Development of automated test equipment for ESP controllers

The complexity of electronic-device testing varies widely, ranging from the simplest type manual testing to the most complex Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). Presently power controllers for electrostatic precipitator at industry are tested using simulators at the E-shop and controller development lab. The simulated inputs and outputs are generated manually through mechanical keys and push button switches. The verification process and documentation are also done manually and hence time consuming. To overcome these disadvantages, an intelligent, multipurpose simulator cum test equipment was proposed. ATE was developed using LPC2378 ARM processor with required input and output channels. The ATE has multiple communication interfaces like RS485, RS 232, CAN and Ethernet. It is also provided with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), keypad and Local Area Network (LAN) communication. ATE completes the testing of controller without any manual intervention. Upon completion of testing, ATE sends out test reports to any computer connected to its LAN Port. The test report is generated in the form of Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML) pages with time stamping and controller particulars.