A system for the test of a space electronics device

Author

Nagle, Samuel M.

Author_Institution

Olin Aerospace Company, Redmond, WA, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

16-19 Sep 1996

Firstpage

46

Lastpage

55

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a test system that is used to test a power conditioning unit that has been developed for a new generation of commercial telecommunications satellite. The paper details how the various problems associated with test of this space electronics product were solved, end how by mixing both manual and automatic test capabilities within the test system design. It has been successfully used as a fool for engineering development tests and production testing. The test system leverages heavily on the use of commercial instruments and software. The system controller is an 80486 based PC operating under MS Windows 3.1. An extensive graphical user interface (GUI) was developed using Visual Basic 3.0 with a custom dynamic link library created using Borland C++. A suite of commercial IEEE 488 controlled instrumentation is interfaced to the device under test through custom designed interface circuitry

Keywords

artificial satellites; automatic test equipment; automatic test software; automatic testing; graphical user interfaces; power conversion; production testing; space vehicle electronics; space vehicle power plants; 80486 based PC; Borland C++; GUI; IEEE 488 controlled instrumentation; MS Windows 3.1; Visual Basic 3.0; automatic test; commercial telecommunications satellite; custom designed interface circuitry; custom dynamic link library; engineering development tests; power conditioning unit; production testing; space electronics device; test system design; Artificial satellites; Automatic testing; Circuit testing; Electronic equipment testing; Graphical user interfaces; Instruments; Power conditioning; Power generation; Production; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

AUTOTESTCON '96, Test Technology and Commercialization. Conference Record

Conference_Location

Dayton, OH

ISSN

1088-7725

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3379-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AUTEST.1996.547676

Filename

547676