tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65395215293757749202023-08-19T02:27:42.190-07:00Testing with NIThis blog is about National Instrument products and Test Engineering in general from a Test Engineers perspective.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-55623015621755321822010-01-31T14:59:00.000-08:002010-01-31T15:20:24.816-08:00FIRST Robotics - 3 weeks to goSorry I missed last week, I was OBRE (Overcome By Robotic Events).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org//images/logo.gif" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)</a> The build should be in full swing! If the robot building team hasn't started implementing the design, you need to get to it.<br /><br />The software team, should have a prioritized list of what they need to implement and be trying to get it going. If you're doing the software, remember that the robot design, how things are going to work are changing. As the robot's being built, they ARE going to change things. Some parts of the design just won't work and so it will change. You need to be flexible and be prepared to throw away code.<br /><br />The individual functions should be implemented in Sub-Vi's for LabVIEW and subroutines for Java or C++. For instance, the "kick" Functions should be implemented so that the SubVi/Subroutine only does what the robot needs to do to kick the ball.I.e Pull back kicker, release kicker. In the Teleoperated portion of the code, you should detect the button push and call the kick routine. This way, they change the way the kicker works, you only need to go to that function to change it.<br /><br />This also helps when different groups are working on the code. One group can be incharge of kicking, one incharge of movement, one in charge of the sensors, etc.<br /><br />One other import fact, and I've said it before, save off your code! when you have something working, save it somewhere so that if mess something up, you can go back to something that works.<br /><br />Don't be afraid to try stuff in the code, just make sure you can get back to where you were.<br /><br />Have Fun!JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-24716572059591619682010-01-15T18:44:00.000-08:002010-01-15T19:56:05.471-08:00FIRST Robotics - 5 Weeks to Software<a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org//images/logo.gif" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)</a> design is in full swing! The first week should have been full of brain storming and starting the design. By this time (the second week) the robot team should be prototyping, figuring out what works and what doesn't. Also all the sensors that need to be on the robot and where they go. The software team should be figuring out how the sensor's, actuators, and motors work. One hint, put all the sensor's you can on the robot, whether your know if you're going to use them or not. It's better that they're on the robot rather than trying to get them on later.<br /><br />This week the software team needs to make a list of the tasks the robot needs to do. Brainstorm the software requirements. Then they need to be prioritized the list based on what's most important for the robot to do. The list may consist of things like acquiring the target and moving the robot square for a shot at the goal as the top priority.<br /><br />You need to make sure the software tasks that are highest priority are done first. Things needed for the teleop mode need to be done first since most of the robots time is in teleop mode. Also see what can be used in both autonomous and teleop mode. But don't forget about the software for autonomous.<br /><br />Before you modify the basic code, make a copy of whatever code is working. Always keep a backup of the latest, working software so that when something gets screwed up, which it always does when you're trying new things, you have code to go back to. When you make a backup, put a date in the backup name so that you know what code was developed when.<br /><br />Do not be surprised when you have to scrape what you're trying and go back to the last working code. But don't be afraid to try stuff, that how you learn.<br /><br />After this week you should have a list of prioritized software tasks, and some experiments with sensors, the camera, actuators, and motors going. Basically a plan what your going to do.<br /><br />Good luck with your project.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-43731220241137691222010-01-10T12:41:00.000-08:002010-01-11T03:50:44.839-08:00FIRST Robotics - 6 weeks to softwareI'm putting off talking about Testing a while and talk about software and robotics.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org//images/logo.gif" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)</a> just announced the competition game for the 2010 FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition). I talked with several Rookie teams at the kick-off and practice build and a lot of them need help, especially with software. I was thinking there needed to be a "FIRST's Beginners guide to a Robotics software in 6 weeks". The reality is the software is usually worked on after the robot has shipped and even during competition.<br /><br />I have worked with <a href="http://www.sgprobotics.org/">Team 704 (Go Warriors!)</a> for a year and I've been in software since I started learning about software in High School, before FIRST, before PC's. I have my own robots at home (NXT and basic stamp controlled) and have played with them for years.<br /><br />So on to the important stuff, how to get started with your software for your Robot. After the game is announced (or was announced as of when this was posted), the first thing your team should be doing is brainstorming about what you want the robot to do and the design of the robot. At this stage, the kids/mentors doing the software should be working with everyone else to come up with a design.<br /><br />However, if you're going to be doing software you should also be looking at the motors, controllers, and sensors. Especially look at how to use the software to retrieve information and control the sensors. How to control the motors and pneumatics. The more you know about them the better you'll be able to use them. You can also speak up during design about what can be used for control and operation.