To keep an industrial facility running, routine testing is performed by technicians using a specialized device to determine the status of the equipment. The measurement device is a sensitive set of analog and digital electronics that the technician connects to the device under test (DUT) and then provides parameters on what tests to run and how. A manager located elsewhere in the facility or at a central office needs to use the data to determine the health of the equipment and schedule maintenance on the device.
Impact ES worked on several areas of development for the industrial measurement device. Impact ES took the initial testbed for the digital electronics consisting of two development boards and integrated them into a single board. The board included a multicore TI processor and an Altera FPGA. For communication, it included USB ports and Bluetooth. In addition to the digital electronics, a set of power supplies were designed. The supplies powered both analog and digital electronics. The analog supplies were explicitly designed for low noise, with output ripple in the micro-amps.
In addition to the electrical hardware, Impact ES developed a mechanical solution for the prototype units consisting of an off-the-shelf box, which was CNC-modified in-house. One of the main design challenges of the enclosure was getting the Bluetooth radio signal out of the aluminum enclosure but was accomplished using a small plastic window integrated into the design to provide radio waves a passage while maintaining the durability of the enclosure.
Impact ES developed a cross-platform software application using Qt to provide the needed command and control features of the device. A single application provided the technicians and managers with unique interfaces, minimizing software development and maintenance requirements. When used by the technician, the application runs on an Android or Windows tablet or PC connected to the measurement device via Bluetooth or USB. The technician can configure test parameters and run tests from the application, then save the results. Test results and parameters are logged and pushed to a database in the cloud. When used by a manager, the application synchronizes with the cloud data and allows viewing and comparing new and historical data for determining DUT status and health. The system leverages Amazon’s AWS DynamoDB No-SQL database to store the test data. Impact ES developed all of the application code to interface with the Amazon services and provide synchronization across devices.
From electronics and essential mechanical hardware development to cross-platform software and cloud integration, Impact ES provided support across the breadth of the system, resulting in a complete end-to-end industrial test and measurement solution. Contact us and see if we can help you too. sales@impactelectronics.com
