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Add teststand custom step database connectivity functions to automatically retry if a lost connection is encounter

 

Very often in manufacturing plants database server have glitches and the teststand database connection is lost,  if test sequence is doing to sql statement this will fail. I think adding an automatic reconnection to the database may be a nice feature for TS and great benefits for the customers.

Hello,

 

It should be nice to be abble to view the UIEvents directly in TestStand SeqEdit.

 

This could be helpfull during debugging a sequence.

 

The idea could be done like a Debug / Trace window.

 

It should also be interresting to have such a "UIEvent callback" in the process model. 

 

Manu.net 

I think it'd be a good idea to have a simple (checkbox?) option to change graph scaling in TestStand Reports to logarithmic. There doesn't appear to be a simple way to do this right now.

Right now I can configure search directories in TestStand, but I am limited.  There are 2 types: either an absolute path, or a "programatic" value (think <current sequence file directory>, <TestStand Public Directory>, <Windows Directory>, etc).  However, these "programatic" values cannot be modified.  I would LOVE to be able to configure a new search directory of "<Current Sequence File Directory>\LabVIEW_files\*", or "<Current Sequence File Directory>\..\Code Modules", but TestStand doesn't support adding modifiers to the ends of those paths.

It would also be nice to be able to specify <Current Process Model Sequence File> as another value.

This would help greatly with being able to move files around, and limiting the total number of search paths, and limiting the cross-linking of finding the wrong code modules for individual sequence files.

Hello,

 

When you use LabVIEW action steps, using enum as parameters, the enum update will generate your step to require a reload.

 

This behaviour is OK when current enum values are updated .... and the steps use the modified values !

But when adding a new enum value to the enum, the reload should not be automatic.

 

=> This behaviour doesn't happend with rings ... 

 

Please make the enums works like rings for the LabVIEW actions steps reload !

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Manu.

We already have a collection of sequence files which contain a library of common functions that we perform for all tests which amount to hundreds and hundreds of sub-sequences. The sub-sequence from all the sequence perform a variety of functions which include utilities that are commonly reused in our tests.

 

 

Rather than re-writing these commonly used sub-sequences again and again in the different sequence files we are trying to re-use the same sub-sequences from all the sequence files in one place. "Code Re-use".

 

For the step types which also includes our own custom step types, when a post action property is invoked, there is no way we can use these commonly used sub-sequence from a different file.

 

The work around solution is to call another "Call Sequence" step in the same sequence file which then calls the sub-sequence from another file. Seems kind of cumbersome and awkward.

 

Don't know if NI has already looked at this or not.

 

See attachment of the Post Action Property.

I am a new user of TestStand for about 6 months or so. Please pardon me if this post is duplicate ... I did a basic search to make sure it wasn't.

 

Test Stand is able to load a cluster from LabVIEW and show its elements, very cool.

It might be awesome if a Container in TestStand can be loaded into LabVIEW that'd do the same.

In LabVIEW, we have a lot of tools to help user to develop more efficiently and almost all of them are handle with VIPM.

 

Can we expect to have something similar from NI for TestStand ?

 

Best regards

Sometimes, it is useful to have "access to TestStand applications" without showing a GUI.

So it would be nice, if there were an additional example in the User Interfaces folder (in addition to Full-Featured and Simple) which does not display an UI during execution. The control over "which sequence is to be executed" should be primarily done by command line parameters, popup panels as alternative.

The TestStand Deployment Utility lets you select the TestStand Application Data directory as an installation directory for files.  This is great because the installers know how to handle this path which differs between operations systems (such as Windows XP and Windows 7).  Unfortunately, there is no similar entry for the TestStand Application Data directory in the list of default TestStand search directories.  There really needs to be an equivalent TestStand Application Data directory entry there because it will need to be a search directory required by a deployment that installed files to that location.

 

Yes, you can add the absolute path to the Application Data directory to the TestStand search directories by hand, but the paths differ from operating system to operating system.  This means that if you want to create a deployment that runs on multiple operating systems, you have to manually add search directory entries corresponding to the Application Data directory for each operating system on which you are running, even if they are not used.  Then you have to include the modified TestExec.ini with your deployment.  If the TestStand default search directories contained an entry corresponding to the Application Data directory and interpreted that entry according to operating system (the same as the TestStand Public Directory entry), that would be fabulous.  That way, you could create a single deployment installer that worked on multiple operating systems instead of creating individual installers for different operating systems.

 

The  reason why I am making this suggestion is that I have files in my deployment that need to be written at run-time by my sequence files but the deployment needs to run on a Windows 7 computer without administrator privileges.  If you try to write files from an application running under Windows 7 without administrator privileges, you will get access denial errors unless the files are located in all but a few defined paths.  The TestStand Application Data and Public directories are examples of those paths.

 

Also, for the sake of consistency, if the TestStand Deployment Utility allows you to install files to the Application Data directory, the TestStand search directories should also provide support for the same location since search directories determine where to load dependencies.

CreateSameProperty.png

 

Let's say we have a parameter to a subsequence of a named type, and we want to create a so-named Local or FileGlobal with the same type.

One way to do this with our current workflow is to:

  • Type the same property name in the parameter value
  • Right-click the parameter
  • Click on "Create Locals.whatever"
  • mouse over the types menu
  • Glance through most of the types, select the custom type

 

I'm proposing a simpler workflow for cases when you just want to duplicate or "clone" the property with the same name and type in Locals or FileGlobals:

  • Right-click the empty parameter value
  • Select "Create Locals.whatever" or "Create FileGlobals.whatever"

The respective menu options would appear if the so-named variable does not already exist.

The subproperty is created in the Locals or FileGlobals with the same type as the parameter.