<br /><br />One of your main resources on the web should be the <a href="http://www.ni.com/first">National Instruments web site</a>. It's full of tutorials, information, help, and has a good technical discussion board. Also, contact the NI sales representative for your area and see how accepting they are to the idea of helping you. They might not be able to help much, but then again, if they can help at a crucial time when you're stuck, it could be key.<br /><br />You need to work with the kids to figure out which programming language to use. With kids with little or no experience in programming I would suggest using the <a href="http://www.ni.com/labview">LabVIEW graphical language</a>, it's drag and drop programming. If you have kids who are experienced in programming, find out what languages they know. If you have a couple kids who have been through a C++ or Java class, you might think about doing your project in one of those languages.<br /><br />The main thing is to play with the sensors. Get the camera out, make a pattern on a wall of the target and see if you can detect it, lock on it, move it out of focus and back in. Walk between the camera and image and re-acquire.<br /><br />See how the gyro works, how the accelerometer works, how the limit switches work with, all with your cRio controller. This first week should be learning what the kids know, how the languages are used, and about the sensors and controllers and how they work.<br /><br />But also be in on the design and thinking of where you need sensor's, what sensor's and controllers you need, and the general build of the Robot.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-49756223170331710372010-01-06T17:11:00.000-08:002010-01-07T17:04:12.217-08:00More Software Architecture and Test EngineeringLast time I wrote about some challenges doing software architectures in a primarily hardware group of test engineering. First, we need a definition, so here's one that I had laying around in IEEE 1471:<br /><br />"Architecture is the fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships to each other, and to the environment and the principles guiding its design and evolution"<br /><br />The software developed in Test Engineering, at least where I work, isn't so formal as to have a definition. However, we still need guidelines of what an architecture is.<br /><br />Basically, a software architecture defines the structure of the system, the relationship between the major components, the behaviour of the components. It focuses on the significant elements, extending out to the needs of the UUT (Unit Under Test), and takes into account the needs of the systems users.<br /><br />Since a lot of testing is sequential, the structure is usually fairly simple. For that simple structure just about anything can be used to document it. However, any threading or other processes or interaction with other processors should be included which can cause some complexity in the architecture.<br /><br />The relationship between the various resources and how they need to be used to test the UUT needs to be diagramed. Sometimes this is straight forward, sometimes there's some complex interactions. Any communications between componants need to be noted.<br /><br />Also the significant attributes of how user is involved (user interface). Anything that has user interactions.<br /><br />That's it in a nutshell. The main thing is to let the team know what is being developed on a higher level. Also, to try to let the managers know you've thought about what you're doing.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-76104105453470197962009-12-28T18:26:00.000-08:002009-12-29T12:09:07.137-08:00Software Architecture and Test EngineeringAfter a hiatus, I'm back. I broke up with my girl friend which gives me much more time to do the things I enjoy doing and a lot less stress. Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and my blog. Good nerdy engineering enjoyment.<br /><br />The Test Engineering group I'm in is made up of mainly hardware people. A lot of them write software, some of them think they can write software, a couple of them really can write software. A software architecture is something required by the process but foreign to them. The bosses, who are mainly hardware types, want to make sure we've thought about the software before we start. Mainly because the hardware guys typically start writing software get to a point where it's a big mess and then patch as well as they can.<br /><br />In the software past, the software architecture was called the preliminary design. Somewhere along the line someone came up with a paradigm shifting idea to rename it to software architecture. No matter what it's called, it's still just a high level view of the software job at hand.<br /><br />Almost all of our tests are sequential, simple stimulate and check the UUT. TestStand is our standard test sequencer and we use it very simply, sequential testing with some very minor looping.<br /><br />It can be a simple functional flow or a simple high level flowchart. We do set of similar tests followed by another set of tests, etc. The architecture is simple, non-complex by real software standards, and straight forward. Almost any thing should be acceptable as an architecture.<br /><br />Occasionally the architecture will be more complex. Once this happens, then more advanced techniques are needed. More advanced flowcharts or especially UML would be a good candidate. Something to show interactions between different processors and different threads (although, where I work, threads are magic and unknown)<br /><br />Any of this can prove to the bosses that we have thought about it, the flowchart is what they can understand. The people who are suppose to provide this are agonizing over what to provide and how to do it, taking a lot of time. The good software people are saying to let us know what format you want and we'll give it to you.