test station configuration

[Shivapriya]

Hi everybody,

I am new to Teststand. Hence i have some basic questions. Kindly help me out.

Actually i am checking out the Teststand support to configure the Test station. So, i want to know if its possible to configure the instruments in the test station using some UI in Teststand...maybe a UI where we give the station ID, part number, instrument physical addr, DLL location for each instrument and stuff like that...once all this info is given, can the Teststand generate a test station configuration file according to some standards...say ATML standards...??

one more thing...i have seen the "station options" in the Configure option in the TestStand..is this station options different from the test station configuration?? if it is, then what does station options refer to..

Kindly answer my queries as soon as possible...

Note: I am using Teststand 4.0

Thanks,

Priya.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The instrument address and in the case of IVI, which driver to use, is all handled by MAX. There is nothing included in TestStand to do the rest of the things you mention but you could write a small program and call it from the Tools menu.

Have you selected the Station Options and looked at what options are there?

[Shivapriya]

Hi,

Thnx for the reply....

So you mean to say we can develop a small configuration tool and integrate it to the TestStand?? Can you throw some more light on this?? Can i invoke a custom UI thru some way in TestStand??..a UI which would take all the test station configuration paramters and generate a config file..

Actually i didn't use the "station options" menu...but as per the parameters in that menu..i understood, thats its not related to the test station configuration...i guess its related to the TestStand configuration for a specific test sequence...let me know ur view on this..

one more thing, should NI MAX be used only with IVI drivers (specific or class drivers)?? What about the non-IVI drivers? Can we not configure them using NI MAX?

Kindly reply for the above queries..

thanks,

Priya.

[Dennis_Knutson]

There are several ways to call your own UI program. It could be a step in a sequence. As I mentioned, it could be available in the Tools menu. When you select Tools, you will see the option 'Customize'. Wth the Customize Tools Menu dialog, you can add Commands (i.e. exe files), sequences, or sequence files. More information is on the on-line help. Search for Custom Tools Menu.

The station options menu is for TestStand options for the pc where you are running. Not for a specific sequence but for all sequences.

I don't know what type of drivers require any configuration besides IVI. What exactly do you want to do? You might also want to mention how you are planning to use the drivers. For example, are you planning on creating custom steps or embedding calls to drivers inside steps you write with one of the supported code modules? What programming language are you going to use for step creation?

[Shivapriya]

Hi,

thnx for the immediate reply..

yes, i have understood that we can invoke an external applic thru teststand and do the configurations ther...so that means Teststand as such doesn't have a UI "in it" to configure the test station...rite?

coming to NI MAX, yes we need to configure non-IVI drivers also..say for eg. ARINC 429 by MAX technologies...how to configure them thru NI MAX?? any idea, if the NI MAX would detect them??...our idea is something like this..we would write a wrapper in C or C# over the APIs provided for ARINC-cards...now we would like to configure them thru NI MAX...can u explain me if this is possible?? if so, how to go about it??...the basic question is "How to configure ARINC cards thru NI MAX??" 🙂

your reply would be awaited!!

Thanks,

Priya.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Again, no. TestStand has no UI except for the sequence editor and the operator interfaces written in various programming languages. TestStand is not a programming language.

For the ARINC,  are talking about plug-in cards for the pc or GPIB instruments? If it's a PCI card, then no, MAX cannot configure or detect non-NI cards.

[Shivapriya]

Actually we are looking at PXI instruments with non-IVI drivers (eg. ARINC cards)...whether NI MAX can detect them?? If so, how to configure the same using NI MAX...

Thanks,

Priya.

[Dennis_Knutson]

With PXI and non-NI boards, I am not sure. There is a PXI board that you should post questions like that to.

[Meghan R]

If you are using NI-VISA as the driver for your third party PXI card, then MAX will detect it.  There's a great knowledgebase, Using a Third-party PXI Board in LabVIEW, that talks about how to do this. 

Thanks,

Meghan
Applications Engineer

[Shivapriya]

Hi,

I am afraid the 3rd party (ARINC cards by MAX technologies) in PXI cards doesn't use NI-VISA internally...So, NI-MAX cannot detect it?? Please confirm the same.

Thanks,

Priya.