How to load configuration files with to TestStand

[OpenECU]

Hello,

I need an expert advise on setting up Teststand environment. I am developing a generic tester that will eventually support multiple product lines. The PXI equipment is common but the Pin assignment will change from product to another. So, I was thinking to have a configuration file (xml, excel, .csv...etc) that defines each product line. The configuration file will contain all the pin routing, like which pin is connected to which NI Card channel and fault insertion unit. My thought was to load this configuration file to the Teststand environment before starting a series of tests. I had in mind using XML files and use a labview parser to extract the data and write it to Teststand variables. My question is:

Is this the best practice for this approach ? Is there a better method ? Can I load data into Teststand first and hold the data in Teststand while testing a bunch of UUTs. I do not want load this file at the beginning of every Test, just once when opening Teststand.

I appreciate any advise on this.

Thanks,

Ayman

[paulmw]

I think you may be complicating this a bit too much, but I am not sure.  Consider this; can you create a sequence file for each product?  Depending on which product you are testing, you load the correct sequence file.  Then, all your configuration information can already be defined in the sequence file itself (File Globals).  If the station is standardized you could even create a template sequnece with a default configuration.

A next stage may be to automate loading of the sequence file based on which product is going to be tested.  This is where you would have a configuration that is just a map form product to sequence file.

[GovBob]

A native way to do this in TestStand is to use the Tools>>Import/Export properties. This will allow you to create a properly formatted file of variables that you can read at run time using the property loader step type. .csv, .txt an xls file types are available as well as databases.

Hope this helps.

[Sergey_Kolbunov]

I'm using .ini file with configuration information and a startup sequence what read this file, configure the system and then run selected tests. Selected tests list is in the .ini file as well. Configuration info is passed to subsequences as a parameter or "propagate local".

I disagree with the idea of creating a separate sequence for each product, this solution is not scalable.

Message Edited by skof on 12-24-2009 09:37 PM

[Snowman 6008]

You can use an engine callback such as SequenceFileLoad to run the property loader.

 C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 4.2\Examples\PropertyLoader