I concur with the comments of Mark Briggs. And yes, the system that I wrote failed to allow the tester to pause and adjust stuff...
But, if your local code monkeys are willing and able to write you own software system, remember that you 1. have no support - you are on your own. 2. should develop with tools that are 'main-stream' 3. should abstract the interface to instrument driver and hardware control code 4. should save all data files in engineering units in a simple ASCII-test format (e.g., CSV) 5. should consider a 'dynamic' language that is common to several operating systems, and that has a rich set of libraries - do not re-invent wheels. look a PyVISA. 6. should separate the test hardware drivers from the report generation 7. should shower with praise and adulation, upon any code monkey, that is successful and able walk among compliance engineering folk. luck, Brian > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Mark > Briggs > Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:35 AM > To: Grace Lin > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Software for EMC Automation > > Grace - > > There are benefits and disadvantages to all of the packages you are > looking at. The lab I work for decided to write our own software > because of the diverse test equipment types from different > manufacturers. This allowed us a lot of flexibility but it also > incurred a longer development and implementation time. > > One comment on your goal: > > >My goal is to have a software fully control emission measurement > >(for unintentional radiators) including generating a test report > >without an engineer's additional intervention (except changing an > >antenna from BiLog to Horn). > > You can avoid the engineers intervention during the > preliminary scans > (except, as stated, for switching antennas). However, part of the > measurement process during the final stages includes manipulation of > cables to maximize emissions - so during the maximization > process for > the signals you select during the preliminary scans an engineer > needs to go in and move the cables around. Whichever software > package you select, make sure it allows you to do this ! > > Good luck - > > Mark - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