<br /><br />This is why we need people who can do software and not just hardware guys who code C. We know how to plan the software.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-68034539263556656592009-09-12T13:10:00.000-07:002009-09-12T13:50:09.333-07:00TestStudio vs. TestStandI've been trying to learn about the Teradyne test sequencing product TestStudio. I wanted to compare it with NI's TestStand.<br /><br />I'm going to say now that there is no comparison, it's not ready. TestStudio locks up so often that it's hard to focus on anything except the problems.<br /><br />The main problem we're having is when we try to connect DLLs compiled by LabWindows CVI. About every third node (Test Step) that was set up to attach to a DLL would hangup TestStudio. The easier hangups only required TestStudio to be kill (via task manager) and restarted. Occasionally the PC would have to be reboot to continue working in TestStudio.<br /><br />The Teradyne eknowledge site (the on-line help) was almost non-existent. I'm told by Teradyne that issues submitted by a company can only be see by people from that company. That means people can't see any product problems, issues, fixes, or comments . However, when we entered a problem in there on-line case tracking system, I did very quickly get a call to talk about it. Unfortunately I typically got excuses and that fixes we going to be in up coming versions.<br /><br />My overall impression on TestStudio is that it's not ready. It's as if its an immature product only tested in on very specific uses. Quality control on the product seems to be left up to the user. The problem is that it's been around since about 2001 and a lot of these kinks should have been worked out.<br /><br />Bottom line is that if you have a choice, go with TestStand. In my opinon TestStudio is not ready.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-47551439694260104372009-08-24T20:00:00.000-07:002009-08-24T20:03:10.668-07:00SadnessI just want to let everyone know my Mother passed away last week from Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 86. She will be missed.<br /><br />I'll continue my blog next week.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-18742833439342202322009-08-13T18:02:00.000-07:002009-08-15T13:59:49.395-07:00TestStudio vs TestStandTeradyne has a software product called <a href="http://www.teradyne.com/atd/resource/docs/testStudio/br_teststudio.pdf">TestStudio</a> that is a competitor with National Instruments TestStand. Since I've had my training class inTestStudio so I'm ready to review it. I waited for the training so I would have a better understanding.<br /><br />I've noted before that the installation was difficult, each individual piece had to be installed separately so it kept me busy. I also had to install an older version of NI-VISA so that TestStudio would install and then re-install the latest.<br /><br />The training was not very good. It was developed to be used with hardware available, which we don't have yet. This casued the instructor to skip several of the exercises and parts of exercises. A lot of the training material was vague in what you were suppose to do and there were quite a few error's in the material.<br /><br />The product seemed very immature considering it's been around since at least 2001, possibly longer. During the training TestStudio kept poping up errors. One person had to change computers due to the unknown TestStudio problems. My TestStudio crashed and corrupted my project to the point I had to start over from scratch.<br /><br />TestStudio is browser-based, of which I am not a big fan. But that is more of a personal preference and was one of the smaller issues. Overall, TestStudio has a lot of small Quirks. Some panels use "OK" buttons to save data, some the "X" in the corner and a few you use the File >> Save. A utility called Express Services, which is big in TestStudio, has to be specified at project creation, however, if a project is created without the Express Services option and it is decided Express Services are needed, you have to start over with a new project. Like many IE based programs, dialogue boxes can get covered up. TestStudio can appear to be closed eventhough it's not really due to a hidden popup. Also, the file browser does not always keep the location of the last browse.<br /><br />One of the biggest annoyances is that when you add a new node (Test Step) an "are you sure" type of window pops up...every time! No option to not do have it pop-up is available.<br /><br />Also, when passing parameters to DLL's from nodes (test steps) it is passed as char *. You can't just pass integers, doubles, etc. This limits the direct re-use of DLLs.<br /><br />TestStudio's big feature appears to be setting up switch matrices between instruments and the UUT. It seems to do well at this but, since we didn't have hardware, we haven't had a chance to check this out.<br /><br />Bottom line is, TestStudio is a poor second rate competetor to NI's TestStand. It's been around for several years, at least since about 2000, but seems to operate as a buggy and immature product.<br /><br />Next week, I'm going to review more of TestStudio features (?).JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-43868321662236427782009-08-05T06:06:00.000-07:002009-08-05T10:14:39.177-07:00NI Week is here!It's finally the NI Week time of year and I am excited! I drove down early this morning. I found I couldn't sleep in spite of my need to get up early and be awake for the 3 hour drive down.<br /><br />I've come on an Expo pass this year so my learning opportunities will be more limited than previous years but that doesn't dampen my desires to learn, network, and generally be nerdy...one of my favorite pastimes.<br /><br />I am waiting for the Keynotes to start and thinking...WHO came up with the easy-listening, AC/DC re-mix of T.N.T. along with all the other sad remixes of good music. Basically, this my first disappoint in NI-Week in the last 3 years. I have a feeling I will get over it as the day goes on.<br /><br />The NI Demonstrations were good but I really enjoyed Jeff K. future state of NI speech. I'm impressed evey year by his talks.