Tindie

mining PC watchdog

(3 Reviews)

PC Watchdog timer module designed for cryptocurrency mining PC's

Designed by easySensors in Belarus

2017-08-15T10:32:49.664Z-manualTindy.jpg

PC Watchdog timer module designed for cryptocurrency mining PC's

EasyPCwatchdog is a small module that mounts into USB 2.0 connector and monitors a PC for hardware/software lock-ups. It provides a solution to reboot PC's used as cryptocurrency mining servers/far...

Features:

Connects to USB2.0 motherboard male connector on a PC running Windows and Linux.
Watchdog timer set for 5 minutes.
Visible LEDs show status of PC Watchdog. After 3 minutes of HDD inactivity, watchdog LED starts flashing. - After 5 minutes of no HDD activity, it reboots the PC.
Watchdog has extra pins for reset and HDD LED.
Reverse polarity protection, so you will not burn anything if the module connected wrongly.
The device is only taking power from the USB header

Installation

Package Content:

easyPCwatchdog - 1 pcs
DuPont female to female cables - 4 pcs

Rates to United States of America

Shipping Rate	Ships From	First item	Additional items
Bpost: Standard Ground Rate	BY	$3.00	$1.00

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.00)

Documentation: (4.00)

Shipping: (4.00)

Communication: (4.00)

William | June 30, 2018

In short, good value, meets my specific use case exactly.

Good customer service, delivered on time.

Have been running this for some time, purposely on a clean system with no activity. Ran USBGuard as a precaution, my device did not trigger usbguard at all so only takes power from the USB header.

Works exactly as described so on a machine not doing much IO I needed to ensure there was enough disk activity to prevent a reboot.

In short, good value, meets my specific use case exactly.

Tanner | March 14, 2018

Great product

Exactly as in the description, works perfect. I have 2 so far and recommend it to anyone for building 24/7 computers.

Fede | Oct. 6, 2017

Doesn't really work as advertised. Needs way too much HDD

Seller was polite and responsive and item quality seems good, but doesn't exactly work as advertised:

Expectations: item works in fixed led mode ("system OK") until HDD led totally stops, when it should enter led blinking mode ("reset warning mode") and eventually reset the computer.

Reality: system got reset multiple times even when there is regular HDD activity because the device isn't "sensitive" enough to detect it. The device goes into blinking mode ("reset warning mode") even when there is some HDD activity. You need HEAVY HDD usage to keep it from resetting.

Video: https://streamable.com/qwdxd
Explanation:
- Until 0:45 you can see normal HDD activity on my rig (top left purple-ish led blinking) but the watchdog warning led (bottom right red led) kept blinking (eventually it would have reset the computer)
- Arround 0:45 i have to manually increase the HDD load so the warning mode gets disabled.
- If left unattended (intended use for a mining rig) it would be reset-looping forever (not good)
- Tried some workarrounds... scheduling a file read/write every minute or so, or using software to keep the HDD awake and in use (KeepAliveHD) and nothing worked. Again, you need HEAVY HDD loads every 1/2 minutes or so... not really working as expected

EDIT REPLY1: when i tried some workarrounds I considered solution (1), I considered that the led in parallel may be interfering with the device so i disconnected it but it didn't made a difference at all, so I reconnected it to record the video.

Response from easySensors | Oct. 7, 2017

Really sorry you are not happy with the watchdog. The sensitivity of this board is extremely high for HDD LED activity detection. The threshold is 0.4V (measured it), it is much better than needed for HDD led blinks. HDD led voltage is checked every 0.4ms (been measured too, so it is real timing). Hence If HDD led will switch on or switch off at least once at 0.5ms the watchdog will know it. I am sure it is not possible to skip led flashes, which I can see on your video. So something really wrong here. For now I have two ideas:
1) May be your beautiful lamp\switch (the big one beside the cooler) is a complex device (not only led) and it brakes measurement circuit. Can you try the watchdog without your external lamp\switch. On-board watchdog lamp should blink every time watchdog detects HDD activity. Can you try it?
2) Micro-controller on the watchdog or the board is bad and we missed it during testing somehow. In any case I will send you another board if the first case will not help you.
Thanks for your understanding and sorry.