Automated tester of circuit boards

[cmhand]

I am developing code in labview to perform automated testing on various circuit boards.  If you take a look at my program so far I am using stacked sequence that performs various steps in each sequence with various time delays. As you can see a lot of the same tests are performed over and over again such as checking ACC Cold, Ignition Cold, and +12V Machine. You can also see that I have an LED on the front panel for everytime one of those are checked, ideally though what I want is just one LED for each of those tests that will come on and off between each step/sequence to let me know that each step is performing the way it is supposed to. Also what I have not yet been able to figure out is how at the end of the testing to turn off all the LEDs that are still on because currently they stay on permanently until I exit out of labview and get back in. Also you can see that in each stacked sequence I have a text box saying what is going on, I know there is a way to have that message displayed on the front panel and have it change between every sequence...eventually I want to have error messages put in place so if one of the steps failed such as checking the ACC Cold an error message would pop up on the front panel. I know this is a lot but if you have time take a look at my program attached and give me some feedback.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Whoever wrote the comment at the top of the block diagram does not know much about LabVIEW programming.

You've got a very infexible architecture with that sequence structure. A stacked sequence structure is something to be avoided at all costs anyway. What you should really be looking at is a state machine based program. Instead of individual indicators, you might want to consider something else. A boolean array that is passed with a shift register might be a reasonable alternative.

[cmhand]

Ill try to do some of the stuff that you said...the guy that got me started on this particular setup is a field engineer that specializes in Labview and programming for National Instruments which is the guy that left the comments at the top lol....hopefully he knows something

[Dennis_Knutson]

Anyone who considers himself a specialist in LabVIEW programming and would recomend a stacked sequence structure is a person who has overstated his/her abilities, imho. Look through the forum for the many discussions about the stacked sequence structure to get an idea of what most experienced users think about it.

[cmhand]

Well I guess he needs to be fired from National Instruments lol, he travels around to companies like the one I work for and sells Labview stuff and helps them to program and also teaches a course I think lol. Well I originally started doing a state machine setup which I liked but I got confused but ill get back to that version.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Did he try to sell you TestStand? That would actually be the best (but more expensive) solution to a powerful and flexible test executive.

[cmhand]

No actually we had already purchased the cDaq 9172 with a bunch of Analog and Digital I/O modules

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

There is also no data flow mechanism to ensure that the wait function calls happens after the DAQ Assistants executes.

-AK2DM

[Coq_Rouge]

I also noticed frame 4 "Apply: +12V Machine Wait: 1.5 sec". I once learned long time ago that this is the wrong way of doing it, because you might end up with  "Wait: 1.5 sec Apply: +12V Machine ". Since you have no control of the execution order in this case. This because there are no dataflow between the "Apply: +12V Machine " and "Wait: 1.5 sec" functions. A frame should be used in this case

[Dennis_Knutson]

TestStand is a test manager and not hardware. It allows you to concentrate on just writing test code instead of all of the other support functions just as comparing to limits, reporting, logging, etc.