Kiosk Monitor - Kiosk Monitoring and Administration software

Plugins so you can choose your features, or have custom features for your project....

Plugins expand the features and functionalities present in the core Kiosk Watchdog Software. Available for the Kiosk Watchdog Pro system, simply by installing one or more of the plugins you can enable extra features, monitor specific devices and systems, and produce a standard interface for your application developers to talk to different hardware components.
Also, as most kiosk solution include some level of customised features, hardware or systems, we can also develop specific plugins for your specific requirements without having to redevelop the core Kiosk Monitoring application so they can created very cost effectively.
Examples of this include:

Connections to customer’s own hardware watchdog
Monitoring and control of Air and kiosk conditioning systems,
Monitoring of web servers and network connections
Control of specific LCD monitors
Links to webcams to ‘watch’ for lack of changes to an image (to see if something has been left at a kiosk or vandalised)
Security Image recording from a webcam.
Links to hard-reset devices
And more...

Current Plugins Include:

	SNMP NMS system allows SNMP enabled devices (including hardware, PCs, routers, and applications running on the kiosk) to be polled at regular intervals using the Standard SNMP protocol to check for operation and set trigger levels. If any of the monitored events go over or under the trigger thresholds, the plugin reports it as a fault.

	Cash Mech Communicates with the KL6 cash accepter module (which interfaces between the PC used in the kiosk and the coin and note acceptors/dispensers) and provides a standard programmer interface to retrieve cash information. As coins are inserted, this information is sent to your kiosk application, whilst the total cash level in the kiosk and the operability of the cash mech are monitored. If too much cash is in the kiosk or a fault occurs, the plugin reports a fault so that the kiosk can be emptied or repaired as appropriate.

	Power Management Many kiosks are not required to be operational 24 hours a day, and although good to be green and conserve power, hard-powering off of the kiosks can damage the drive and components. Instead, this Powermanagement plugin allows you to specify time of day for the kiosk PC to power down into Sleep/Hibernate mode overnight (saving money and the planet) and automatically turn on again in the morning. Different days can have different times, and an interface is available for your application to initiate the sleep procedure.

	Reboot Although all applications (including Watchdog!) and drivers in the operating system are usually well written and protected from system ‘leaks’ which over time can cause them to stop working, it is possible that badly written drivers, or sometimes 3rd party applications can contain a resource leak. Although the Watchdog software will monitor all mandatory applications for this and take appropriate action, other applications and drivers cannot be monitored, so the Reboot plugin simply forcibly reboots the kiosk PC every day at a specific time to release all the resources and memory so it never becomes a problem.

	Serial Monitor Do you have a hardware device which needs regular monitoring but it doesn’t have an intelligent 2-way interface driver? An example of this would be a professional grade LCD monitor/plasma screen with a serial or USB port. The Serial port connection can thus be used for regular polling of the device using a command (e.g. ‘Turn on and change to the PC input’) to device, and waiting for a response. If an error message is received or no response is received, then the plugin reports a fault.

	Serial Trigger With many kiosks requiring manual intervention at some time (e.g. to empty money, service a printer, etc), it is useful to log the times when people do this to assist it tracking faults and other issues. By simply installing a push switch into the access doors of your kiosk and connecting it to one of three connections on any Serial port on the kiosk PC, this plugin logs the times whenever these are opened and closed again. (note if your kiosk includes other hardware interface cards, we can develop a custom plugin for you to monitor more switches and sensors – contact us for more information).

	Defrag Depending on how often your kiosks are used and/or updated, you may find your kiosks slowing down over time as the data written to the hard disc gets placed in different locations (as it takes time for the HD heads to hop around to read it again). The Defrag plugin runs regularly when the kiosk is not in use (using an interface to your program) to tidy the files up and keep them in long continuous streams for the fastest access.

	Webcam Viewer Provides you with a way of remotely monitoring the kiosk housing for damage or vandalism by simply adding a webcam to the kiosk.

	Winbond Watchdog Many professional grade PCs include a hardware watchdog produced by Winbond. This plugin communicates with the hardware watchdog and confirms the correct operation of the operating system and applications. In case that due to a hardware fault or driver fault the operating system has frozen (preventing Kioskmonitor’s Watchdog from repairing the fault), the Winbond watchdog will reboot the PC, and the Watchdog software will then report an unexpected reboot has occurred. (note other watchdog cards are also supported through other plugins).