Our company is in the process of designing complex electrical/pneumatic test stands and we are currently programming the control systems using Visual Basic. Our applications seem rather complex because there are many switches and instruments to control. I would like to know if there are any advantages using National Instrument�s Test Stand/Lab View vs. programming the complete control system from scratch using Visual Basic?
The test stands are used to qualify complex pneumatic devices. There are many electric/pneumatic switches within the test stand that are use to create hundreds of possible pneumatic circuits that can pass through the device to be tested. There can be up to 100 sequences in a single tes
t. During each sequence�s step, there is a possibility that the unit will fail and the user then needs to be routed to a corrective action to fix the part being tested.
Additionally, the computer code needs to be an executable because the end user will be military personnel in remote locations. Database storage and reports are also required.
We currently use NI boards to gather the data, however, we are programming the controls using Visual Basic. For each part to test, we have many required test sequences and hundreds of instruments and switches to both control measure and record. Additionally, we have many possible test errors to handle.
We have spent almost a year working on the underlying code to be able to control the test stands. We have just started to delve into the individual tests that consist of many sequence steps.
It just seems that we are reinventing the wheel. How well do you think that Test Stand/Lab View could be able to handle this application for
us?
I look forward to your response.
