Functional Test

Functional Test Systems are used to verify actual device performance before shipping.  I've done functional test design for RF and Power Electronic systems.  

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I design functional test systems. These have often been based on general purpose instrumentation, linked by IEEE-488 GPIB bus for flexibility. GPIB is a standard for test equipment interconnect, allowing multiple instruments to easily connect to the same host machine.  GPIB adds $500 to a meter, scope or computer, but it is ancient and solid.    Most of the GPIB connected work I've done has been by client request, but I have found it to serve well.

I've also done a lot of custom test equipment using RS232.. it's easy, it works,it comes pretty well free with any microcontroller; adding very little overhead. As more equipment becomes availiable with ethernet, that's where I'm headed. Ethernet has the distinct advantage of having some (noise, convienience, not safety) isolation.

rack system
Linux Hosted Test Environments
I write a lot of test software in C, using GCC and the Gnu C Library (Thanks Stallman!)
Larry Ewing's penguin shrunk
  • I'm not tied to single vendor for hardware or software.
  • No exhorbitant software licensing fees.
  • Linux / 'nix have incredible system resources.
  • There are no proprietary format  files making it impossible to port to other systems.
  • Well defined APIs for database integration, etc.
  • Standard, mature, well documented method of organizing and archiving projects (make, tar, gzip)

I have done database integration using the MySQL  API under C.    For dealing with
large amounts of data, using SQL database is well worth the setup trouble in the flexibility
 it gives and the organization it forces.  


I've also done work in National Instruments LabVIEW.  LabVIEW is a fantastic graphical language.
 It creates good GUIs, and provides a very intuitive method for controlling program flow.    It can tend
to get a little difficult to manage on large projects.    I've used LabVIEW in conjunction with an
Access Database on Windows hosted systems.  I'd like a good excuse to buy and use their Linux version.