On Dec 27, 2007 10:41 PM, Douglas A. Tutty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'd wire in a hardware-type heartbeat detector that will power-cycle the > computer if it stops working. I'd have a door over the money slot > powered by the computer so that it only accepts money when its working. > You could have a "Please wait" light to be lit during the reboot. > > Or, you could just rewire an MP3 player to play a tune when it is > powered on, then just hook the money-detector to the power switch. > Money turns it on, a timer just longer than the tune turns it off. No > computer needed (just a 556-dual-555 timer IC and some spare parts). > I second the idea of something as simple as an MP3 player connected to a money detector, if that's all it will be doing. Seems a little over-kill to get a whole computer, even if it is something as simple as a Soekris ( http://www.soekris.com/, which by the way, is a very nice device). However, if you do decide you still want an embedded OBSD device, it certainly is doable. I have a Soekris net4801 that I am using as my firewall/router, and it is working like an appliance. I'm using a 1GB CF card; it's mounted RW, but for the most part it is really only writing data to an mfs mount point. In this case, it's obviously connected to a network, and I have a monitoring tool running to report back on disk space usage, but it could easily do without this. I have a cron job that periodically checks to make sure the mfs mount points don't fill up, and cleans them out as appropriately. I have also highly tuned the log rotation to further ensure mount points don't get filled out. Should a problem arise, since the CF card is effectively read-only, a reboot is as simple and unplugging the device and then plugging it back in. Unless there is a hardware fault, it will come back up on its own. For further protection, you should mount the CF read-only so no mount points there can accidentally fill up.
