Hands-On: Introduction to NI

TestStand

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Hardware Requirements:- None Required

Software Requirements:- TestStand 2013

LabVIEW 2013

Exercise 1: Add Tests Using NI TestStand Sequence

Editor

Objective: To create a TestStand sequence and to add steps to the TestStand

MainSequence for a handheld device that is under test. The NI LabVIEW application that performs an audio quality test to determine the sound

quality of a handheld device has already been created. In the exercises that follow, the

focus will be on the TestStand Sequence Editor. The TestStand Sequence Editor is a

graphical user interface (GUI) for creating and modifying sequence files. The sequence

editor is used to add steps to a sequence file to create a test sequence for the handheld

device.

Setup: Create a Hands-on project in LabVIEW

1. Open LabVIEW 20XX (Windows Start ButtonAll ProgramsNational

InstrumentsLabVIEW 20XXLabVIEW) and wait until the Getting Started Window is

displayed.

2. Open the template for the Hands On:

a. Click the Create Project button on the Getting Started Window.

b. Under the Hands On section to the left of the screen, select Test then TestStand

Hands-On 1 Hr.

c. Save the project on the Desktop or in any other folder of your choice as TestStand Hands-On.lvproj when prompted on the template creator. Make

a note of where you have saved the project. Click on Finish to create the

Hands-On project.

Exercise 1A: Simulated Acquisition Device

1. Open Measurement and Automation Explorer using the desktop shortcut

2. Right Click Devices and Interfaces Create New and then select Simulated NI-

DAQmx Device or

Modular Instrument Click Finish

3. Type PCI-5152 in the Create Simulated NI-DAQmx Device Search box and double-click the result to create simulated device in MAX configuration tree.

4. Expand Devices & Interface to see the new simulated device

Exercise 1B: Edit Audio Quality Test VI Properties

1. Open Exercise 1B_Audio Quality Test.vi from your Hands-on project tree

item..

2. This VI acquires a signal from a software simulated PCI-5152 digitiser which is software

simulated in Measurement and Automated Explorer. The LabVIEW block diagram code

contains VIs for FFT, Amplitude and Frequency analysis and a subVI that filters the signals.

3. You will need to edit the VI so that it will output the result of the Pass terminal to TestStand.

a. Press to toggle between front panel and block diagram windows. With

the front panel open, click on the top right box of the connector pane.

b. Then left-click on the Pass/Fail Boolean indicator on your front panel. This associates

the Pass Boolean control with the selected terminal of your VI.

4. Switch to the block diagram with . The NI Scope Express VI on the block diagram

acquires the simulated signal from the handheld devices audio output. Double click the NI-Scope Express VI to bring up the configuration options.

On the resulting configuration dialogue, configure the values as shown in the figure

below. All of the other values are left on their default setting. Be sure that channel

0 is highlighted in the Channels box when making these changes.

Configuration Option Value Device

Channel 0

Channel 1

Range (V)

Offset (V)

Sample rate (S/s)

Record length

Dev1 (PCI-5152) Checked Unchecked 10 5 10M 1k

a. Select the Trigger tab.

b. On the resulting configuration dialogue, configure Max time (s) to be 0.1. All of

the other values should be left at their default setting.

c. Click OK to close the dialogue and save changes.

c.

5. The final change that you need to make to the VI is to change the window

appearance. a. Navigate to File VI Properties

b. On the resulting dialogue window, select Window Appearance in the Category

drop-down box.

c. Select the Dialog radio button.

d. Select OK to save changes.

6. Run the VI to see how the window appears.

7. Save and close the VI.

8. Leave LabVIEW open and continue

Exercise 1C: Create a TestStand Sequence and Add the Frequency Test Step

1. Select Start Programs National Instruments TestStand 20XX Sequence Editor

2. After the TestStand Sequence Editor opens, a login dialogue will appear. There is no password.

Click OK. Each time you open the Sequence Editor, you will be prompted to login.

Tip: You can control access to specific TestStand capabilities based on the user login level.

Using an interactive user manager environment, you add, remove, and edit users, their

passwords, access levels, and profiles. In this case, when you log in as an administrator, you

have access to all TestStand sequence editor capabilities.

3. The TestStand Sequence Editor should appear as in the following figure. The areas of the

sequence editor are labeled below.

