[tsaksa]

By the way, once you start using software techniques like this to detect or even avoid hardware problems, you will see opportunities for using them everywhere. A good example can be found in pinball machines. Most electronic pinball machines will track and report bad switches, coils, and other components for the service technician. However, they do not have enough i/o to actually test everything. Instead they often just infer what is bad. For example, if the machine runs long enough without seeing a particular drop target get hit, it flags it as potentially having bad switch so that it can get checked. It might even change the game play or rules in the mean time so that players are less aware that the game may have a problem.

Automobiles also do a great job of recognizing when sensor values do not make sense and warning you about it with a check engine light and warning code. Try not to just think about how to control mechanical and electronic parts through software, but also what might go wrong and how you might recognize that something failed. Then you can take the next step to build software that can potentially reduce the severity of problems when they occur and also warn operators of those problems.