Key Fact
New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system
Testimonials
“TBG Solutions delivered a functional test system that is effective and easily expandable.”
Understand
TBG Solutions have produced a PXI based generic automated test system performing both functional test and in-circuit testing on multiple products ranges.
The system leverages the MacPanel scout interface to provide a reconfigurable base platform from which the system can easily and quickly adapted in order to test a wide range of products. The system comprises enough hardware to support most test functions and can be expanded to support additional hardware where required.
The software architecture is modular and comprises elements common to all product test applications such as user management, calibration and diagnostics. The software is expanded to facilitate product specific testing by implementing custom TestStand sequences. New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system. New software sequences can be written specifically for each ITA expanding the functionality of the system.
Engineer
Design Challenges
The challenge was to design a versatile PXI based system incorporating a mixed suite of measurement hardware that can be re-configured and re-used for testing multiple product types using a commaon base platform. A product specific Interchangeable test adaptor is attached to the base system to provide the signal routing and configuration applicable to the tests required for that specific product.
Due to the nature of the project there would be a lot of electrical noise, limiting the distance that data could be transmitted. This posed a problem since operations needed to be logged at high accuracy and in real time.
System Design
National Instruments PXI measurement hardware provides the basis for the Generic Manufacturing Defect Inspection Automated Test Equipment (GMDI-ATE) which is further augmented using Excelsys Xgen™ range power supplies. The system is mounted in a standard 19” rack enclosure and incorporates a MacPanel Scout interface for configuring the system for different applications.
NI-PXI hardware modules provide a large number of analogue and digital channels working in tandem with high density switch and relay matrixes. In addition, we include a high precision DMM, arbitrary function generator, fully reconfigurable FPGA, RS232/485 serial communications, CAN and JTAG boundary scan.
Deliver
The systems delivered to date have successfully managed to reduce the cost of ownership and lead times on providing new test capabilities whilst improving test performance, accuracy, traceability and throughput. TBG can augment your test capabilities by designing and producing an ITA in under eight weeks.
