Is teststand the best way for my application

[Kenny_K]

I have been a LabVIEW user for a number of years now.  I have been working on more and more test fixtures, so I was thinking of starting to use TestStand.

All of the test fixtures need to have as little human interaction as possible.

The current one I am working on tests a mixing valve for proper operation.  The user needs to be able to visually see the flow rate, pressure, and temperature but the program does all of the pass/fail analysis.

I know that TestStand is easy to add/remove extra steps from the sequence, so it is easier/faster to make changes.

My concern is in the implementation of the GUI.  I have attached the GUI I currently have (I have most of a LabVIEW program written that works with the GU, without teststand).

I read that you can send data to the gui using the uimessages.  Is this difficult to communicate back and forth?  Is it easy to start a sequence file from the GUI (once the user presses Start) and have it run, without the user knowing they are using teststand?

I know that easy and difficult are relative terms.  I am a CLAD and if we go with teststand I will be taking the 2 classes on Teststand.  I just want to get other users opinions before we shell out the $4k for it.

Message Edited by Kenny K on 06-18-2009 07:33 AM

[~jiggawax~]

Hey Kenny,

Love the GUI! 

Before others chime in I'll give my two bits-

The pros of using TestStand:

1- Reporting is simple.  All the reporting is built in so you just print the report at the end. And the database interface is there already.

2- Support.  NI supports TestStand and makes improvements to it.  Therefore you don't have to deal with that headache.  Plus the forums and AEs are available as a handy resource.

3- Easy to customize.  TS offers a lot of exposure to give the developer more options.

The cons of using TestStand:

1- Overkill.  If your project is simple enough and you don't see it growing in the future then TS can be overkill. 

2- Money.  It is expensive but what's 4k if you have to spend years developing your own test executive.  Also, you have to pay for deployment licenses.

The UIMessaging is simple once you understand what's going on.  But if you are CLAD you should have no problem doing that.  TS ships with 10 User Interfaces and includes the source code for each.  2 of those interfaces are LV and once you pop them open you should have no problem figuring out what's going on.  One is more complex than the other. 

I would recommend it.  It's a little hard to learn at first but if you've been involved in automation testing for a while I think you should easily figure it out.

Let me know if you have any questions about it,

[RayFarmer]

Hi Kenny,

If you already have a working solution, that does most of which TestStand provides eg sequencing of Tests, Reporting..

Then there really has to be  a strong reason to have to rework what you have to work in TestStand.

If its only because you can easily add / remove tests step then this maybe not be a strong enough reason as you could provide this mechanism in you current solution. How easy or hard this is depends how you have implemented you tests step in your current GUI.

As to whether you provide your current GUI as the basis of a TestStand GUI, I would say keep you TestStand GUI seperate from your Monitioring GUI. You can provide a panel that is launched as apart of your Test Sequence that runs in parallel. It would be easier to implement, the TestStand GUI doesn't need to know anything extra than it already knows about executing a test sequence. It also means your TestStand GUI is still generic enough to be used on other projects within your company.

Regards

Ray

[j_dodek]

Hi Kenny,

the best people of this Teststand board gave you a great feedback!

I agree with Ray's comment about a working solution.

So there must be the question what will you  expect from TestStand?

Btw, I would check out the features of TS in a few hours.  You are a CLAD you understand

the "language" of LV so you will understand TS at once.

Install the evaluation and try out the Examples.

I recommend the Demo Example and for your case there i a nice one with a Temp.Chamber

under MultiUUT (but Modules in CVI!)

Greetings

Juergen