Watchdog timer – the perfect technological solution that makes your camera work all year round without failures of service!

A camera watchdog timer (WDT), similarly to a PC watchdog timer, is a camera hardware timing device that triggers a system reset if the main program, due to some fault condition, such as a hang, neglects to regularly service the watchdog. The intention is to bring the system back from the hung state into normal operation.

In addition to its main objective, which is to recover failed service, its secondary task is to collect valuable information about the causes of failure. Such information is very helpful for further troubleshooting and debugging.

Reviewed on 2011/08/29: The section mentioning turning off the Watchdog Timer was removed as it has become unnecessary.