Property Loader and Step Names in TestStand 3.5

[leek]

Hi All,

I enheritted a job from someone else who left the project unfinished.  There are roughly 100 or more steps all together.  The Property Loader is used to load limits and comparision type into Step.Comp, Step.High.Limit, and Step.Low.Limit from a text (.txt) file.  Step names that were created by the original developer has many charaters that I never thought to include. 

Examples are TN0500.x.zz_DMM: Meas AURID +/- via MRRM Switch, TN0400.x.zz_DMM: Meas AUR Power Path (+), TN0410.x.zz_DMM: Meas AUR Power Parallel 10 ohm, SCNR1: Close Relay for 1PPS +/-, TN0445.x.zz_DMM: Meas MRR Resistance w/ 1 Ohm, etc.

It has space, :, /, +, -, (), etc. as part of the name.  When the Property Load is executed, it appears to load the limits and comparision type from the correct file.  But it seems to load limits from from no where (not exist in the text file) for several steps later.  They are TestStand steps that are group together or in the same sub-sequence.  Also these are limits that are group together in between the same start and and end flags in the text file.

Does anyone know if any certain character such as :, /, ect. in the step name cause any strange behave for TestStand 3.5?

Thanks,

leek

[Doiron]

Hello Leek,

Yes this can definitely cause some issues. See a KnowledgeBase article here. I found this KnowledgeBase by searching "character in step name teststand" at ni.com.

This may or may not be what is causing the behavior you are seeing, however it's definitely the first thing on the list to check out.

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

Since unique Step Name identities was introduced back in TestStand 3.0, I thought this sorted this problem out which the early TestSand versions suffered from.

Have you got this enabled in the Station Preferences / Station Options, as you can switch this option off.

Regards

Ray Farmer

[leek]

Thank you David and Ray,

The article you (David) found give me enough reason to change all step names to avoid any problem.  The answer to Ray's question is "yes".  Each step name is requested to be unique when created. 

I have quite a task to complete.

leek

[leek]

Before I make any change to the step name.  I have a question to David or any NI engineer.  I use TestStand version 3.5.  This version has an option of creating a unique step name, as Ray mentioned.  This option can be turn on or off.  I have this option turn on permanently.  The article David found is for TestStand version 1.0.1.  Are special characters covered in the article still a problem in version 3.5?

Thanks,

leek

[Doiron]

Hello Leek,

I found out that this issue was fixed in TestStand 3.1 at the latest. I apologize, I will archive or edit that KnowledgeBase so that no other customers or Applications Engineers make the same mistake I did.

Now, let's get to the issue then.

So these steps that seem to be randomly loading limits, did you check the step properties to see exactly what is going on?

[leek]

I am eliminating all special characters from the step names, and use underscore (_) to replace space.  So the new step names are one contiguous string.  TesStand is configured to generate a database report file.  Special character may have side effect in the database.

The suspicion of special character comes in when the TestStand is executed, some steps read comparison type, high and low limits fine.  But some steps within the same group that read from the same Start and End flags in the text file appears to read the comparison type and limit values from no where.

Specifically, I have comparison type of "GELE"  20  0, "LT"  20  10, etc.  The failed steps show that it read "LT" 0.  These are resistance measurement.  So the tests failed.  There is no "LT"  0 any where in the limit file.  There are "LT", but not 0.

leek

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

Can you post an example of your limit file and a sequence file containing a propertyloader step that files to load correctly.

Regards

Ray Farmer

[Jervin Justin]

Hi Leek,

Did you manage to get set up?

If not, like Ray said, could you please post an example limits file and a sequence that imports them? 

[leek]

Hi Jervin, Ray,

I cannot post any more sample than what I already did.  It is company's proprietary information, at the very least.  However, I removed all special characters and made all names into one contiguous string.  The problem has not shown so far after that.  And the tests have been running for many months.

Thanks,

leek