Automated Test Software

Hands-On Seminar

Featuring:

NI LabVIEW, NI TestStand,

NI Switch Executive, and NI Requirements Gateway

Agenda

Automated Test Software Hands-On Seminar

Build an Automated Test System in 3 hours

I. Introduction and Design

II. Implementation

III. System Verification

IV. Conclusion

15 Minutes to Hands-On

What We Do

Low-Cost Modular

Measurement and

Control Hardware

Productive Software

Development Tools

Highly Integrated

Systems Platforms

Used By Engineers and Scientists for Test, Design and Control

Empowering Users Through Software

LEGO Mindstorms

NXT

“the smartest,

coolest toy of the

year”

CERN Large Hadron

Collider

“the most powerful

instrument on earth”

MP3 player

PC/WWW/E-mail

Cellular Phone

Digital Camera

Gaming

High resolution display

iPhone

PDA

Today’s Designs: Converging Complexity

Today’s Challenges: The Traditional Approach

Oscilloscope

Logic Analyzer

Spectrum Analyzer

DMM

Communications Analyzer

LCR Meter

Function

Generator

Power Supply

Pattern Generator

Programmable Switch

• Lower cost

• Higher performance

• Smaller size

• Flexible

• Easily upgraded

• User-defined

• Lower cost

• Higher performance

• Smaller size

• Flexible

• Lower cost

• Higher performance

• Smaller size

NI’s Value Proposition

Development Platform for the Next 30 Years

Graphical System Design Design Prototype Deploy

Graphical System Design Examples

Machine Control Packaging/Processing

– High-speed motion control, batch control, discrete control

Heavy Machinery Control – Real-time signal processing and

control of power electronics, hydraulic systems

Semiconductor/Biomed – Custom motion and vision

inspection, material handling

Machine Monitoring

•Machine Condition Monitoring – Bearing order analysis, lubrication

monitoring, cooling, combustion, …

•Mobile/portable DSA, NVH – Noise, vibration, harshness, dynamic

signal analysis, acoustics

•Distributed Acquisition – Central controller with distributed I/O

nodes over Ethernet/wireless

In-Vehicle Data Acquisition • In-Vehicle Data Acquisition

– Automobiles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, research aircraft, trains

• Engine and ECU test cells – HIL testing of engines and engine

controllers, sensor simulation using FPGA

• Rapid Control Prototyping – Automotive/aerospace control

prototyping

Diversity of Applications

Electronics Semiconductors Computers

No Industry > 10% of Revenue

Advanced

Research Petrochemical

Food

Processing Textiles

Automotive Telecom

ATE Military/Aerospace

Virtual Instrumentation Everywhere More than 25,000 companies

>90% of Fortune 500 manufacturing companies

Introduction and Design

What we do… • Revolutionize measurement and automation

– Monitor and control traditional instruments and automation devices

– Replace them at a lower cost

How we do it… • Leverage mainstream PC, network, semiconductor technologies

User-friendly software

Cost-effective, modular hardware

Highly integrated driver software

= Virtual instrumentation

Bringing Automation to Measurement, and Measurement to Automation

Top 4 Concerns Among Leading Test Managers

1. Reducing investment for test system

development

2. Optimizing test throughput

3. Reducing false failures or false passes

4. Reducing number of unique test systems

Source: NI Automated Test Customer Advisory Board, 2006

Test System Cost Analysis Survey

• Capital costs – 36%

• Development costs – 64% – Software development – 30%

– System integration – 23%

– System configuration – 7%

– System validation – 4%

Source: Reducing the Hidden Cost of Measurements, White Paper

Hands-On Test System – The Challenge

• Test a multi-function handheld device

• Build a system to test all of the device’s features: – Cell phone

– MP3 Player

– Internet browser

– LCD Screen

– Bluetooth

– Wi-Fi

• Use commercial off the shelf (COTS)

software

• Verify test system to requirements

• Develop test system in 3 hours

5 Minutes to Hands-On

Requirements for Testing the Handheld Device

• Test sound quality

• Test LED in device

• Test power consumption

• Test volume

• Test LCD

• Test Bluetooth

• Test Wi-Fi

• Impact test

Required Elements for Test System Design

1. Test executive

2. Test development software

3. Instrument drivers

4. Test instruments

Drivers

Test System Software Architecture

Test

Module

Test Management Switch

Management

Operator Interface

Software

Architecture

Hardware

Components Hardware

(. . .)

