PARALLEL RELAY TESTER

Software

The software was written using National Instruments’ TestStand and LabVIEW. The test sequences were constructed to showcase the “Auto Schedule” functionality of TestStand allowing parallel testing of multiple UUTs and efficient sharing of resources. Effectively, the test application was able to test each relay in parallel, using a limited set of test resources, by dynamically re-ordering the test process (within constraints) to make efficient use of the instrumentation An intuitive operator interface showed the status of each test socket graphically, with the following states:

1) Passed
2) Failed
3) Terminated (due to operator intervention)
4) Error (such as an instrumentation failure)
5) Idle (waiting for relay to be inserted)

The UUT presence sensor was able to automatically determine the insertion of a relay into an idle test socket, and start the test without any operator intervention. In addition, the removal of a relay during a test would automatically terminate the socket’s test sequence. At the completion of a relay test, a visual indicator above each test socket would indicate the status.

Test results were logged for each measurement and a “Live Production Data” display was available showing overall test station utilisation and measurement statistics.

Test Station Utilisation (Click image to enlarge)	Measurement Statistics (Click to enlarge)

Conclusion

While originally conceived as a technology demonstrator, the software was architected to provide a reference design for parallel testing scenarios, which could be very easily adapted to handle testing of any specific UUT. The benefits of parallel testing speak for themselves: increased throughput, lower equipment costs, higher utilisation all add up to ensure lower overall cost of ownership for production environments.

Page: 1 2

What Next?

Contact Simplicity AI >
Learn more about Simplicity AI products & services >