Series 3 Watcher v1.5.1

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 (v1.5.1+)

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

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.

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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: v1.5.1. See CHANGELOG.md for full history.

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License

Private / internal — Terra-Mechanics Inc.