Yes, Labview was prohibitive in cost for the small company i worked for. I = was surprised that there aren't (m)any open source alternatives. Especially= with the proliferation of Arduino projects.=20 Balancing system capabilities with user needs seems an issue.=20 Joe W --=20 Sent from a cloud with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my haziness . "David Duffy (AVD)" wrote: Hi Joe, I suspect all of the off-the-shelf solutions are going to be way more $$=20 than I can justify. I am a little surprised that there's not an open=20 source (hardware and/or software) solution out there. Well, I haven't=20 found one yet in my (on and off again) searches over the last 12 months=20 anyway. I figure the time spent doing the tests manually could be better used to=20 design and build an automated system. My requirements aren't=20 particularly stringent so a DIY approach seems like a good fit. David... On 25/06/2012 1:44 PM, Joe Wronski wrote: > You could by a teradyne test station. One model I worked with (J259) > was based on a PDP8. We had to key in a boot program in binary on a > switch panel to get it to read the test programs from paper tape. J273 > was much more capable with magnetic storage! > The thing is... hardware testing requires hardware and a standard to > talk to the hardware. National Instruments makes hardware and Labview > software and uses GPIB. It's expensive. There may be rumblings about > integrating GPIB into Scilab. > Wikipedia has a good place to start researching: > ; > > Joe W > > > On 6/24/2012 9:22 PM, David Duffy (AVD) wrote: >> As indicated in my other thread, I'm setting out to automate some >> hardware testing. This will involve simulating external input(s) as >> well as monitoring output(s) of the DUT. These I/O will be serial >> comms, contacts, voltages, pulses, etc. >> >> For example, the PC may send out some serial data and then check (or >> log) how the hardware responded. There would need to be some sort of >> scripting to drive the events and judge the results. >> >> Writing the PC software should not pose any problems, but I was >> interested to see if such software already exists. If so, is there a >> standard interface method? >> >> The plan is to develop hardware and software plugins as the need arises >> and have them integrate on a common platform. >> David... >> --=20 _____________________________________________ David Duffy Audio Visual Devices P/L Unit 8, 10 Hook St, Capalaba 4157 Australia Ph: +61 7 38235717 Fax: +61 7 38234717 Our Web Site: www.audiovisualdevices.com.au _____________________________________________ --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .