Handling test stations with different instruments

[stephenb2]

I am managing multiple test stations in a factory. They all test the same devices, but older stations have older test equipment that need different instrument drivers.

My current solution is to have case statements to select the correct driver for the station (e.g. if the station number is 1 to 3, use driver A, and if 4-6 use driver B). The downside is that all drivers need to be installed on all stations.

Is there a better alternative?

[billko]

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@stephenb2 wrote:

I am managing multiple test stations in a factory. They all test the same devices, but older stations have older test equipment that need different instrument drivers.

My current solution is to have case statements to select the correct driver for the station (e.g. if the station number is 1 to 3, use driver A, and if 4-6 use driver B). The downside is that all drivers need to be installed on all stations.

Is there a better alternative?

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All the solutions I can think of are just variants of what you are proposing.

[Kyle97330]

When you say "drivers" are you referring to code you get from the NI Instrument Driver Network, or something else?  I'm assuming that's what you refer to, but there are other drivers out there such as drivers for operating systems, etc.

I'm also assuming you're running "live" LabVIEW on these stations and not a compiled EXE, otherwise you wouldn't need to install these.

There's nothing stopping you from just moving the files that get put in instr.lib into your application directory, so when you do whatever you do now to distribute the shared testing software you make, it includes both sets of "drivers" internal to it so you don't have to get on each PC individually and get/install VIs for hardware any more.

This would also you to modify the VIs you get from the driver network if any of them have missing functionality that you want to add yourself.

Another option would be to load the VIs dynamically from disk:

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview/page/lvconcepts/dynamic_loadcall_vis.html

You would have to know the exact file path and connection pane you expect to find, but you wouldn't get a broken run arrow because of missing drivers for hardware the station doesn't have.

[stephenb2]

Hi Kyle97330. These are LabVIEW drivers from Rohde & Schwarz. I mass compile the VIs, but they are not made into exe's. They are called from the LabVIEW runtime adapter in TestStand.

Putting the files under the source tree sounds like a possibility.

I guess switching to SCPI commands would be too.

[RTSLVU]

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@stephenb2 wrote:

I am managing multiple test stations in a factory. They all test the same devices, but older stations have older test equipment that need different instrument drivers.

My current solution is to have case statements to select the correct driver for the station (e.g. if the station number is 1 to 3, use driver A, and if 4-6 use driver B). The downside is that all drivers need to be installed on all stations.

Is there a better alternative?

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Yeah, basically that's pretty much all you can do. 

Although what I do is use a config file on each station that I parse to select the case with the right instrument driver.

That way if I Brand X instrument fails in one system I can replace it with Brand Y and as long as I have already added support for Brand Y all I have to change it the config file for that station.