Research And Implement Of Automated Test Of Connecting Hardware Based On Virtual Instrument

This thesis comes from the project of the connecting hardware test in lab in Asian-Pacific R&D center of Tyco Electronics Shanghai Raychem Cable Accessory Ltd. Current connecting hardware test usually are taken manually, for example, manual operation on network analyzer, tested pairs changing manually, output the test data from network analyzer manually. Above all will cause the longer test time, lower test efficiency and the potential of more error, finally reduce the veracity of judging the product performance. This thesis purpose to achieve automatic test of connecting hardware through the Virtual Instrument technology based on Agilent VEE with HP switch/control unit, then we will reduce the test time and potential of more error, improve the test efficiency. In future we can automatic test the other structure cabling product such as twisted cable, RJ45 plug etc. based on the test system in this thesis.This thesis firstly introduces where the topic comes from, analyze the status of connecting hardware test in the country and oversea, and introduce briefly the automatic test system. Secondly we introduce the product buildup of structure generic cabling system, some propagation performance parameters and international standard and China standard are also presented. Then we study the instrument bus technology especially the GPIB bus technology which is used in our automatic test system for connecting hardware. Afterward we study the virtual instrument's evolution, especial characteristic and structure, and we study in detail the Agilent VEE which is one of famous programming language for virtual instrument, basic VEE programming method and skill are introduced, three ways of virtual instruments are also presented. Finally we use Agilent VEE to implement the virtual instrument of network analyzer and switch/control unit, to develop the automatic test system which can meet the requirement of connecting hardware test. The efficiency and veracity of connecting hardware automatic test system are approved through the actual test of developing Cat5e patch panel in the R&D center.