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I have this material with me.Its part of the Test Stand Introduction Course Manual. Its all about building a CD Testing Application. I need a similiar requirement which can exploit the Test Stand features introduced in the Introduction Course.

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Message 11 of 39
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Forgive me for asking this question, but dont you use TestStand where you work?

Regards
Ray Farmer
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Message 12 of 39
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We use LabVIEW mainly for all our projects....but know I am going to be deputed to a client place where they need a TestStand guy.

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Message 13 of 39
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The thing is I know how to use TestStand, but don't know where and why to use it. If I get a requirement I will go ahead and think about how can I solve it using LabVIEW. I am not able to imagine anything that cannot be done using LabVIEW. I want to convince myself that, yes there is something which cannot be done using LabVIEW and can be done only with TestStand, moreover doing it with TestStand is advantageous than LabVIEW.

 

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Message 14 of 39
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Everything you can do in TestStand can be done in LabVIEW.  However, it may take grossly longer to accomplish it.  LabVIEW is a raw programming language and therefore you can essentially write your own test executive from the ground up.  In fact I've seen several operations that do this. 

 

The beauty of choosing to use TestStand is that it's an off the shelf tool with 80% of your development already complete.  Therefore it accomplishes the following:

- Reduce development time dramatically because most of the work is done for you out of the box.

- Reduce support and maintenance dramatically because NI supports it and anyone that knows it can maintain your code.

- Easy to upgrade because NI does it for you.  And you can more easily keep on top of the upgrades because now YOU don't have to add features.  Just get the next release from NI.

- Very customizable.  Most of the source code is available to you.  Therefore, you don't feel boxed in or trapped because you can always change something to get the behavior you want.  If you were to write your own you would spend a whole bunch of extra time adding this amount of flexibility.

 

 

TestStand has it's drawbacks.  I'm bias so my list is meager:

- It is overkill for small projects.

- If you aren't doing high volume then it's probably not worth it.

- It has a steep learning curve.  Espeically regarding deployment and understanding search directories.

- It's not as common as LabVIEW so there is not as much out there (i.e. books, knowledge bases, dedicated user groups, etc..)

 

You'd think that I work as an NI sales guy based on my passion for TS but I don't.  I just believe in the product.

 

Cheers,

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
Message 15 of 39
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LabVIEWan Wrote:

"Hi Jigg,

 

I have posted my implemantation of the "Person Tester" using LabVIEW as an additional tool. I could not implement the requirement on the reporting side.

 

Please give you feedack about my sequnce and also show me how to disable reporting for a step in my sequence."

 

Here is my feedback for you test.  First of all I think it's a great start for someone that just got out of a TestStand class last week.  Great job!

 

A couple things that you should be weary of:

- For the Action step in your main sequence.  Disable Record Results.  Do this by going to the Run Options for that step and unchecking the Record Result box.  That way it won't show up on the report and someone looking at the report won't wonder what it means.  Also, rename the step to something like (Get Person Details).  This way when people have to come back and maintain it's clear what that step does.  Even though they can tell by the VI.

- Unfortunately if you uncheck Record Results for your Call Validate Person Subsequence step it won't show the other 3 steps.  So you need to leave that one checked.  However, the name of the step shows on the report and it looks silly to say Call Validate Person Subsequence.  I would rename it to a more practical name (e.g. Validating Person).  That way the report won't read funny.

- The Action VI is necessary.  However, the 3 inside of the subsequence are overkill.  Now you have 3 different dependancies that you have to track and deploy and all they are doing is passing information straight through.  If it's simple like that just use the None adapter Numeric Limit step.  In the Pre-Expression you can set Step.Result.Numeric = Parameters.Height.  Then set the limits.  With that being said I think this was a good exercise for you to learn VI parameter passing and such.  Because in the real world, chances are your VIs will be more elaborate in which case you won't be able to use the None adapter.  The trick is knowing when to do something inside of TestStand versus outsourcing it to a VI or code module.  You just kinda have to go with your gut.  If it's complicated and requires looping and parsing then I generally outsource to a VI.  If I can do it simply with 1 or 2 steps in TestStand then I try to keep it inside TS.  Trust me I've seen the worst of both.  I saw one application where they only called 1 VI and EVERYTHING was done inside of that VI.   Then I've seen applications with up to 2 or 3 thousand steps that could have been reduced down to several VI calls.

 

Things I thought you did really well:

- I loved that you used parameters for your subsequence.  Too many people take the easy road and use FileGlobals.  However, parameters are a better choice.  My rule is the only time I will use a FileGlobal inside of a subsequence is if it's a callback.  In which case I can't change the parameter list so I don't really have a choice.

- Your VI calls were done correctly.  You checked the Show VI Front Panel When Called box when it was appropriate and left it unchecked when it wasn't.  Parameter passing was clean and done well.

- I liked that you kept your naming conventions consistent for all variables.  You'd be surprised at how many people don't get that.  It just makes your code better.

- Sequence FileLoad was spot on.  Perfect use.

 

 

Overall Grade: A-   🙂

 

Haha- you can tell that I've done a few code reviews.

 

I think you'll make an excellent TestStand developer.

 

Good luck on your projects,

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
Message 16 of 39
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Thank you very much Jigg for the feedback. I really feel happy and motivated when someone apprecitaes the work that I have done.

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Message 17 of 39
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Hi Jigg,

 

I want to tell you that I really appreciate the list of questions that you typed up, and also the pros and cons of TestStand.  I am a CLD so I am used to solve my problems with LabVIEW.  Using TestStand forces me out of my comfort zone quite a bit.  Also, I'll take the CTD exam tomorrow.  I took the TestStand1 course (online) and went through the TestStand help but I am still not confident that I will pass the test.  It's like taking the CLAD without all of the review materials and practice exams.  Web resouce is very limited.  Do you have any other list of questions that I can take a whack at?

 

BTW, I am expected to join L3 very soon.

 

Palpro.

 

 

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Message 18 of 39
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Unzip and run the index.html.  Enjoy.  I do not guarantee the correctness of the answers or grammer.  😉

 

BTW- everytime you get it you should get different questions.  There is a pool of 256 questions.

 

Cheers,

 

jigg
CTA, CLA
testeract.com
~Will work for kudos and/or BBQ~
Message 19 of 39
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This is really fun.  I took the CTD 2 days ago and failed (29/40).  A lot of the questions were about thread and I didn't do too well in that topic.  Your program is really great.  I did 2 quizzes.  Many of your questions made me open TestStand help and/or write some code so that I would understand it better.  It also proved that my overall understanding of TestStand is still pretty shaky and I was lucky to even get 29/40 on the test.

 

This is the best tutorial I got from NI forum so far.  I understand it takes a lot to put together these questions and to have them in such a cool program.  I appreciate it a lot.

 

Thanks Jigg.

 

Palpro,

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Message 20 of 39
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