Right now, the breakpoints/watches window  (Debug >> Breakpoints/Watches) is modal against sequence editor.  This makes my life harder because I can't keep that window open to enable/disable a bunch of breakpoints scattered across a sequence(s) during an execution -- I need to be stopped at a breakpoint, open that window, enable/disable other breakpoints as desired, close the breakpoint window, continue execution, and repeat.  I'd like to be able to just keep that breakpoint management window open the whole time (Just like I can with LabVIEW).

 

Another related thing that would be nice is to be able to manage breakpoints per execution.  At this point I can have multiple simulatenous executions, and I can add breakpoints at run time that are specific to that execution.  However, I can only manage those breakpoints easily through the execution view windows, and not through the breakpoint manager.  It would be nice to see individual executions show up in the tree structure of the breakpoint manager the way each sequence file does.

 

Problem description:

The parameters out of the step settings window and the called subsequence are not linked. If you delete any parameter out of the middle of the parameter list and the calling sequence use the "default" flag for this parameter(s), this default flag(s) will be shifted to the next parameter in the list and the original value will be overwritten. To reproduce this issue:

 

  1. Create a test sequence
  2. Create a subsequence and add six parameters (type does not matter)
  3. Insert "Sequence call" in the Mainsequence and configure it to the previous created subsequence
  4. In the "StepSettings" window configure the parameters of the called sequence. Parameter 1+2 with any value. Parameter 3+4 with default checkbox. Parameter 5+6 with any value
  5. Save your work
  6. Open the subsequence and delete the parameter 3+4 (these two that are configured with "default" in the calling sequence")
  7. Go back to the MainSequence and click on the sequence call of the subsequence (reload option is visible in the step settings window)
  8. click on the blinking red reload button

You can see that the name of parameters you have deleted in the subsequence disappear, but the "default" flag(s) are shifted to the parameters 5+6 and the previous configured values were overwritten. If you delete any parameter that is configured without the default flag the deletion works fine. 

 

Problem: If you want to delete a parameter that is used in many subsequences by searching for it and delete it directly out of searchResult window, you cannot guarantee that your sequence is running without any problems

 

Idea: Add a "checkup function" on the "reload" module in the stepSettings menu that all parameters are checked by name and value before any values will be overwritten. This checkup has to be done on each change of the called subsequence

The suggestion is to support logging a datetime with millisecond accuracy to an sql database with an NI_DataOperation step.

I tried to implement this, but the milliseconds are not written to the database.

It would be very usefull to support this feature.

 

The datetime field in the sql database is defined as follows:

CREATE TABLE

dbo.UUT_RESULTS (

UUT_STARTTIME datetime NOT NULL

)

 

The datetime is logged to the database, but only up to the seconds, although the format string is defined as "mm-dd-yyyy hh:ii:ss.sss" and the string does contain the milliseconds e.g. "2-10-2016 11:49:15.505".

Software Details: TestStand  version 2010 SP1, Operating System:  Windows 7
 
 

Within the Teststand workspace it would be reall useful if the "Code Modules" under the sequence could auto-populate and also if it could display the filepath of the code module. That would make it much easier to keep track of what code a sequence is calling and where from on disk.

Hello,

 

Today the UUT container and other Socket important informations are only available at run time and using long expressions. Smiley Mad

The access to these properties is not valid ate edit time but will be valid only at runtime. Smiley Mad

 

It would be nice to give a rapid access to these informations using a kind of direct pointer access. Smiley Tongue

 

Something like this would be nice ...

 

  • CurrentSocket.UUT
  • CurrentSocket.Error...
  • CurrentSocket.Status
  • CurrentSocket.reportText

Using always existing properties would also be nice, in order to use Expression intellisense ! Smiley Very Happy

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Manu.

Some test sequencing tools incorporate the idea of configuration based variant handling, where you could define different test variants (e.g. testing at ambient temperature, hot, cold), each variant having it's own set of test limits.

Individual test steps can then be assigned to the previously defined variants. By chossing the desired test variant, the according steps will be executed without having the need to implement additional logic within the sequence.

 

 

 

 

 

When LV throws an error, it's all very easy to catch via callback and/or is auto propigated through the system to Runstate.SequenceError etc.so it can be detected.

 

When LV throws a warning... the data doesn't seem to go much of anywhere in TS... and unlike LV it doesn't propigate from step to step either.

 

I'd like to catch and log these warnings in my error handlers (naturally with different logic, but I don't want to lose the data either, it's important sometimes!)

 

from poking around, it looks like my options are:

(1) creating a custom steptype wrapper around all LabVIEW step calls,

(2) editing each VI called by TS manually

(3) some fun expression(s) in the 'add additional result' or 'post expressions' sectionsof each LV step, to create new variables in TS on the fly...  (or using a post-step callback to do the same)

 

It would be nice if the LV adapter / LV steptypes had some native way of catching this 'almost error' behavior and getting it into the report at least. I don't know if leaning on the error callback is the right answer, since, afterall, these aren't errors... but having a warning callback feels too LV specific...

 

How about a checkbox in the LV adapter, where you could specify 'treat warnings like errors' and then in the Error callback you could check to see if the bool was false, and punt as desired?

 

Is there something I'm not seeing that would be a better solution?

 

--Elaine R.

 

Hi there !

 

I am a super noob with Teststand, so please be lenient ! I wonder why, as we can do it with LabVIEW, there is no way to browse path from Testand to fill a variable or an input of a step ? The idea : rigth-click on the value then "Browse path..." (new option added because of the path type of the variable/input). Opening of the Windows Explorer with the "Select folder" option. Once clicked, this correctly formats and fills the field of the variable/input.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Matthieu.