LabView Programming - Do we still need Watchdog?

[EricVanWyk]

Originally Posted by Austin3324

All,

Since creating a new coding project and doing some programming within it, I noticed that Watchdog is no longer incorporated in any part of the program: Is it supposed to be that way?

Last year I remember getting into a lot of problems because we didn't "feed" Watchdog and I also seem to remember it coming standard in the robot project. (I was just a backup programmer last year and only really had experience programming when we got to the Buckeye Regionals last year.) Do we need to have Watchdog active this year or, if not, do you think it would still be a good idea to have it running just in case?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Sincerely,

Austin,
Lead Programmer, Team 3324

Austin -

The quick answer is "Nope, you are free to ignore the watchdog!"

The long answer is that last year's watchdog had a litter of watchpuppies. Each of the actuators has its own watchpuppy hidden inside of its set functions. For example: Whenever you set the speed of your lift motor, the lift motor's watchpuppy is fed. If the lift motor code gets stuck, that motor will be shut down and a message will be displayed - but the rest of your robot is free to continue!

Watchpuppies are automatically brought online the first time an actuator is spoken to, and automatically pet each time after that. As long as your code is perfect, you shouldn't ever get bitten by one. Here is a partial list of reasons that watchpuppies bite:
1) If you have your drive code in the same loop as your camera, and the camera is too slow.
2) If you use an actuator in autonomous but not in teleop, you will get a message and the actuator will stop moving.