Chapter 3: Hardware
R-Engine-D
3-10
On-board Supervisor with Watchdog Timer
The MAX691/LTC691 (U6) is a supervisor chip. With it installed, the R-Engine-D has several functions:
watchdog timer, battery backup, power-on-reset delay, power-supply monitoring, and power-failure
warning. These will significantly improve system reliability.
Watchdog Timer
The watchdog timer is activated by setting a jumper on J9 of the R-Engine-D. The watchdog timer
provides a means of verifying proper software execution. In the user's application program, calls to the
function
hitwd()
(a routine that toggles the P29 = WDI pin of the MAX691) should be arranged such that
the WDI pin is accessed at least once every 1.6 seconds. If the J9 jumper is on and the WDI pin is not
accessed within this time-out period, the watchdog timer pulls the WDO pin low, which asserts /RESET.
This automatic assertion of /RESET may recover the application program if something is wrong. After the
R-Engine-D is reset, the WDO remains low until a transition occurs at the WDI pin of the MAX691. When
controllers are shipped from the factory the J9 jumper is off, which disables the watchdog timer.
The Am186ER has an internal watchdog timer. This is disabled by default with
ae_init()
.
Watchdog jumper
shown enabled at
J9 2-pin header
Figure 3.4 Location of watchdog timer enable jumper
Battery Backup Protection
The backup battery protection protects data stored in the SRAM and RTC. The battery-switch-over circuit
compares VCC to VBAT (+3 V lithium battery positive pin), and connects whichever is higher to the
VRAM (power for SRAM and RTC). Thus, the SRAM and the real-time clock DS1337 are backed up. In
normal use, the lithium battery should last about 3-5 years without external power being supplied. When
the external power is on, the battery-switch-over circuit will select the VCC to connect to the VRAM.