<br /><br />The Expo floor, of course, is very informational, lots of good information and potential uses. The unfortunate thing is, most of the information I gather will either be to new and different to be useful or will fall on deaf ears.<br /><br />I am going to document what I find out and pass it on.<br /><br />Again, this year, there is only one CVI demo and they won't let it run because it's to dangerous. It's a desructive test of a CD. Basically the CD crumbles. I guess CVI programmers are braver than LabVIEW programmers. I'm proposing a CVI controlled icamera and potato gun to take out the LabVIEW demo's...I don't think they'll go for it.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-85722035259918378122009-08-01T12:39:00.000-07:002009-08-01T12:49:49.482-07:00Loading TestStudioI've tried to head into the comparison of TestStand and TestStudio with an open mind, be objective, filter out my biases. However, TestStudio has made this hard to do. Before I do a side-by-side comparison, I plan on learning a little about TestStudio.<br /><br />We received and I loaded the TestStudio software along with some driver software for the hardware we were going to use. Once I began to explore TestStudio I looked in the help file for a Getting Started section, which I found. It was found to be lacking. It had short sentences like “Create One Library tree” but it had no links to how to accomplish this and no descriptions on how to do this. I searched around and figured this step out eventually, I'm pretty sure. But then the next sentence had the same shortcomings, short, to the point, with no "how" to do anything.<br /><br />I decided to do it the good old fashion way, trial and error. Choose actions from the menu or right-click and choose actions from the list. I found how to create a step for an annoying “beep”...always fun. However, since TestStudio is browser based, I received a script error. I could not find the options menu item in the TestStudio browser, so I went to my Internet Explorer (IE) and Internet options to turn on scripting. Our IT department, in a fit of control and paranoia, had set no scripting and made it where ordinary users could not change it. While I'm not an ordinary user, I'm not going to do anything to my work computer that would get me in trouble...like give myself admin privs.<br /><br />Luckily the “beep” node went in and worked in spite of the script error. Accomplishment! I decided to try attaching a node to a DLL. I got the same script error, along with a <b>“Teradyne TestStudio DLL addin has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”</b> message and an error pop up message with only a large red X, no text.<br /><br />I gave up for the moment and was going to try to talk to the Teradyne guys to get some set up help. So I went back to work, fired up TestStand and immediately got a “Could not start” error. It worked last week, I loaded TestStudio, and now it doesn't work.<br /><br />I had flashbacks to the Microsoft browser wars of the 90's when IE would cripple other browsers. I'm going to continue to learn, continue to try things, and try to continue to have an open mind.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-23162325064229301372009-07-26T19:33:00.000-07:002009-07-28T08:04:05.142-07:00NI Week...Woohoo<a href="http://www.ni.com/niweek/">NI Week</a> is almost upon us, it's the time of year to look forward to the new NI products and to network with all the NI people. I'm looking forward to the <a href="http://www.ni.com/niweek/">NI Week</a>. I would be looking forward to all the seminar's and learning opportunities except that this year, some people at the place I work sees no immediate, short term benefit to conferences like this and <a href="http://www.autotestcon.com/main/">AutoTestCon</a>. Even in the long term it is hard to show measurable benefit. Since it's mostly secondary benefits, long term learning and networking, that is hard to measure, some groups will be poorly represented.<br /><br />I am, however, going to to <a href="http://www.ni.com/niweek/">NI Week</a> on an EXPO pass. I am excited about going and I am planning on making the most of my learning opportunities that I will have on my EXPO pass. I want to find out what various vendor's believe is the future of testing. I want to learn about the various products available to help us do our testing, I want to learn all I can...no matter what others think of conferences. I know there are learning opportunities, I know I am going to learn, I know I'm going to learn all I can, and I know it will help me in the future.<br /><br />Overall, I'm excited about NI Week and all of it's opportunities.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-90329320162211884592009-07-24T07:51:00.000-07:002009-07-25T07:16:33.113-07:00Is Software Engineering relavent to Test EngineeringI've been trying to get a hold of Teradyne's TestStudio in order to compare it to TestStand. It's been about a month and a half since I've been trying to get a copy. Good news...sort of. I'm told my constant requests may have finially paid off. I'm told, Teradyne finally relented and is going to send us a preliminary copy of TestStudio. It may be in the building, it may be in the mail, so I haven't actually seen it. So, hopefully soon, I can do a comparison.<br /><br />On to other things...<br /><br />I've been thinking a lot about where Software Engineering fits into Test Engineering. While I understand the fact that it is an integral part of testing, I've noticed a prevailing thought, at least where I work, that software is secondary and trivial piece of the overall testing practice, "You can get anyone off the street to do the software." (qoute from a manager at work)<br /><br />This thought was brought about when it seemed like I was the only one trying to get a preliminary copy of TestStudio. The tech lead dealing with getting TestStudio seemed unconcerned on getting the software tools while spending endless hours on getting exactly the right hardware. TestStudio was even picked as a software tool with almost zero input from people who deal mainly with software.