# Over 20 Devices just went down

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/over-20-devices-just-went-down/49489>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting\
**Tags:** electron\
**Created:** [May 2, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/over-20-devices-just-went-down/49489 "2019-05-02T23:53:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 51

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**Author:** ![Rftop](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/rftop/32/16896_2.png) [@Rftop](https://community.particle.io/u/Rftop)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:06am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/over-20-devices-just-went-down/49489/51 "2019-05-08T00:06:31Z")

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> [@justicefreed\_amper](#):
>
> By hardware watchdog timer, do you mean a timer attached to the reset pin, or a timer attached to a power switch?

I'd say a power switch, considering Reset generally couldn't recover from this incident, or the incident 6 weeks prior on March 14.

I've added a cheap ($5) Timer Relay board to my **critical** Particle Devices, which stay powered 24/7:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/3X/f/c/fc74ec7775830af36efb0df583c762e062c29854.png)  
The Count-down timer gets reset with a Digital Pin after each successful "WDT" webhook response.

I use the "WDT" publish/subscribe on a 30 minute schedule (adjustable) as a failsafe. If the timer runs out (the webhook response didn't make it back to the Electron/Boron), then the Particle's power will be switched off and will remain in the un-powered state for a user defined length of time (I use 15 seconds).

The separate "WDT" publish/subscribe schedule also allows me to continue to send No Acknowledge Publishes for regular sensor data (thousands per day), to not impact the cellular data usage significantly.

This is not a neat or clean as a "real" watchdog IC solution. But the easily adjustable ON/OFF Countdown Timer values and the visual feedback are nice, and it's only 1-wire plus power.

I cant risk another Cloud Incident requiring physical visits to all my customer's sites.

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_[View the full topic](https://community.particle.io/t/over-20-devices-just-went-down/49489)._