Test

Module

Test

Module

Test

Module

Instrument Specific Drivers

COTS Test System Software Architecture

LabVIEW

NI TestStand NI Switch

Executive

Hardware

(. . .) LabVIEW LabVIEW LabVIEW

IVI Software

Architecture

Hardware

Components

NI LabVIEW

Test Module Development and Integration

• Communication between

programs

– NI TestStand can pass parameters

to/from the modules by reference or

by value for integration and module

communication

• Encapsulation in VIs

– Encapsulate modules in LabVIEW

virtual instrument (VI) files or

Express VIs

TestStand PASS

Audio Quality Test VI

NI Simulated Hardware

Implementation

Hands-On Test System Creation

• Test Module Development – Audio Quality Test

– Perform an audio quality test on phone speaker

• Show audio signal on graph

• Perform FFT on acquired data to determine frequency

• Perform limit test on resulting frequency and amplitude measurements

What Do We Need in a Programming IDE?

• Faster/Easier Development and Debugging – Complete and intuitive graphical environment,

hierarchal dataflow-oriented design

• High-Performance Execution – Efficient and fast executables, advanced

multithreading capabilities, proven reliability

• Components – VIs, DLLs, COM, A Reusable/Standard ActiveX

server and component capabilities

• Designed for Engineers – Complete instrument support with more than

4,000 instrument drivers, powerful visualization capabilities, and scientific analysis tools

Graphical Programming with NI LabVIEW

PC, Mac, Linux, Sun

Networked I/O

PC Boards

Workstation

Handheld

Embedded (FPGA)

Industrial Computer (PXI)

Wireless

Sensor

Tektronix Open Windows Oscilloscopes

Extend Test Systems with Real-Time,

FPGA, and PDA Targets

Audio Quality Test

1. Design user

interface

2. Add the instrument

I/O (simulated)

3. Add analysis to test

Front Panel

Block Diagram

Exercise 1 (Optional) O

BJE

CT

IVE

• Create the front panel for the Audio Quality Test

Design the User Interface for the Audio Quality Test

Time to complete: 20 minutes

LabVIEW Express VIs

• Streamlined development

• Easy-to-use, interactive VIs

• Quickly configured using

configuration pages

• More than 40 Express VIs

including:

– DAQ Assistant

– Instrument I/O Assistant

– Simulate Signal

– Write LabVIEW Measurement File

– Spectral Measurements

– Amplitude and Level Measurements

– Filter

– Mask and Limit Testing

Exercise 2 O

BJE

CT

IVE

• Use built-in express VIs to simulate data acquisition

for the Audio Quality Test

Add Simulated Instrument I/O to the Audio Quality Test

Time to complete: 15 minutes

Advanced • Curve fitting

• Interpolation

• Probability

• Decomposition/complex operations

Signal Processing • Filters

• Windows

• Signal generation

• Frequency domain

• Time domain

Mathematics • Textual math

• 1D and 2D array operations

• Statistics

• Vector and matrix algebra

Data Analysis with LabVIEW

Exercise 3 O

BJE

CT

IVE

•Analyze the sound quality of the phone speaker

using an FFT and a limit test

Add Analysis Functionality to Audio Quality Test

Time to complete: 20 minutes

Instrument Specific Drivers

COTS Test System Software Architecture

LabVIEW

NI TestStand NI Switch

Executive

Hardware

(. . .) LabVIEW LabVIEW LabVIEW

IVI Software

Architecture

Hardware

Components

LabVIEW

What Do We Need in a Test Executive?

• Flexible, open test architecture

• Ability to eliminate common test executive task

programming

• Reuse of existing test code

• Simple updates and long-term maintenance

• Test system development acceleration

• High test-system performance

NI TestStand – Test Management Software

• Graphical development

environment

• Automate tests written in any

language

• Multithreaded sequence

execution

• ASCII, HTML/Web, XML, and

ATML report generation

• Access, Oracle, SQL Server

database connectivity

Faster Development Using NI TestStand

Custom operator interface

Execution engine

Interface to test languages

Result evaluation

User management

Reports (XML, HTML, ASCII)

