make it listen on port 8192 (in this example), connect it to the internet via its ethernet port, and then type at the other end of the world: echo "This is a test" | nc IP_ADDRESS 8192 and sure it spits out 'This is a test". Works in reverse too. So a simple script or program will connect all those RS232 PIC projects of mine directly to the internet. Without need for a PC, cost today: 0 Euro.

You need to install my wapserver soft, SDcard mod, and what ever you need on that SDcard to do whatever you want...

I just love those zero cost solutions, and yes, it still runs the webserver too: http://81.207.135.196:82/index1.html

I stopped at Acrobat v7... primarily used for reading, creating from scanner. I use v4 for "printing to", and PDF's that need links and/or forms (I like to make "hierarchical" PDF schematics for design reviews... works better than PowerPoint).

Come to think of it, I've _never_ had Reader on any of my machines.

Can't you crash a uP without a brown-out/power-drop-out?

I recently designed a robust BOR (with an additional power monitor to cover another chip)... only took ~90 active devices ;-)

If I had to use a uC/uP I'd rig the DTMF so I could over-ride everything and do a re-boot. ...Jim Thompson

On a sunny day (Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:53:20 GMT) it happened Jan Panteltje wrote in :

wireless access point).

and netcat software,

directly to the internet.

Oh, and it is locally wirelss too of course.

...Jim Thompson That is what a watch dog timer circuit is for.

Oh well.

I don't need the full version because I have a virtual PDF printer so can get PDF output from any program. Plus the scanner already produces PDF (if you set it to PDF format).

That entirely depends on the code quality :-)

I built my first reliable BOR circuit when I was 18 or 19, out of salvaged transistors. Because it was needed in a high voltage design where uncontrolled brown-out could cause tube grid voltages to become suboptimal and lead to a serious *KABLOUIE*. That's why I never understood why large swaths of the electronics industry could not get that licked for decades.

Problem is that DTMF chips are vanishing from the marketplace. So you are pretty much stuck with either a uC or a whole lotta hardware. When engaging the watchdog properly or (if you don't trust it) providing an external watchdog a uC solution can be very reliable.

I know. You're perfect ;-) I like digital solutions simple enough that even I, an old Analog guy, can understand, and proof every possible combination.

Part of my chip design procedure includes testing for VERY soft power supply rise and fall times... looking for any possibility of latching before every thing reaches normal quiescent bias. Particularly critical with split supply chips.... but those I usually design so that minus supply must pass P/BOR before stuff powered from the plus supply is allowed to bias up (avoids crazy substrate behaviors).

...Jim Thompson

telephone

Nope, only one guy was and was killed at age 33.

Even if you don't, what's the big deal of generating a regular pulse that resets the watchdog? uC code hangs -> watchdog triggers -> big master reset happens.

I can't even count the apps anymore where I found that the watchdog had been disabled. Maybe because it was "inconvenient".

I do the same with board level stuff. "Oh, it's going to be fine." ... "Should we quickly test it anyhow? Only takes a minute." ... "Sure." ... crank, crank, crank ... *PHUT*

wireless access point).

and netcat software,

mine directly to the internet.

too:

But the meditation part is sort of strange :-)

On a sunny day (Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:08:00 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

wireless access point).

telnet and netcat software,

mine directly to the internet.

too:

Only if you do not do it :-)

take it to a windows newsgroup.

telephone

What happens with flaky power? You need something to wake up the dog reliably.

A separate circuit and NMI.

Or quickly cycle power to confuse the POR timing.

Joerg Inscribed thus:

Which would be nice if the source code for programming the device were available.

My stuff usually just goes "click", though I did have an alternator regulator pass device become a ball of silicon one time... near as we could figure, flyback diode wirebond failed, then we had a 60A arc across about 0.05" contained within a glass-alkyd molding ;-) ...Jim Thompson

telephone

A good BOR. Which is where I spend a lot of diagnostic review time because I don't trust some of the commercial solutions.

No, it was immune, it would just go into the big freeze for the max power-on delay time.

telephone

Yep, the Digital Guru at GenRad blew my supply by rat-a-tat-tatting the power switch. I responded with a design that had a minimum 5 second OFF time ;-) ...Jim Thompson