Sequences Pane Steps Pane

Insertion

Palette

Template

Area

Step

Setting

Pane

4. Now you will confirm that the execution process model is correct for this exercise. In this

case, you will use the Sequential execution process model.

a. Select Configure Station Options and select the Model tab.

b. Use the Station Model drop-down to select SequentialModel.seq or click the

browse button, to go to \Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand 20XX\Components\Models\TestStandModels and select SequentialModel.seq.

c. Click OK on the Station Options window to return to the Sequence Editor.

5. To add a new step you will first have to select the LabVIEW adapter which allows you to call

and run LabVIEW VI code modules from TestStand. To select the LabVIEW adapter, simply

click the LabVIEW icon at the top of the Insertion Palette.

6. Now you will insert the first step in the test sequence, which will test the sound quality of

the handheld device. The test will return a Boolean value for the pass/fail result, so the type

of test you want is a pass/fail test.

a. Click the + sign in the Insertion Palette next to the Tests folder.

b. Drag and drop a Pass/Fail Test from the Insertion Palette to the Main step

group in the Steps pane as shown in the following image.

7. Select the Pass/Fail Test step and press F2 to edit the test steps name. Rename the step Audio Quality Test

8. Now that youve selected the type of step, you will need to specify which LabVIEW VI this step calls. You will use the LabVIEW VI that you saved earlier in this exercises as the code for

this test.

i. When you click on the Audio Quality Test step, the Step Properties pane automatically updates with the steps properties.

ii. Click on the Module tab in the Step Setting pane. This will allow you to choose the code module, in this case a LabVIEW VI, which you want to associate with this

step.

iii. We want to select the VI we altered earlier so right-click the Exercise 1B_Audio Quality

Test.vi inside the Exercises folder in the project. After right clicking the VI click Explore to locate this file on the computer. Copy this filepath. NOTE: Please use the file location specific to your machine as this may change depending on the install location.

iv. Click the File Browse button on the right of the VI Path session in TestStand.

v. Paste the file path into the File Name field and then select Exercise 1B_Audio Quality Test.vi and click Open.

vi. If a File Not Found dialogue appears, select Use an absolute path for the file you selected and click OK.

9. Now that you have selected the VI, you will need to define where to store the test result in

TestStand.

a. Notice that the Description and Connector Pane now shows the VI icon with a

Boolean output terminal. This output is available to TestStand because of the

edit you made to the connector pane of the VI earlier in Part A of this exercise.

b. Click the Value field for Pass Boolean parameter and click the Expression

Browse Dialog Box button to the right. You can use the Expression Browser Dialog Box to interactively build an expression by selecting from lists of variables, properties, operators, and functions.

c. In this case, navigate the properties of the step and select Step Result

PassFail. Click Insert to select that property.

d. Step.Result.PassFail is the TestStand property that will now contain the

Pass value.

e. Click OK again to return to the sequence editor window.

10. In order to see how the test is executing you will have to show the front panel of the VI.

a. Left click the Show VI Front Panel button, . This will then display the

following icon to show that the front panel will be shown,

NOTE: The Show VI Front Panel button is located to the right of VI path.

11. You have finished adding the first step to your test sequence.

Exercise 1D: Run the Sequence

1. Now that you have created your first test sequence, you can execute your test sequence. Select Execute Single Pass.

2. Select Yes to save the sequence file to the Exercises folder and name the sequence file Ex 1

Handheld Test.seq. The Exercise folder is located in the hands-on project which you saved in the

pre-exercise.

3. The test sequence will now execute. You should see the Audio Quality Test VI appear on the

screen. If the VI passed, the test step will pass, if the VI failed the test step will fail.

4. A report for your test sequence will automatically be generated.

Figure 9 UUT

Report

5. To run another test, click Execute Restart.

6. Close the Single Pass window by selecting Window Close Completed Executions

when you are finished.

End of Exercise 1

Exercise 2: Add Tests Using Preconfigured Step Templates

Objective: To complete a TestStand sequence by adding steps to the MainSequence using built-in

TestStand preconfigured step templates. You will build on the sequence file you created in the

previous exercise.

Preconfigured step templates allow you to easily create and store preconfigured templates of the

steps you created in the Sequence Editor. These templates can be used to quickly build sequences

based on commonly used steps.

