How to externally trigger the execution of TestStand with a start and abort button through a digital interface?

[DennisV]

Hello,

I'm Currently evaluating TestStand as an alternative for an in-house developed Test Sequencer.

To start our own Test Sequencer we use a small box, connected to a DIO board. The box has a start button and an abort button. The box also has a pass, a fail and a running led.
The interface with this box is made via some digital lines of a PCI-DIO-96.

In our own Test Sequencer we have groups named Init, Run, Abort, Exit.

The Init group is executed at startup (only once). It is used to initialize all the HW and SW. -> I guess this is the Pre UUT Loop callback in TestStand.

The Exit group is only executed once at the end of the day when the application is terminated. It is used to free all the used hardware and cleanup all the resources. This probably is the Post UUT Loop Callback in TS.

When a product needs to be tested, the operator presses the "start" button which triggers our own Test Sequencer and the run and abort group are being executed (first the run group, afterwards the abort group).

When the product is being tested the "running led" of the little box lights up to indicate to the operator that the application is running. (only when the run and abort group are running)

The Run group has all the functional tests in it. (MainSequence)

The abort group is used to put everything back in it's original state after the test on this single product is done. (Post UUT)

When executing the tests and something goes wrong (operator gets stuck in a clamper, ...) the operator can still press the abort button and then the execution immediately jumps from the currently executing step in the run group to the first step of the abort group. So, when something goes wrong, immediately the abort group is called.

At the end of the run and abort group, if no errors occured, the "pass led" lights up. If one or more steps went wrong the "fail" led lights up.

This setup can also be used to test multiple product in parallel. At that time all the different parallel testers have such a small box which contains a "start" and "abort" button and a pass, fail and running led. (it is possible that they are all connected to the same PCI-DIO-96 board. )

My question:
Is it possible to do something similar like this in Teststand? If yes, is there an example available that shows me how to do this in TestStand? (externally trigger the execution of TestStand)

Typically, in the Init group (Pre UUT Loop) the digital interface box gets initialised.

In the Close group (Post UUT Loop) the digital interface box is taken out of scope.

Note: The PCI-DIO-96 board to which the digital interface box is connected will also be used in the rest of the developed application (MainSequence, ...)

What's really important for me is that I can create a process model that all the application developers in our organisation can use. I really don't want any of the application developers (limited software experience) to mess around in all the features of TestStand.

For them it's important that they just add the function DigitalInterfaceBoxInit () in the Pre UUT Loop Callback and the DigitalInterfaceBoxClose () in the Post UUT Loop Callback, and then everything works!

It is important that the appliation developers do not have to create any global variables, other functions, synchronisations, parallel sequences, ... in TestStand. All this needs to be done with a simple call to the DigitalInterfaceBoxInit function.


Thanks in advance for all the help!

Best Regards,
Dennis Vanotterdijk
dennis.vanotterdijk@philips.com

[Richard McDonell]

Dennis-

Your application sounds very well suited to TestStand's abilities. I am also quite impressed with your knowledge of how TestStand's architecture is arranged when you are still just considering whether or not to use it.

I think that TestStand would work really well for you in this application. Like you mentioned it will provide you with a form of standardization for your application developers to work from. It also provides the flexibility for you to add your custom routines in many different places. TestStand also makes parallel and batch testing much easier in TS 2.0 so that you could develop one test for your product and execute different instances of it in parallel to test multiple products at once.

As for your specific question about how to c
ontrol TestStand using a DIO board. I think this is very feasible and should not be too difficult. Since TestStand provides you the ability to create a custom operator interface your operator interface could monitor the status of your DIO board and launch/abort executions based on the read values. Usually the executions are launched/aborted when a button on the GUI is pressed however, I do not see any thing different about basing the action on a DI signal vs a mouse click. I am sure your application is more involved than this high level description but from the sounds of it I think it is very possible to do with TestStand.

Based on my experience of building test systems with TestStand and your description of the application, I would feel very confident in using TestStand to achieve all the goals you mentioned. If you have further detailed questions on how one of your features might be implemented, feel free to contact one of our Application Engineers or email us at www.ni.com/ask
and we would be glad to help you.

Best regards,

Richard McDonell
National Instruments