PXI instruments handle automotive test
Greg Reed, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/11/2006 10:00:00 AM
The automotive industry is characterized by harsh environments that often require custom-designed testers. Using PXI-based modules, Goepel Electronics in Sterling Heights, MI, is able to develop reliable automotive test systems for its customers.
In May 2005, Sven Bohn relocated from the company's headquarters in Jena, Germany, to assume the new position of technical support manager at the Michigan facility. In an exclusive interview during NIWeek 2006 in Austin, TX, Bohn described the company’s automotive test equipment.
Q: How does Goepel serve the automotive test community?
A: We have been developing and manufacturing customized test equipment for the automotive industry and others since we were founded in 1991. The systems stand out for the high flexibility for testing of both vehicle hardware and software. Furthermore, tools for testing of car communication systems, such as controller area network (CAN) bus tools, diagnostic tools, and local interconnect network (LIN) bus tools, are fully developed. The product lines include tools for vehicle communication systems, functional testers, run-in test systems, and the PXI product family.
Q: How does the PXI bus address compact spaces and harsh environments?
A: PXI provides universal and flexible systems for testing and development. Compared to traditional systems, PXI systems are small, compact, and rugged, and useable for mobile applications. The success of PXI is that it is an open standard. You can buy a large selection of instruments and modules from multiple vendors.
We provide a range of PXI cards specifically designed for the automotive industry, such as intelligent PXI cards for automotive communication buses (CAN, LIN, K-Line, J1850 (Class II), FlexRay, and MOST), PXI switching and matrix modules with up to 2 A for each line, and PXI simulation cards for resistance simulation and encoder simulation, as well as PXI cards to process digital and analog signals.
Q: What are some automotive media or telematics test applications addressed by PXI?
A: Customers are able to test any electronic and electrical unit in a car. Typical test applications are functional testing of instrument clusters and door modules, network testing of engine control units, gear control units and amplifiers, testing of CAN-CAN gateways and CAN-LIN gateways, electrical and functional testing of electrical seats and multifunctional switches, and end-of-line testing of trunk opening systems, door-locking systems, and ABS systems.
Q: Which tools are especially useful for testing engine control units (ECUs)?
A: For testing engine control units, customers use intelligent communication devices for CAN, LIN, K-Line, J1850 (Class II), and FlexRay communication. These devices can be used in PXI systems as PXI cards, in desktop PCs (PCI cards) or for notebooks (USB devices), and they are able to generate all usual communication protocols such as diagnostic protocols, transport protocols, network management, and special functions such as bus simulation, error generation, and interface compliant tests. These entire features are very important to test electronic control units to assure proper working order for their final use in a car.
Q: Name some specific challenges relative to automotive test and measurement.
A: Besides the standard communication for sending and receiving messages, specific challenges for automotive test and measurement include the support of various diagnostic and communication protocols on the interface level. Despite the enormous efforts during the generation of user programs, it is impossible to program or execute the interface communication on a user level anymore, because of timing requirements and special functions such as network management, transport protocols, and so forth.
Intelligent communication interfaces with their own processors are indispensable, so that the required communication protocols can be generated at the interface level and the communication with the host PC can be limited to the parameter and result transfer. This approach provides the flexibility to support protocols and features according to customer needs, including diagnostic, transport, network-management, and data-display protocols and features such as bus simulation, error generation, and interface compliance testing.