Exercise 2A: Create Your First Template

1. If you closed the sequence you created in the last exercise, reopen it.

a. Open Handheld Test.seq in your Exercises folder. The Exercise folder is located

in the hands-on project which you saved in the pre-exercise.

2. In the last exercise, you completed your first test sequence by adding your first step. Now

we are going to use that step to create a step template.

a. In the Templates Area, expand the Steps folder by clicking the + sign. This will reveal another folder, Multifunction Handheld Device Tests.

b. If the Multifunction Handheld Device Tests folder does not appear, import it by

right clicking and selecting import, then open the file named Multifunction Handheld Test Templates.ini located in the templates folder within the exercise

folder.

c. Expand the Multifunction Handheld Device Tests folder by clicking the + sign.

This will reveal a list of the preconfigured step templates.

d. In the MainSequence, click and drag your step, Audio Quality Test, into the

Multifunction Handheld Device Tests folder to create a new template.

You have now created your first template. You can drag this template into your

sequence file to reuse it at a later time.

Exercise 2B: Create a TestStand Sequence and Add the Template Steps

1. Create a new sequence file for the complete handheld test.

a. Select File New Sequence File to create a new sequence file.

b. Select File Save Sequence File and save the file as Ex 2 Complete Handheld Test.seq in your Exercises folder. The Exercise folder is located in the hands-on

project which you saved in the pre-exercise.

2. Add steps to the Setup step group.

The Setup step group runs before the Main step group. This step group should be used

for initialisation steps, such as turning instruments and other devices on. For our

example, we will initialise and configure all of our test machines.

a. Click the + sign next to Setup step group in the Steps pane to expand the

Setup step group.

b. Drag the Initialize Equipment template from the Insertion Palette into the

Setup step group. This will create a step using the template that has been

created for you.

3. Add steps to the Main step group.

The Main step group is where the bulk of the work should be performed by your test

sequence. For our example, we will perform all of our tests in the Main step group.

a. Click the + sign next to the Main step group in the Steps pane to expand the

Main step group.

b. Drag the Power Consumption Test step template into the Main step group.

The power consumption test will verify whether the phone stays within an

acceptable range for power consumption. If this test fails, we do not want to

run any of the other tests.

c. Under the Insertion Palette, click the + sign next to Flow Control to

expand the flow control steps. Flow control steps allow developers to control

the order of execution of steps in a TestStand Sequence with constructs such

as While Loops and If statements.

d. Drag an If step type under the Power Consumption Test. Click the If step.

The Step Settings window will update to show the If step properties. Click

the Condition Builder button on the right to build a condition for the

step.

e. Select Power Consumption Test under the Insert Step Status dialogue. Click

the Insert Step Pass button to insert a condition in the statement. This will build

the condition in the If step that is true if the Power Consumption Test passes. If the

test fails, nothing inside of the If statements will run.

f. Click OK to exit the Condition Builder.

g. Drag the LED Test template into the Main step group, inside of the If block. This

test will test the LED of the handheld device.

h. Drag the Volume Test and place it underneath the LED Test. This will test that

the volume of a signal from the phone is within an acceptable range.

i. Drag an If step type under the Volume Test. This will create a nested If block.

Follow step d to create a Pass condition that checks the Volume Test instead

of the Power Consumption Test.

j. Drag the Audio Quality Test template inside the new If block. Because the test

is within the new If block, TestStand will only run the Audio Quality Test if the

Volume Test passes. The Audio Quality Test step is the step you created

previously.

k. Drag the Bluetooth Test template underneath the new End step.

l. Drag the Wi-Fi Test template underneath the Bluetooth Test step.

m. Drag a For step type from the Flow Control menu underneath the Wi-Fi Test.

A For step type will allow you iterate over a group of steps a specified number of

times. The step settings dialogue will automatically change to the For Loop

parameters.

n. Enter the number 4 in the Number of Loops text box. This will tell the loop

how many times it should iterate.

o. Click the Expression Browser Dialog Box button next to the Loop Variable dialogue box. This will show the Expression Browser Dialog Box

which allows you to build an expression. Right-click on word Locals in the

tree shown and select Insert Number. This will create a local number variable.