Database integration

Switch integration

Serial number scanning

Sequence loading

Test limit loading

Revision control

Development environment

Development Effort

= Development Time

= Time Savings

with NI TestStand

NI TestStand System Architecture

NI TestStand API

NI TestStand Engine

Operator

Interface

Sequence

Editor

LabVIEW CVI .NET C/C++ ActiveX HTBasic Other

ATLAS,

VEE,

Java

NI TestStand Sequence Editor

• Create, edit, manage test steps

• Execute and debug test sequences

• View and generate test result reports

• Deploy test systems

• Manage user permissions

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 4

•Create steps in TestStand Sequence Editor to execute

the Audio Quality Test

Add Tests Using NI TestStand Sequence Editor Time to complete: 15 minutes

Preconfigured Step Templates

• Pane of predefined test elements

– Steps

– Sequences

– Variables

• Build sequences easily by reusing test elements

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 5

•Add other steps to the test sequence using preconfigured

step templates

Adding Tests Using Preconfigured Step Templates

Time to complete: 15 minutes

Report Generation

• Multiple formats including

ASCII-text, ATML, HTML or XML

• A variety of ways to display data

– Arrays as tables or Graphs

– Import images to the report

• Fully customizable reports

• Custom result filtering

• On-The-Fly Reporting

• Varying color schemes

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Demo (Optional)

•Demonstrate the options for configuring report

generation in TestStand

Configuring Reporting Generation

Time to complete: 5 minutes

Types of debugging tools:

• Execution tracing

• Breakpoint setting

• Watch Expression pane

• Single stepping tools

Debugging Sequences

1. Resume button 2. Pause Execution button 3. Terminate Execution button 4. Step Into button 5. Step Over button 6. Step Out button 7. Resume All Executions button 8. Pause All Executions button 9. Terminate All Executions button

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 6

• Debug your test sequence using the debugging

tools to find the error

Debug Test Sequence Using the NI TestStand Sequence Editor Time to complete: 15 minutes

Switch Automation with NI Switch Executive

• Automatically routes between

endpoints

• Use per-step switching in

NI TestStand

• Reduces switch code complexity

• Reuse and easily maintain test

modules

• Abstracts low-level switch

programming details

(system-level API)

NI Switch Executive

NI TestStand

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 7 (Optional)

• Add switching operations to your steps to share

instrumentation for your Audio Quality Test

Integrating Switching into the Sequence Using NI Switch Executive

Time to complete: 15 minutes

Test Management Execution Model

• Multiple Process

Models

– Sequential

– Parallel or Batch

– Autoschedule

Sequential vs. Parallel vs. Autoschedule Execution

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 8

• Perform auto schedule testing on the handheld

device test sequence

Performing Auto Schedule Parallel Testing

Time to complete: 20 minutes

System Verification

Test System Verification

• Comply with customer requirements

• Track progress of test system development

• Provide documentation to regulatory agencies

Requirements Management Solution for NI Software

Dedicated Interfaces

NI Requirements

Gateway

Requirements Traceability

Capture Navigation

Dedicated Interfaces

DOORS RequisitePro

TestStand LabVIEW LabWindows MATRIXx

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 9

• Add requirement implementation tags to sequence

• Verify that all requirements are implemented

Verify Requirements are Implemented in the Test

System Using NI Requirements Gateway

Time to complete: 25 minutes

Run-Time Operator Interfaces

• Ideal design for manufacturing environment use

• Simpler interface to reduce training costs

• Ideal design for

running and

debugging tests

• User management

• Localization support

LabVIEW Operator Interface

Test

Sequence

Execute

Exit

Execution

Windows

OB

JEC

TIV

E

Exercise 10

• Run final test system from pre-designed operator

interface

Test Handheld Device Using an NI TestStand

Run-Time Operator Interface

Time to complete: 10 minutes

Deploying Your Test Systems

• Streamlines test system deployment with Deployment Utility

• Imports projects from NI TestStand workspace files (*.tsw)

• Analyzes files prior to building deployment

• Builds Windows Installer for local or worldwide deployment

Conclusion

System Expansion/Upgrading

• Hardware expansion

• Protection from obsolesence

• Interfaces, rack, or software

revision or upgrade

• Replacement strategies

• Calibration certification

Instrument Specific Drivers

Test

Module

Test Management Switch

Management

Operator Interface

Hardware

(. . .) Test

Module

Test

Module

Test

Module IVI

• Technical Support – Web support resources

– Applications engineers worldwide

– Premier Support

• Instructor Led Training

– Regional and on-site courses available

worldwide

– Thousands of engineers trained each year

• Certification – NI TestStand certified developer

– NI TestStand certified architect

NI TestStand Services and Support

ni.com/services

ni.com

• White papers

• Application notes

• Examples

• Other NI seminars

• Request callback support

• And much more… – ni.com/labview

– ni.com/teststand

– ni.com/pxi