Researchon Virtual Instrumentation-based Portable Maintenance Aids For Airborne Equipment

Currently, testing technology is developing toward automation, multi-function and digitization.With the testing equipment and strategy becoming more complex, there comes the contradictionbetween numbers of testing equipment interfacesand testing resource interfaces. In addition, thetesting technology is developing from specialization to generalization, and the development of virtualinstrument technology is a good solution of the versatility of the hardware platform and softwaredrivers through the transition procession.A Portable Maintenance Aids (PMA) detector is designed in this article, which is based onPC/104-Plus bus and virtual instrument. The PMA complishes testing process and data acquisition forthe airborne electrical equipment automatically. With Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM)embedded, the PMA meets the requirements of digitization and paperless demand for automatictesting equipment.The PMA consists two main parts: Testing platform and interface switching-matrixadaptermodule. The testing platform is to complete the data acquisition and processing of airborne electricalequipment, with the help of PC/104-Plus bus which can bestacked itself and meets portability and lowpower requirements. The PC/104-Plus industrial control module is used as the main part of the testingplatform to complete the work such as analog data acquisition, digital signal detection, multimetermeasurements,1553B bus and RS422bus communication. Windows XP and virtual instrument NILabWindows/CVI is used as the software development paltform. The interface switching-matrixadapter module is designed and made ourselves, and the module is to complete the conditioning of theinput signal and switch of test nodes and testing channels. The interface adapter module solves thecontradiction between numbers of testing equipment interface and testing resource interface.Considering the characteristics of airborne electrical signals, the testing of interface adapterswitching-matrix, conditioning circuits and PC/104-Plus boards is completed. With the testing results,the PMA achieved stated objectives, and it is stable and reliable. The PMA can be sent to the outfieldspot to take further debugging.