First TestStation

The project's objective is to provide, at a low cost, a starting test platform for testing electronic production boards or electronic systems. Designed as a free project by just retired Test Engineer, it will offer a complete test solution by providing a complete testing example.

Having recently completed my career in test engineering, this project will be my voluntary contribution to the test engineering field to fill the void on expertise, in particular for small companies.

Product testing is often considered as a no value added work and the budget follow the same path. Often, production test is performed using the tool, hardware and method used by the design engineer for validate the functionality of a product. Often, the hardware and software used on engineering group is not adapted to be used by production without intensive support from the production engineering group.

The best solution would be to have a production test station, designed by the test engineering department based on production need and following the design requirements.

A test station is a generic test platform used by production to test the electronic assemblies produced in the factory. A test station, following my definition, is a group of instruments and specialized electronics circuits grouped together to a same interface to be in measure to validate, at least, 75% of the products build by the company.

Developing a new generic test station could take between 2 and 5 years depending of instruments and resource required. Furthermore, the budget in time and hardware is hard to justify on a project-based budget (program managers do not want to spend a part of this budget on something generic that would serve other programs or projects).

The First TestStation project will help to shorten the path and the cost by providing a complete solution and programming example that can be used as a starting point for establishing a professional, cost-effective test solution.

My hope is to provide a ready-made solution that will ensure that First TestStation becomes an obvious choice for inexperienced testers assigned to complete a test development project.

The picture above shows a diagram of the entire project.The project requires two electronic boards, the first of which is the Interconnect IO board, which serves as the interface between instruments and the product to be validated. The second electronic board, the Selftest board, will be used for verifying the First TestStation.

The Interconnect IO Board:

The selftest Board:

Having worked with PCBway on many projects, this large one will require a lot of resources (PCBs, 3D prints, and CNCs).PCBway will have all hardware and mechanical parts of the projects available so anyone can order First TestStation hardware from anywhere in the world.