A watchdog timer is a special kind of timer commonly found on embedded systems that is used to detect when the running software is hung up on some task. The watchdog timer is basically a countdown timer that counts from some initial value down to zero. When zero is reached, the watchdog timer understands that the system is hung up and resets it. Therefore, the running software must periodically update the watchdog timer with a new value to stop it from reaching zero and causing a reset. When the running software is locked up doing a certain task and cannot update the watchdog timer, the timer will inevitably reach zero and a reset will occur.
Luckily for us, the Broadcom BCM2835 SoC on the Raspberry Pi comes with a hardware-based watchdog timer that can do just that. You will find this specially useful if you have a Raspberry Pi in a remote location and the operating system hangs and there’s no one around to reboot it.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro” ? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi.