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What's your next level of test-system integration?
July 10, 2006

If you read Test & Measurement World in print or online, you probably develop some kind of automated tester, whether its a simple temporary bench setup or a long-term production setup. Unless you're doing just the simplest application, say collecting data from a datalogger or meter and downloading data to Excel, you probably have to do some customerization. You probably have to write some code and you may need to build a test fixture. Both of those tasks can involve considerable work. You probably have to decide which I/O bus to use, which programming language to use, and you may have to write your won instrument driver. Again. more work.

What would it take to really make developing tests go smoother? Sure, we've seen advances such as VISA, which provides a common API, but often, yoiu still have to deal with an instument's unique programming commands. SCPI was supposed to standardize introment programming. It did, but only to an extent. Then, there's IVI, but you till have layers of programming to contend with.What's your ideal test-system architecture? Be creative with your replies. Don't just think about enhancements to existing methods. Suppose you could start from scratch with buses, connectors, programming languages, and instrument commands. What would you do?

Here's an example (although not test related). I'd like a washing machine that dries clothes, too. Then, I wouldn't have to be home to move clothes into the dryer when the washing machine finishes.

Posted by Martin Rowe on July 10, 2006 | Comments (0)