<br /><br />Due to the shrinking of many UUTs, a lot of tests are moving to software. Either the UUT is loaded with an Operational Test Program (OTP) or the UUT only has communications port, test software is becoming more and more important. People need more software expertise rather than less software software expertise.<br /><br />I'm just frustrated knowing that most of the software decisions are being made by the software inept and I may not have a path up the technical ladder because of my leanings toward software.<br /><br />If you're reading this, thanks for reading my vent.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-89196764452363493552009-07-09T17:34:00.000-07:002009-07-12T16:02:18.308-07:00Peer Review ToolLast year I wrote a blog about <a href="http://nitesting.blogspot.com/2008/05/peer-reviews.html">Peer Reviews</a> where I noted all the good peer reviews can do...as long as you do them. I believe that, when done properly, they can catch a lot of problems due to a "second pair of eyes" looking at the code. It also gets others at least sort of familiar with your code. That way, if you get hit by a beer truck, it's easier for someone else to pick up the code.<br /><br />A peer review tool is an essential part of a groups set of tools. While you can keep track of defects on a piece of paper or in a document file, a peer review tool tends to work much better. On that note, <a href="http://smartbear.com/">SmartBear</a> software has a peer review tool called <a href="http://smartbear.com/codecollab-codereviewer.php">CodeReviewer</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://smartbear.com/"><img src="http://smartbear.com/images/logobar_logo.jpg" /></a><br /><h2><a href="http://smartbear.com/codecollab-codereviewer.php">CodeReviewer - a simpler CodeCollaborator</a></h2><br />SmartBear has a code reviewer sale going on, <a href="http://smartbear.com/code-review-5-for-5.php">5 seats of CodeReviewer for $5</a>, follow the link to read more about it.<br /><br />Yeah, this is sort of an ad, but lines up with my thoughts and beliefs on code reviews, so I'm putting it out there.<br /><br />May your defects be trivial and you code be solid!JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-91357489244995161802009-07-06T18:52:00.000-07:002009-07-06T19:07:13.429-07:00Little about TestStudioI had hoped to start comparing TestStudio to TestStand but with all our efforts to actually get a copy of TestStudio or much information about it have been thwarted by the people we're trying to buy it from. All the T's and C's haven't been finished up so we can't get an advanced copy. And, as I've said before, NI and their 30 day trial period pretty much set's the standard.<br /><br />I could compare the Tech Support...but wait, I'm running into the same problem. We can't get into the e-knowledge until we actually purchaced there product. While I'm not saying the makers of TestStudio has anything to hide, what are they hiding? Again, NI sets the standard of customer support.<br /><br />While I do understand their need for money, I just don't understand the business model that operates in a way contrary to helping the customer.<br /><br />I'm just venting my frustration, after all the years of dealing with NI, their support, their mature products, it's frustrating to run into roadblocks like these TestStudio roadblocks.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-35815188498339407262009-06-29T19:45:00.000-07:002009-06-29T20:03:11.850-07:00Comparing TestStudio and TestStand..Not!Comparing TestStand and TestStudio at this point is...impossible. At the momment, I'm still waiting on the official PO to go to Teradyne so that they will be so kind as to give us the software we're buying. We have sent them 10% of the PO for long lead items but that isn't enough insurance to actually get the software.<br /><br />It's starting to wear thin, I just want to learn a little about this monstrosity called TestStudio. I am assuming it is a steaming pile of ... code. Until I actually get to see a copy of it, I'm not going to change my opinion.<br /><br />Once I get to play with TestStudio I really am going to compare it to TestStand. Okay, I do have one bit of pre-knowledge of TestStudio that I can compare to TestStand. Any parameters passed out of TestStudio to a DLL or other code is only allowed to be passed in Character strings. TestStand does it right and passes the value in the form it needs (i.e. integers, doubles, pointers, etc).<br /><br />Last week the score was TestStand 2, TestStudio -2. The score is now TestStand 3, TestStudio -3 for TestStands ability to pass parameters correctly and Teradynes unwillingness to allow people who are going to use it to actually use it.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-58405815407464756072009-06-24T17:47:00.000-07:002009-06-24T18:26:58.152-07:00TestStudio, Hmmm...It's been a while, I've doing a lot of playing with my Genetic Algorithms program, writing a Neural Net program, and studying Chaos.<br /><br />First, Congratulations to the Wendy, former Queen of CVI. She's moved on MIT, graduate school, and opportunities up there. Way to go!<br /><br />Second, Welcome Adri K, the new Queen of CVI and all NI things Text. Everyone needs to go to <a href="http://www.ni.com/niweek">NI Week</a> and say hi to her or the <a href="http://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/labwindowscvi-user-group">NI CVI community</a>.<br /><br />Now to the meat of the subject. TestStudio, not TestStand but TestStudio.Teradyne's offering in the test sequencing arena. It seems to be cheap knock off of TestStand put out by Teradyne. This is the product we'll be using on our next test set. It was not my choice or the choice of anyone who will have to develop on it.<br /><br />Since this choice has been made for use and I've been told to accept it, I want to write about comparisons between TestStudio and TestStand.<br /><br />First comparison...none. Teradyne, who is apparently very big on keeping the purchaser of the product in the dark, will not allow us to have an evaluation copy or access the support site until they get their PO.