Name the variable ImpactTestCount.

p. Click the Insert button to build your expression. Locals.ImpactTestCount will

now appear in the Expression window.

q. Click OK to insert Locals.ImpactTestCount as the expression. This variable will

keep track of how many times the loop has iterated.

r. Drag the Impact Test template inside of the For Loop.

4. Add steps to the Cleanup step group.

The Cleanup step group runs after the Main step group. As its name implies, it should be

used to provide cleanup for the tests that have been performed in this sequence. For this test,

we will turn off all of our test instruments in this step group.

a. Click the + sign next to Cleanup to expand the Cleanup step group.

b. Drag the Shutdown Instrumentation template into the

Cleanup group. Your sequence should resemble the following.

Exercise 2C: Run the Completed Sequence

1. Now that you have completed the entire test sequence, you can execute the completed test. Select Execute Single Pass. If prompted, select Yes to save the sequence file.

2. View the test results.

3. To run another test, click Execute Restart.

4. Close the Single Pass window by pressing the Close button on the window or selecting

Window Close Completed Executions when you are finished.

End of Exercise 2

Exercise 3: Debug Test Sequence Using the NI

TestStand

Sequence Editor

Objective: To become familiar with using breakpoints and debugging tools in the sequence editor.

When you create a sequence file, you might want to observe sequence execution to make

sure the sequence behaves as you need. During debugging, you might want to observe

execution in some sections of a sequence but not others. In this exercise, you want TestStand

to execute the sequence until it reaches a section you want to analyse. TestStand allows you to insert convenient stopping points, known as breakpoints, in the sequence. Like most modern development systems, TestStand

allows you to set and remove multiple breakpoints for every sequence file.

Exercise 3A: The Step Debugging Tools

1. We want to debug an advanced version of the test we just made. In the Solutions folder in the project

explorer right-click the Solution 2 Complete Handheld Test.seq. After right clicking, click Explore to locate this file on the computer. Copy this filepath. NOTE: Please use the file location specific to your machine as this may change depending on the install location.

2. In the sequence editor in TestStand, select File Open File and paste the file path you copied in.

Select Solution 2 Complete Handheld Test.seq. Open the file.

3. Left-click the space to the left of the LED Test to set a breakpoint on that test. A red stop icon appears, as shown below, to indicate the breakpoint.

Figure 1 Breakpoint Set

4. Click the Run button on the sequence editor toolbar. This executes the sequence using the Test UUTs Execution entry point.

5. Enter any number into the UUT Information dialogue box and click OK. 6. Notice that the execution pauses at the first breakpoint, in this case, the LED Test, because

you inserted a breakpoint at this step. The step into, step over, and step out debugging tools

should be enabled on the toolbar.

7. Click the Step Over button to move to the next step.

8. Click the Resume button to continue execution.

9. Before the execution completes, click the Terminate button to terminate the execution and display the results of all steps executed in the report. If your execution reaches the UUT Result

dialogue before you have a chance to terminate, start a new UUT and then terminate the

execution. 10. Click Terminate in the Testing Terminated for Current UUT dialogue box that launches.

11. Close the report and return to the Sequence File window.

Exercise 3B: Stepping into a Code Module

1. Click Run to run the sequence again. Enter any number in the UUT Information

dialogue box.

2. When the execution pauses at the LED Test step, this time press the Step Into button

.

3. Notice how the LabVIEW VI Exercise_LED Test.vi has now opened. Change to the

block diagram by selecting Window Show Block Diagram.

4. Right-click on the wire between the Divide VI and the Add VI. Select Set

Breakpoint to set a breakpoint.

Figure 2 Set a Breakpoint in

LabVIEW

5. Click the white Run button in LabVIEW to execute the code module. Notice that

the LabVIEW code breaks at the breakpoint you set.

6. Move the mouse cursor over the wire to see the pointer change to a Probe icon. Clicking

on the wire will allow you to see the value at this point during run-time.

7. Click the red button labeled Continue , to continue execution of the code module.

8. Once the LabVIEW code module has finished executing, right-click on the breakpoint

you set and select Clear Breakpoint.

Figure 3 Clearing a

Breakpoint

9. To return execution to TestStand, press the black Return to caller button .

10. When the focus returns to TestStand, press the Resume button to finish the

TestStand execution.

11. Close the report and the sequence file. Do not save.

End of Exercise 3