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Elias Nicolas Applications Engineer, National Instruments

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MP3 player

Internet/E-mail

Cellular Phone

Digital Camera

Gaming

High resolution

display

Smart Phone

PDA

Electronics Manufacturing Challenges

• Shortening product release cycles

• Increasing number of products to test

• Escalating device functionality

• Converging technologies (RF, audio, video, digital…)

• Maximizing test throughput

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Military

Aircraft

Digital Radio &

Telemetry

High Density

Data Storage

& Imagery

Onboard

Computer

GPS Navigation

Satellite Link

Multimedia

Display

Remote

Diagnostics

Field Service

Tools

System Diagnostics

& Documentation

Mil/Aero Systems Test Challenges

• Integration of hundreds of subsystems

• Test coverage and quality a necessity

• Escalating device sophistication

• Converging technologies (RF, audio, video, digital…)

• Long product life-cycles

• Legacy TPS reusability

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Common Needs

No matter the industry, every company has testing needs for their products to ensure quality. A proper automated testing framework (either built in-house or off-the-shelf) should:

1. Provide a flexible, open test architecture

2. Eliminate programming of common test executive tasks

3. Enable reuse of existing test code

4. Simplify updates and long-term maintenance

5. Accelerate test system development

6. Ensure high test system performance

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Components of an Automated Test System

NI LabVIEW LabWindows™/CVI Other Software

Measurement Studio, Visual

Studio.NET™, …

RF Measurements Bus Interfaces (GPIB/LXI/Serial)

Signal Generation PC or Embedded Controller

Switching PXI Chassis

Fixturing/

Mass Interconnects

SO

FT

WA

RE

H

AR

DW

AR

E

Test Development Software

NI TestStand Test Management, Test Deployment

IVI, VISA, NI-DAQ, NI-DMM, NI-SCOPE, NI-FGEN, NI-HSDIO, …

Test Management Software

Drivers, Services, Hardware Abstraction

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Role of Test Management Software

Operations different for

each device tested:

Operations repeated for

each device tested:

Test System Components:

• Calibration

• Configuring instruments

• Data acquisition

• Measurements

• Analyzing results

• Test strategies

• Operator interfaces

• User management

• Unit Under Test (UUT) tracking

• Test flow control

• Archiving results

• Test reports

Test

Management

Software

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NI TestStand – Test Management Software

• Graphical development

environment

• Automate tests written in

any language

• Multithreaded sequence

execution

• ASCII, HTML/Web, XML,

and ATML report

generation

• Access, Oracle,

SQL Server database

connectivity

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NI TestStand – Test Management Software

• Full Featured and Simple User Interfaces are provided in NI

LabVIEW, NI LabWindows™/CVI, C#, C++, and VB.NET

• TestStand Deployment Utility builds a simple installer with

necessary dependencies

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NI TestStand System Architecture

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TestStand Adoption

• Since releasing in 1999: • Over 50,000 TestStand deployments • Over 20,000 TestStand development licenses

• Cross-industry adoption TestStand Customers

• Lockhead Martin (Mil/Aero)

• Flextronics (Electronics Mfg)

• Texas Instruments (Semiconductors)

• Cochlear (Healthcare)

• Askey (Consumer Electronics)

• Visteon (Automotive)

• CIMTEK (Automotive)

• Alstom (Transportation)

• G Systems (Semiconductors)

• Anoto AB (Imaging Equipment)

• Tektronix (Instrumentation)

• Harris (Communications)

• STMicroelectronics (Semiconductor)

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NI TestStand Sequence Editor

• Create

• Edit

• Manage

• Execute

• Debug

• View reports

• Deploy

• Create user

profiles

• Customize

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Double-click or drag/drop to add steps to your file

• Code module steps

• Pass/Fail Test

• Numeric Limit Test

• Multiple Numeric Limit Test

• String Value Test

• Action Step

• Flow control steps

• Message Popup step

• Synchronization

Sequence Editor – Insertion Palette

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• Steps are placed inside sequences

• Sequences contain 3 groups:

• Setup

• Main

• Cleanup

• TestStand can call tests written in many different development environments

• Programmatically determine execution order with flow control steps

Sequence Editor – Steps Pane

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Sequence Editor – Sequences Pane

• To run a test program, you execute sequences

• Sequences contain a group of related tests (aka Steps)

• Sequence files can contain a number of sequences, each with their own list of steps

• MainSequence is the “top-level” sequence

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Sequence Editor – Step Settings – Module Tab

• Module tab automatically populates with parameters and functions of code module

• LabVIEW code module steps populate with VI icon and documentation

• Easily step into LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI code with Edit button

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Exercise 2.1 Using TestStand Sequence Editor

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Sequence Editor – Single Pass vs. Test UUTs

