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Test Sequencer – Best Practices

National Instruments

ni.com
What is a Sequencer/Test Sequencer?*
Other Terminologies
 Test executive

 Test manager (Software)

 Test sequencer

Description from Wikipedia:

Runs test sequences, which consist of test steps.

*Wikipedia.com
Simple Example

Voltag
VCC
e

DUT
Stimuli Signal
Defining Test Steps

Voltag
VCC
e

DUT
Stimuli Signal

VCC
VCC ON
ON Qualify
Qualify Voltage
Voltage

VCC
VCC OFF
OFF Qualify
Qualify Signal
Signal

Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON Reporting
Reporting No proper
Error
Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF Handling

Measure
Measure Voltage
Voltage

Measure
Measure Signal
Signal
Ordering Test Steps

Voltag
VCC
e

DUT
Stimuli Signal

VCC
VCC ON
ON VCC
VCC ON
ON

VCC
VCC OFF
OFF Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON

Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON Measure
Measure Voltage
Voltage

Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF Measure
Measure Signal
Signal

Measure
Measure Voltage
Voltage Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF

Measure
Measure Signal
Signal VCC
VCC OFF
OFF
 DE
First Approach – State Machine MO
Init

Abort Button pressed Idle

Start Button pressed

Quit

VCC OFF VCC ON

La
bV Stimuli OFF Stimuli ON
IE
W
Co Measure Signal Measure Voltage
re
1+
2
First Approach – State Machine
Init

Abort Button pressed Idle

Start Button pressed

Quit

VCC OFF VCC ON

Stimuli OFF Stimuli ON

Measure Signal Measure Voltage

First Approach – State Machine
Init

Abort Button pressed Idle

Start Button pressed

Quit VCC OFF

Stimuli OFF VCC ON

Measure Signal Stimuli ON

Measure Current Measure Voltage

 Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON
Implementation Disadvantage
Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF

Data
Data Handling:
Handling:
-- Test
Test Specification
Specification
-- Test
Test Data
Data
-- DUT
DUT Information
Information
-- Hardware
Hardware Information
Information
Implementation Disadvantage
Report
Report

Report
Report
Could
Could lower
lower execution
execution speed
speed
 Implementation Disadvantage
Init

Abortbutton pressed Idle

Startbutton pressed
Quit VCC OFF

Easy
Easy to
to extend
extend
Stimuli OFF VCC ON

Measure Signal Stimuli ON

Measure Measure
Current Voltage

Hard
Hard to
to extend
extend
Moving Forward
Init

Abort Button pressed Idle

Start Button pressed

Quit

VCC OFF VCC ON

Stimuli OFF Stimuli ON

Measure Signal Measure Voltage

Better Approach – Producer/Consumer

Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Queue
.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Better Approach – Producer/Consumer

Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Queue

.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Better Approach – Producer/Consumer
VCC
VCC ON
ON

Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON
Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)
Measure
Measure
Voltage
Voltage
Measure
Measure Signal
Signal
Queue
Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF

VCC
VCC OFF
OFF

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
 DE
Better Approach – Producer/Consumer MO
VCC
VCC ON
ON

Stimuli
Stimuli ON
ON

Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer) Abort
Abort
Measure
Measure
Voltage
Voltage
Measure
Measure Signal
Signal
Queue
Stimuli
Stimuli OFF
OFF

VCC
VCC OFF
OFF

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Implementation Disadvantage

Data
Data Handling
Handling
Implementation Disadvantage

Report
Report
Could
Could lower
lower execution
execution speed
speed
Implementation Disadvantage

Scalability
Scalability
Implementation Disadvantage

Hardcoded
Hardcoded Sequence
Sequence
Better Approach – Scripted Producer/Consumer
(QMH)

Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Queue

.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Better Approach – Scripted Producer/Consumer
(QMH)
Description
Eventhandling-Loop
Eventhandling-Loop (Producer)
(Producer)
Content

Queue

.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Better Approach – Scripted Producer/Consumer
(QMH)

Eventhandling-Loop
Eventhandling-Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Queue

.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
Better Approach – Scripted Producer/Consumer
(QMH)

Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Queue

.
.

Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
(Consumer)
 DE
MO
Better Approach – Scripted Producer/Consumer (QMH)
Event
Event Handling
Handling Loop
Loop (Producer)
(Producer)

Config

Queue
File
File .
.

Dialog
Dialog
Sequence
Sequence (Consumer)
La (Consumer)

bV
IE
W
Co
re
3
Disadvantage of this Implementation
 Report
 Data Handling
 Scalability
 Frontpanel / User Interface
 Test Steps
 Error Handling
In-House Development vs. Off-the-Shelf
Simple Tool
Revisions Technolog
y Change
Invest (time & money)

Lifetime
In-House Development vs. Off-the-Shelf
Simple Tool Framework
Revisions

Technolog
Invest (time & money)
y Change

Lifetime
In-House Development vs. Off-the-Shelf
Simple Tool Framework COTS / TestStand

Revisions

Technology
Invest (time & money)
Change

Lifetime
NI TestStand
 Graphical development environment
 Automate tests written in any language
 Multithreaded sequence execution
 ASCII, HTML/Web, XML, and ATML report
generation
 Access, Oracle,
SQL Server database connectivity
NI TestStand System Architecture
Recap and Next Steps
Init

Idle

Think first, bevor you start coding…

Quit

VCC OFF VCC ON

Stimuli
Stimuli ON
OFF

Measure Measure
Signal Voltage

…use Standard Templates and

Architectures…
LLa LLa LLa
abbV abbV abbV
VIE
IEW VIE VIE
W IEW IEW
11 CCoo W W
rere 22 CCoo 33 CCoo
rere rere

Statemachine Producer/Consumer Pattern Queued Message Handler

…participate our physical or Online Trainings Courses(SSP)…

…and think of alternatives.

NI TestStand
 Thank You

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