series3-watcher/README.md

Series 3 Watcher v1.5.0

Monitors Instantel Series 3 (Minimate) call-in activity on a Blastware server. Runs as a system tray app that starts automatically on login, reports heartbeats to terra-view, and self-updates from Gitea.

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Deployment (Recommended — Installer)

The easiest way to deploy to a field machine is the pre-built Windows installer.

1. Download series3-watcher-setup.exe from the latest release on Gitea.
2. Run the installer on the target machine. It installs to C:\Program Files\Series3Watcher\ and adds a shortcut to the user's Startup folder.
3. On first launch the Setup Wizard opens automatically — fill in the terra-view URL and Blastware path, then click Save & Start.
4. A coloured dot appears in the system tray. Done.

The watcher will auto-start on every login from that point on.

Auto-Updates

The watcher checks Gitea for a newer release approximately every 5 minutes. When a newer .exe is found it downloads it silently, swaps the file, and relaunches — no user action required.

Updates can also be pushed remotely from terra-view → Settings → Developer → Watcher Manager.

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Building & Releasing

See BUILDING.md for the full step-by-step process covering:

• First-time build and installer creation
• Publishing a release to Gitea
• Releasing hotfix updates (auto-updater picks them up automatically)

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Running Without the Installer (Dev / Debug)

pip install -r requirements.txt
python series3_tray.py        # tray app (recommended)
python series3_watcher.py     # console-only, no tray

config.ini must exist in the same directory. Copy config-template.ini to config.ini and edit it, or just run series3_tray.py — the wizard will create it on first run.

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Configuration

All settings live in config.ini. The Setup Wizard covers every field, but here's the reference:

API / terra-view

Key	Description
API_ENABLED	true to send heartbeats to terra-view
API_URL	Terra-View base URL, e.g. http://192.168.1.10:8000 — the /api/series3/heartbeat endpoint is appended automatically
API_INTERVAL_SECONDS	How often to POST (default 300)
SOURCE_ID	Identifier for this machine (defaults to hostname)
SOURCE_TYPE	Always series3_watcher

Paths

Key	Description
SERIES3_PATH	Blastware autocall folder, e.g. C:\Blastware 10\Event\autocall home
MAX_EVENT_AGE_DAYS	Ignore .MLG files older than this (default 365)
LOG_FILE	Path to the log file

Scanning

Key	Description
SCAN_INTERVAL_SECONDS	How often to scan the folder (default 300)
MLG_HEADER_BYTES	Bytes to read from each .MLG header for unit ID (default 2048)
RECENT_WARN_DAYS	Log unsniffable files newer than this window

Logging

Key	Description
ENABLE_LOGGING	true / false
LOG_RETENTION_DAYS	Auto-clear log after this many days (default 30)

Auto-Updater

Key	Description
UPDATE_SOURCE	gitea (default) or url — where to check for updates
UPDATE_URL	Base URL of the update server when UPDATE_SOURCE = url (e.g. terra-view URL). The watcher fetches /api/updates/series3-watcher/version.txt and /api/updates/series3-watcher/series3-watcher.exe from this base.

SFM Event Forwarder (v1.5.0+)

Forwards each Blastware event binary (and its paired <binary>.TXT ASCII report when present) to an SFM server's /db/import/blastware_file endpoint, where the report is parsed and the rich per-channel stats (PPV, ZC Freq, Time of Peak, Peak Acceleration / Displacement, sensor self-check) land in a searchable database. Default-off — existing deployments keep their old behaviour after auto-updating until the operator opts in.

Key	Description
SFM_FORWARD_ENABLED	true to enable forwarding (default false)
SFM_URL	Base URL of the SFM server, e.g. http://10.0.0.44:8200
SFM_FORWARD_INTERVAL_SECONDS	Scan-and-forward cadence (default 60); independent of the heartbeat interval
SFM_QUIESCENCE_SECONDS	Skip files modified within this many seconds (default 5) — avoids forwarding mid-write
SFM_MISSING_REPORT_GRACE_SECONDS	If a .TXT partner hasn't appeared after this many seconds, forward the binary alone (default 60)
SFM_HTTP_TIMEOUT	Per-request HTTP timeout in seconds (default 60)
SFM_STATE_FILE	Path to the JSON state file tracking sha256 of forwarded events. Leave blank to default to <log dir>/sfm_forwarded.json
SFM_MAX_FORWARDS_PER_PASS	Max events forwarded per scan tick (default 500, 0 = unlimited). Drip-feeds backfill so a folder with thousands of qualifying events doesn't hammer the SFM server in one giant burst.

Forwarded files are tracked by sha256 in the state file, so re-scans / restarts / auto-updates never re-POST the same content. A failed POST stays in the pending pool and is retried on the next interval.

First-time deployment on a folder with a large historical archive

If you're enabling SFM forwarding on a Blastware ACH machine that's been accumulating events for years (tens or hundreds of thousands of files in the watch folder), you almost certainly don't want the watcher to forward all of them on first run. Two options:

1. Skip the historical backfill (recommended). Run the seed-state CLI once before flipping SFM_FORWARD_ENABLED=true. It walks the folder, sha256s every existing in-window event, and marks them all as already-forwarded — without POSTing anything. The watcher then only forwards events that appear after the seed run.

   python event_forwarder.py --seed-state ^
       --watch "C:\Blastware 10\Event\autocall home" ^
       --state "C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Series3Watcher\agent_logs\sfm_forwarded.json" ^
       --max-age-days 365
   

2. Throttle the backfill. Leave SFM_MAX_FORWARDS_PER_PASS at its 500 default and let the watcher drip-feed. With a 60-second SFM_FORWARD_INTERVAL_SECONDS that's ~30K events/hour throughput. Backfill of 30K events takes about an hour, 100K takes ~3.5 hours. The cap fires per scan, so heartbeat and forwarding share the watcher's main loop without saturating it.

Combine both for a fully controlled rollout: seed-state to skip the deep archive, then leave the cap on as a steady-state safety net.

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Tray Icon

Colour	Meaning
Grey	Starting / no scan yet
Green	All detected units OK
Yellow	At least one unit Pending
Red	At least one unit Missing, or error

Right-click the icon for: status, per-unit list, Settings, Open Log Folder, Exit.

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terra-view Integration

When API_ENABLED = true, the watcher POSTs a telemetry payload to terra-view on each heartbeat interval. terra-view updates the emitter table and tracks the watcher process itself (version, last seen, log tail) in the Watcher Manager.

To view connected watchers: Settings → Developer → Watcher Manager.

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Requirements

• Windows 7 or later
• Python 3.8 (only needed if running from source — not needed with the installer)
• Blastware 10 event folder accessible on the local machine

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Versioning

Follows Semantic Versioning. Current release: v1.5.0. See CHANGELOG.md for full history.

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License

Private / internal — Terra-Mechanics Inc.