<br /><br />We are told it's great, or at least the only product that will run its proprietary switch manger. We're also told the switch manager is a .dll. .dll's will run under TestStand, so why is TestStudio the only way to run the switch manager?<br /><br />I guess I'll have to wait until we actually get the software before I can compare it. Since TestStand allows a 30 day evaluation and TestStudio doesn't, plus we can't get to the support. Is Teradyne's product so bad they can't even allow people to evaluate it?<br /><br />TestStand 2, TestStudio -2. Negative since I can't even get to any documentation except Propaganda sheet.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-30818659874148356182009-04-26T15:23:00.000-07:002009-04-26T15:43:29.334-07:00Post Robotic relaxation<center><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org/images/logo.jpg" /></a></center><br /><br />Everything is calming down now after the FIRST Championships. I'm trying to capture some lessons learned and keep some thoughts and idea's for next time. If anyone has any fund raising idea's I'd like to hear about them. The money was probably the biggest hurdle.<br /><br />We, team 704, does have pictures from Atlanta. One thing I'm doing now is buying a new and better camera with stabalization. A lot of my pictures came out fuzzy.<br /><br />Below are some pictures on the team 704 odyssey that, mostly, I took. Also another link to the Google pic<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.qweztech.com/joev/Robotics.htm"><img src="http://www.qweztech.com/joev/500799642_JmqEc-X3.jpg" alt="Robot waiting to take over the world" hight="100px" width="70" /></a> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/dricks61/2009FirstChampionship?feat=email#"><img src="http://www.qweztech.com/joev/LoneStarPhotos/500874058_F7j2R-L.jpg" alt="Team 704 in Atlanta" hight="70px" width="110" /></a></center>JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-80772121543715025032009-04-18T22:38:00.000-07:002009-04-18T23:01:41.042-07:00FIRST ChampionshipsThis has been an exhausting weekend at the FIRST Robotics Championship in Atlanta Georgia. We arrived Wednesday night but it all started early Thursday morning. We got in un-crated the robot. We ran some practice rounds and started scouting teams as well as warming up the Robot.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org/images/logo.jpg" /></a></center><br /><br />More fun was on Friday morning...the real thing started...qualifying rounds. We started out strong, three wins in a row. Unfortunately the win streak didn't last. We had some poor luck of the draw, our alliance was with some weaker robots and we were against 3 robots that all wound up in the final rounds. Our alliance lost. We lost one more Friday when two robots were blocking us and our alliance robots weren't coming to help break us loose.<br /><br />Saturday looked promising at first, at least until we lost our first round...then our second round. There were no good explanations except not much cooperation between alliance teams.<br /><br />Alas, at the finals team selection, our team number was not called. The race for the Championship was over for us.<br /><br />It was an exciting weekend. The high school kids had a lot of energy and some of it translated to me. I had a lot of energy...more or less. Over all it was fun and tiring, it's most certainly a labor of love.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-80416014463179626582009-04-09T17:38:00.000-07:002009-04-09T17:57:52.030-07:00Headed for the FIRST Championships!Team 704, the <a href="http://www.sgprobotics.org/">SGP Robotics club</a>, is headed from Atlanta GA for the <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=432">FIRST Robotics Championships!</a> This will be SGP's first trip to the big game!<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org/images/logo.jpg" /></a></center><br /><br />We have the airplane tickets, another team will be taking some of our equipment to Atlanta in their trailer, and the excitement is mounting. I'm very excited! I contacted the Lockheed Martin internal newsletter about doing a story on the FIRST Championship. It's an event where there are potentially hundreds of future employees!<br /><br />I was so excited I pulled out my NXT robot and started playing with it. I've also updated my <a href="http://www.qweztech.com/joev/http://www.qweztech.com/joev/Robotics.htm">personal web page</a> with the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6539521529375774920">robotics stuff from Dallas and Lone Star tournaments</a>.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-19972816753647364142009-03-26T18:45:00.000-07:002009-03-26T19:30:46.599-07:00Building Robots to take over the worldI apologize for not writing lately. I've been busy lately working with the South Grand Prairie Robotics team. I tell everyone it's to build robots to take over the world but it's really to build a robot for the <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST Robotics</a> Challenge.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/"><img src="http://www.usfirst.org/images/logo.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST Robotics Challenge</a> is (FRC) is a great organization where high school kids are given a game, a “kit”, and 6 weeks to build a robot to play the game.<br /><br />The game is called Lunacy. Basically, you try to put your balls in your opponantes trailer. Every robot has a trailer behind it and so while you're trying to dump in someone's trailer, they're trying to dump in someone elses trailer.<br /><br />The kit is a set of parts to build a basic Robot with enough programming to have a joy stick control it. From there, each team needs to figure out how to dump balls in opponents trailer, what to do in autonomous mode (the first 15 seconds of the match)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST</a> is a national challenge sponsored by a lot of technical companies who will need engineers in the future and want to get the kids interested now. They are a very organized group who have regional robot tournaments in various parts of the country.