Can anyone explain whats going on here?? I went into MAX and gave all my ni switches ( MUX) aliases. This is under channel/exclusions tab. Under the Schematics tab is a column named route groups. I can give my relay connection ( like close relay 2) an alias here..like "Close Relay 2". If I click on relay 2 in the schematic it shows a connection between ch2 and com. Fine. Now when I go into Teststand >Properties TAb>switching>enable switching...I have the "Operation" "Connect". Is this redundant?? I already connected it when I called it. If its because Teststand doesn't know what I want when I call that particular alias will it "Disconnect" when I select Disconnect from the drop down?? Would you suggest I leave ALL my relays open in MAX and just "Connect" "Disconnect " them in Teststand?? Can you suggest what the other options should be if: I want to connect 1 or more relays for this sequence, do some testing, then disconect those relays?? Is that Connection Liftetime?? So "Step"?? What is multimode and when/how do I use it?? Included a few screen caps Thanks! Clint

Hey Clint, NI Switch Executive exists in both MAX and TestStand (and LabVIEW, etc). You can program individual routes in TestStand, or you can precreate complex route groups in MAX and then call those routes/route groups in TestStand. Say for example that you want to connect A to B, C to D, E to F, you can create a route group called "awesome channels" in MAX, then add the explicit connections to that route group (A to B, C to D, E to F). Now in TestStand you simply need to connect "awesome channels" and NI Switch Executive will do the rest. While you can connect channels in MAX, the intent is that you create the route groups in MAX and then use those route groups in test stand (if for no other reason that TestStand is automated while MAX is not). Ultimately, you can use the SW however you'd like, but we intend for the runtime execution to be automated in teststand. Think of MAX as the debug/configuration environment. Connection Lifetime is how long the relays should stay connected. For example, placing lifetime at "Step" means that as soon as that particular TestStand step completes, the relays will disconnect. Multiconnect mode is the concept that a relay can be connected more than once in software. As long as the connect count is 0, the relay is open. If the relay count is greater than 0, then the relay is closed. Say, for example, that you have two different tests that can run simultaneously and they share the same relay. Specifically, test 1 requires relays A and B, while test 2 requires relays B and C. If you're able to perform both tests simultaneously (a function of your DUT), then when you connect test 1 and 2 simultaneously, relays A and C will both have a connect count of 1 (they've been connected once), but relay B will have a connect count of 2. Thus, when test 2 finishes and disconnects its associated relays, test 1 could still be running; since relay B will have a connect count of 1 after test 2 'disconnects' relay B, relay B will still be closed and test 1 won't be interrupted. The concept takes a minute to wrap your head around, but ultimately it is quite powerful. NI Switch Executive is a very powerful program. Once you've played around with it for a bit, it is intuitively easy, but there is a higher rampup curve versus our other switch programming software (NI-Switch, NI-DAQmx, etc). NI Switch Executive is particularly well suited for TestStand. Let us know if you have any other questions or if my answers aren't clear. Have a great day!

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