How GroundProbe Achieves 24/7 Safety-Critical Monitoring Through the Use of our Watchdog

From system failures, battery levels to computer malfunctions, the Watchdog has been designed to promptly raise alerts in response to any abnormalities when they are detected. GroundProbe’s Watchdog is a custom-made peripheral device that has been designed to monitor the health of the Primary Monitoring Point (PMP) computer and the MonitorIQ® Desktop suite running on it.

With hundreds of deployments over the last 20 years, the Watchdog technology identifies malfunctions early.  This technology ensures GroundProbe and our customers can perform 24/7 safety-critical monitoring with confidence.

What does the Watchdog do?

When activated, the Watchdog issues audible and visual alarms when the PMP computer is unable to monitor the alarm thresholds in MonitorIQ® Desktop.

The Watchdog alarms and alerts when any failure occurs across the PMP computer hardware, the software (MonitorIQ® Desktop), the communications link (GroundProbe Sync), or the connection between the PMP computer and Watchdog. These issues can include a PC failure, power shutdown, a disconnected cable, an operating system crash, overloaded PC memory or a software problem (for example).

Beyond alarms, it will also alert the users in case the alarms are not evaluated to ensure the issue is communicated. The Watchdog will also activate relays to mirror both the Watchdog alarm and the red, orange, and grey alarms of the PMP computer.

What does the Watchdog not do?

Despite its range of capabilities, the Watchdog should not be used as a substitute for personnel responding to these notifications.  It is essential the PMP computer and Watchdog notification primary alarms are responded to by the appropriate team members.