• Single Pass

– Executes test sequence once

– Often used during test

development

• Test UUTs

– Sequentially loops through

test sequence until stopped

– Often used for production as

units roll off of assembly line

– Shows serial number dialog

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Run-Time User Interfaces

• Ideal for use in production

environments or for simple

development scenarios

• Customize the user interface

to only show essential

information for operators

• User management

• Supports Localization

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Exercise 2.2 Using Entry Points and UI

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Sequential vs. Parallel vs. Auto-scheduled

Execution

• Simple 1 UUT test fixture

• Extremely simple code structure

• 12 time blocks for 4 units

• Multiple UUTs in parallel

• Switching allows hardware to be shared

• ~30–60% decrease in testing time

• Same HW setup as above

• TestStand auto-schedules resources

• ~15–20% further decrease in testing time

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NI TestStand Parallel Test Demo

Demo

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Exercise 4.1 Creating a Sequence

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What’s New in NI TestStand 2013

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With TestStand 2013, you will experience…

• Simplified deployment management

• Increased available system memory and

overall stability

• Improved integration with LabVIEW and

Microsoft Visual Studio

• Enhanced sequence editor to speed up

development

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Managing Deployed Test System Software

User Code Application Software Drivers

• LabVIEW,

TestStand, CVI,

etc

• Associated Run-

time engines for

above SW

• NI-DAQmx, NI-

SCOPE, NI-

VISA, etc

• Associated Run-

time engines for

above drivers

• User built VIs,

EXEs, DLLs,

assemblies, etc

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The Problem

• Eventually, deployed systems will need an upgrade

• New product models

• Optimized test code

• New test hardware

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Test Software Deployment Strategies

• Manual copying of files and driver installers

• Easy for small deployments

• Not scalable

• Disk imaging

• Easy restore state

• Difficult to upgrade

• Building installers

• User can optionally install

specific components

• Versioning simplifies

deployment management

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TestStand Deployment Utility

• Builds a single installer with:

• Sequence files

• Configuration files

• Source code/DLLs/EXEs

• NI HW drivers and NI SW RTEs

• Automatically includes static

dependencies

• Can run 3rd party installers using

custom commands

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Installer Deployment – Single Installer Approach

Development System

TestStand Engine

Run-time Engines

Drivers

Test Code

TestStand

Cfg

Custom

Result

Processing

User Interfaces

Deployment System

Deployment System

Deployment System

Single

Large

Installer

1.0

1.1

1.2

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Installer Deployment – Multiple Installer Approach

Development System

TestStand Engine

Run-time Engines

Drivers

Test Code

TestStand

Cfg

Custom

Result

Processing

User Interfaces

Deployment System

Deployment System

Deployment System

Small

code-only

Installer 1.0

1.1

1.2

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Installer Deployment – Patch Installer Approach

Development System

TestStand Engine

Run-time Engines

Drivers

Test Code

TestStand

Cfg

Custom

Result

Processing

User Interfaces

Deployment System

Deployment System

Deployment System Small

patch

Installers

1.0

1.1

1.2

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New in TestStand 2013: Patchable Deployments

• Automatically includes only

new or changed files

• Only 6 MB of patch overhead

• Provides patching for both

user applications and NI

software

• Allows for multiple cumulative

patches on a single

deployment

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Cumulative vs. Dependency Patching

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Increased Available System Memory

• Large Address Aware support

• EXE flag that gives TestStand access to

o 3 GB RAM on a 32-bit OS

o 4 GB RAM on a 64-bit OS

• Increased stability for memory

intensive applications

• Load more sequences, test

code, arrays, reports, etc.

without running out of memory

• Enabled by default in TestStand

2013 UIs and Sequence Editor

• TestStand 2010 and later user

interfaces also support this flag

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Continued Focus on System Stability

• Reduce number of minor defects/deficiencies

• Focused effort to significantly reduce minor usability issues

• Expanded test cases and benchmarks

o Real-world user applications

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Evaluate NI TestStand for Free Today

…or visit ni.com/teststand

• ni.com/ideas

• ni.com/teststand/whatsnew

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The NI TestStand Ecosystem

1000+ companies worldwide

10000+ existing developers

20+ partner products

1200+ new developers trained annually

40+ worldwide branches providing support

10+ programming languages supported

100+ consultants and integrators

2 levels of development certification

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National Instruments Services and Support

• Technical Support

• Web support resources

• Application engineers worldwide

• Premier support

• Instructor-Led and Online Training

• NI TestStand 1 – Test Development

• NI TestStand 2 – Framework Development

• Thousands of engineers trained each year

• Certification

• Certified TestStand Developer (CTD)

• Certified TestStand Architect (CTA)

ni.com/services

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