AVIDdirector in my Car - Infinite Loop?

[Dennis Baldwin]

Is there a trick to getting the AVIDdirector to run in a car (off a
12V supply)? I have a power cable (thanks William) that I'm using to
power the director in my car. Every time the device gets to the modem
initialization sequnce it reboots and loads the M2MApp.jar all over
again. It never comes up and reports to the SensorLogic platform as
it did when it was plugged in my office. Could this be a power
issue? Any insight would be greatly appreciated as I'm planning on
taking the director on a little road trip. See the debug output
below.

Thanks,
Dennis

--
Think Vanilla, LLC
www.thinkvanilla.com
214.738.3404

/root > M2MApp loading ...
Starting M2MApp M2MApp Ver 1.7.5(3.1.3.2.2) 2/22/07 1:15p using
configuration file M2MApp.ini at 3/8/2007 1:18:25PM
Copyright AVIDWireless 2004-2007 Dallas, Texas USA. All Rights
Reserved. www.avidwireless.com

L:Starting AVIDirector-M2M Application framework M2MApp Ver
1.7.5(3.1.3.2.2) 2/22/07 1:15p
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-Configuration file M2MApp.ini read, continuing
initialization
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-SerialPortMapping[1]: serial2 to Radio2 = true
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-Loaded 10 M2M_IO_Devices
L:GPS_NMEA_Receiver.start-Finished successfully
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-Device GPS started correctly
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-Device STATUS started correctly
L:AVIDirectorApp.start-Device SHOULDERTAP started correctly
L:MultiTechWavecom.start-Initializing MultiTech GPRS Radio Ver:2.2
L:AT_Radio_Modem.readConfiguration-Configuration read.
L:MultiTechWavecom.readConfiguration-Configuration read, initializing
modem radio

Imsys SNAP restarting @ Thu Mar 8 19:20:42 2007
Reading /system/ish.ini: [OK]
Reading /system/snap.ini: [OK]
Serial server: [OK]
JVM startup: [OK]
Setting host name: [OK]
TCP/IP startup: [OK]
FTP server: [DISABLED]
Telnet server: [OK]
Setting timezone to: CST
Reading /system/startup.ini: [OK]

Starting applications listed in /system/startup.ini
To prevent this from loading, press the 'I' key during boot-up.
(Interrupt)

/root > M2MApp loading ...

[Rod Montrose[AVIDwireless]]

It is resetting at the line:

L:MultiTechWavecom.readConfiguration-Configuration read, initializing
modem radio

What is happening at that point is the radio board is being powered
up. The GPRS Radio (like most Cellular radios) has a large current
spike when this happens - a cellular radio can peak to 1 to 2 amps
initially when the transmitter is first turned on. On the AVIDdirector
there is a supervisory circuit that monitors the input voltage (a TI
TPS3825-45-1) and if the voltage drops below 4.5 volts it will reset
the device. Given this is running from a car power supply I am
guessing either there is some protection circuit on the cigarette
lighter plug that if you pull too much current it will shut down the
voltage, which could cause the reset (of course), or there is too much
voltage loss in the power cable and with the current drain it is
dropping the voltage to AVIDdirector below 7 volts for a brief period.

We have powered AVIDdirectors from cars before. We recommend at 14 to
16 gauge wire to supply power to the device.

-- Rod