<br /><br />The team I'm working with is Team 704, associated with the South Grand Prairie High school Robotics team. Each team, once a number is assigned, keeps that number and the numbers aren't re-used. If a team disbands, the number is no longer used. Team 704 has been going since 2001 sponsored by physics teacher extraordinaire Phil Harris.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.qweztech.com/joev/images/images/SGP 704 Group.JPG" /><br /><br />I'll write more later. I just want close by saying that high school kids who are even vagually interested in robots should go to usFirst.org and find a team in your area. If you're an adult (who is a kid at heart) you can help mentor a team. (Even though they're using LabVIEW)JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-89325144230379936692008-11-25T17:44:00.000-08:002008-11-29T07:14:28.488-08:00Thankful for Family, NI, and SarcasmIt's the season to be thankful. So in the spirit of the season I want to say what I'm thankful for.<br /><br />First, of course, I'm want to thank God for all my blessings. Next, I want to thank my family. My Mom and Dad for giving me a good foundation and work ethic and encouraging me to go to collage in spite of their very limited education. I'm thankful for my kids for keeping me grounded through a bunch of tough years and for putting up with me and my warped sense of humor the rest of the time. And I'm even thankful for my hard driving have-to-be-right brother and sweet sister.<br /><br />I'm Thankful for my really good friends who helped me get past my shyness, helping with my introversion, and helping me get through my tough years. They are fun to hang out with when I don't have a date. In other words, we always hang out.<br /><br />I'm also thankful to National Instruments for making it easy to do my job. LabWindows CVI is a great tool for Test Engineers and makes it easy to develop code for test sets and for easy to use hardware. I'm also thankful for all the helpful people I've met and worked with there at NI like Joel, Wendy, Santiago, and Conan. I especially thankful for NI Week and the Wednesday night party they throw, maybe happy they do it than actually "thankful". And, yes, I'm even thankful for LabVIEW, it's a good language and most likely a piece of the future of software.<br /><br />I'm also thankful to both of the Directors I work for, especially JT. They believe in me and know that I'll work hard to do a good job for both of them.<br /><br />[Start Sarcastic Voice]<br />I'm also thankful for the boss who said I couldn't follow a process. Now that I've helped deveop our companies processes and reach CMMI level 5, you proved how well you know people. To the same boss who said I would never work in software at our company again. She was right, I'm not in the software group, I'm Test Engineering doing much more and fun software.<br /><br />I'm thankful to Electrical Engineers. Since most of you guys don't think I can tell the difference between a resistor and an FPGA, you make it very easy to impress you. Especially, to they lead EE guys who couldn't find the problem between the IMU and GPU on LOSAT. You made it easy for "Just a software guy" to find the 25ns glitch that was reseting the IMU with just a schematic and an OScope.<br /><br />I'm also thankful to the boss who believes that software is just a passing fad. You make everyone else seem so much smarter.<br /><br />I'm also thankful to the place I work. [insert almost any sarcastic comment from Dilbert and it applies. I'm pretty sure he works where I work]<br /><br />[End Sarcastic Voice]<br /><br />The reality of it is I have a lot to be thankful for and I know that I am truly blessed.<br /><br />Thank youJAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-84992063450438852182008-11-23T06:41:00.000-08:002008-11-23T07:44:41.191-08:00NI HelpSince I work a lot with different instruments and don't have the luxury of completely learning the ins-and-out of one product, I rely on a companies help functions to get my job done.<br /><br />Lately I've been integrating some Agilent RF equipment into a test set. I now have a much better appreciation of NI help. I've always felt like NI has some of the best technical help around, examples, and documentation but I've come to appreciate it even more.<br /><br />I'm trying to use TestStand to control an automated test on an RF Signal Generator, RF Power Meter, and an RF Switch, all from Agilent but having trouble. Agilent really is trying to help but still have a really long way to go to get close to NI help. When I had problems I entered a couple of on-line help requests but received no responses. I had to call the local sales rep to get the e-mail of a tech rep. I have been e-mailing him and he has been helpful in a limited way. I did get the manual web sequence to control the RF Switch, but for automated tests, that doesn't mater.<br /><br />The RF signal generator was easy because I've used it before and figured out it's quirks. The examples for the RF Power meter had nothing to do with actually reading power, hmmm. When I made calls to the driver functions, they came back with error messages that gave no hint at what was needed. The funcion panel help gave no hint at what the parameters were looking for. I wound up using some low level SCPI commands in combination with the driver functions. I couldn't get it to work with all SCPI or all driver functions.<br /><br />As for the RF Switch, the examples seem to include calls to driver functions for many different switch types. For my RF switch, the driver functions generate a lot of "Not supported" error messages. But it was very hard to figure out what is supported or what calls I could make. Also, once I loaded the Agilent IO Drivers (which are required for the system to even see their switch) the Pickering switches disappeared from the PXI chassis, at least from a logical standpoint. I still haven't figured that one out.<br /><br />It's been a week and a half trying to get the RF interconnections to work. I think I'm close but compared to the NI instruments, it's taken way to long.