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

Plugins expand the features and functionalities present in the core System Watchdog Software used on the Kiosk. Simply by installing one or more of the plugins you can enable extra features, monitor specific devices and systems, and use our API for your application developers to talk to different hardware components and to log their own events in the system.

If you don't have the skills inhouse to develop your own plugins, or you have hardware or devices you need to monitor, contact us as we can develop the plugins for you at very little cost.

Examples of this include:

Current Plugins Include:

   

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 System 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 System 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.

Winbond System Watchdog
Many professional grade PCs include a hardware System Watchdog produced by Winbond. This plugin communicates with the hardware System 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 System Watchdog from repairing the fault), the Winbond System Watchdog will reboot the PC, and the System Watchdog software will then report an unexpected reboot has occurred. (note other System Watchdog cards are also supported through other plugins).