<br /><br />Using Agilent instruments has given me more of an appreciation for how good NI help, discussion boards, phone help, and e-mail help really are. I especially want to thank Joel Garner, NI Sales Engineer extraordinaire, for his help.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-86534566893971665422008-11-09T05:37:00.000-08:002008-11-09T08:58:49.682-08:00MisunderstoodI've found that the Test Engineering group is misunderstood, at least where I work. Most of the engineering groups have an identity. The Electrical Engineering group builds the hardware, the Mechanical Engineers builds the moving parts, Software Engineers write the software to control the hardware, and the Systems Engineers glue it all together.<br /><br />It seems what Test Engineering does is a mystery to the other groups. We are called in late in projects because Project Managers don't know why they need us until they realize they need to make more than one widget (or whatever it is they're making). Then they realize their widget (or whatever it is they're building) was designed in a way that makes it incredibly hard to test.<br /><br />It's too late but that's when they figure out they needed us to begin with.<br /><br />We're trying to educate the programs on what we can do for them. We can do is:<br />- We do hardware and we do software.<br />- We develop systems (Test Systems)<br />- We can help them design their widget so it can be tested.<br />- We can make their tests automatic and repeatable.<br />- We can help with developmental testing<br />- We can make sure the widget is built correctly<br />- We can test your system in the field or on the production line<br /><br />...Bottom line is we can help.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-33902377383391115362008-10-10T16:03:00.000-07:002008-10-10T16:45:03.286-07:00CVI Rules!And LabVIEW Drools. It had to be said.<br /><br />I finally got away from doing documentation and processes for a day, so I was able to do some fun stuff...Technical work. I'm currently working on a Test Station Self Test. Some parts of the Self Test are done in LabVIEW, partially because others did those parts with LabVIEW, partially because I broke down and wrote some LabVIEW code.<br /><br />Well, I'm updating all the LabVIEW code to fit it into TestStand for the Self Test. It's frustrating, hard to find the vi's I need and it does things for me...I'm not sure what...that I don't think I want it to. For example, I opened one of the vi's to see the picture on one of the DAQmx self test vi it contained (in order to find it's equivalent for NI Sync) with out changing a thing. When I closed the vi, with no changes, it asked me if I wanted to save. I didn't change anything! What was different where it needed to change?<br /><br />As I was working in LabVIEW, it took quite a while to update the code, but I was learning. I was figuring out what the microscopic pictures were on the vi's, although I still have no idea why they chose the pictures they did for some of them. Things were moving along smoothly with only a low constant pain in my wrist. I was finally done with the LabVIEW part.<br /><br />Then I needed to develop some CVI instrument wrappers. And BAM! They were done! The text based code just flowed from my finger tips. I plugged it into TestStand and BAM BAM! It worked...first try! And I wasn't even entirely sure how the RF Signal Generator worked. Compared to the struggle I had getting the LabVIEW stuff out, it was a breeze. It was like night and day! It was slicker than deer guts on a door knob! (A good old southern saying)<br /><br />All I could say was CVI Rules! and LabVIEW drools!JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6539521529375774920.post-69801533318355574182008-09-23T17:55:00.000-07:002008-09-23T19:03:06.479-07:00Music and TeamsI was hanging out at the book store, as I tend to do since they have almost all that is needed in life; Coffee, lots of books to read, and free wifi. Some how, I accidentally wander out of the Computer book section, somehow missed the Science and Engineering section and wound up in the music book section. I browsed a book about Zappa for a while but stumbled a book call "<a href="http://dacapopress.com/dacapo/book_detail.jsp?isbn=1568583834">Comfortably Numb: the inside story of Pink Floyd</a>". It's a great book!<br /><br />There were several points that seemed counter intuitive about teams until you realize that Pink Floyd produced many great albums (for the young people, an album is a vinyl disc that music was recorded on and played on a record player...with a needle) including The Dark side of the Moon, one of the best selling albums of all time.<br /><br />First point, hiring people based on best team fit is over rated. Sometimes the band members were at each others throats. The point was they were all smart, all creative, and they had the drive to get the job done. They didn't let creative differences or personal difference get in the way of there goal.<br /><br />Second point, some teams fall apart with dissension between team members, some teams refocus their experiences into creativity. Pink Floyd re-focused into writing great music while software teams can refocus into great software.<br /><br />Third point, Creative people push themselves, and others, hard. Creative people will push themselves to bring their idea's to the forefront and sometimes will push others to get their idea's out there. They seem to push each other, sometimes in not so nice ways, to get people to complete there own ideas.<br /><br />Fourth point, don't let technology overwhelm the ideas. This one may be a stretch but it has a good point. With Pink Floyd all the technology behind the shows sometimes got in the way of the music. Today, all the e-mail, IM, blogs, distract us from reaching the goal of developing our ideas.<br /><br />Overall, the parts that I read were very enjoyable. I'm going to have to go back to the bookstore, hangout some more, and read the book. Or, hey, I could actually buy the book! We'll have to see.JAVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05949625448784801104noreply@blogger.com0