• Product Features
• Intelligent Test Automation
• Interactive User Controls and Displays
• Easy, Multi-Vendor Hardware Integration
• Integrated Productivity Tools

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Interactive User Controls and Displays

Test SLATE Displays

Test SLATE's Display Definition functions enable the user to select from multiple display-window templates and to configure each display with any I/O channel or calculated tag. Display windows consist of combinations of alphanumeric text, graphic trend plots, and analog gages and meters. Specialized planar displays are available to display pressure or temperature gradients across a test surface in real time.

Test SLATE also provides free-format, user-definable displays through a drag-and-drop graphics editor that is integrated seamlessly with the active tag editor. An almost unlimited number of each display window types can exist for each configuration. At any time – whether before, during, or after a test – a user may configure new displays or modify existing displays. Custom displays for facility control or other purposes can be developed for each application.

Test SLATE Diagnostic Displays

Diagnostic displays provide the capability to isolate problems using internal calibration methods to verify/checkout hardware and provide software tools to display raw inputs as well as engineering unit data. These features are important to avoid costly downtime and excessive operational complexities. Test SLATE's diagnostic capabilities enable the user to view all values for analog input, digital input, analog output, digital output, frequency input, and calculated tags. Test SLATE also provides control of analog output and digital output tags and reports the status of all tags (i.e., high trip, high alarm, low alarm, low trip, etc.). In addition, an X-Y graph illustrates analog inputs to display counts/volts/EUD simultaneously.

Test SLATE Reports and Plots

Test SLATE supplies standard plots and reports that have been included for post-test analysis. These plots and reports may be printed anytime after the test. In addition, automated reports or plots can be generated during test sequencing or at the end of test and exported as a spreadsheet, when requested. The data starting and ending times may be selected to provide the user with further control over which data is reported and/or plotted to hard-copy output. Conversion of stored data to a spreadsheet readable file is also available.

Test SLATE Test Initialization Forms

Test SLATE enables the user to develop test initialization forms. The test initialization form allows the storage and printing of user-specified information with the test data. The Test Initialization window is displayed to the test operator when a test is initialized. The standard initialization window contains information about the test itself, such as run number, test number, test engineer, and test operator, etc.

Test SLATE Message Logging

Test SLATE keeps a log of messages in files that can be viewed through the Test SLATE application. Messages can contain information, warnings, and errors that are reported by various components of the system (i.e., drivers, Test SLATE menus, and Test SLATE background processes, etc.). Each entry in the log file contains the severity of the message (i.e., information, warning, or error), the date and time of occurrence, the source of the message, the numeric message code, and the text message associated with the error code. The message files can be saved and viewed at a later time; messages are never overwritten (i.e., no ring buffer). The user can filter the messages by selecting options from a message filter dialog box available from the Message Log display.

Test SLATE OPC Data Server

Test SLATE can be configured to act as a data supplier using standard OPC protocol, enabling any off-the-shelf data display or analysis package to be a client to active Test SLATE tags such as analog measurements or calculated values. Standard HMI packages enable the user to define custom displays or analyses with the software tool of choice as long as it is OPC compliant. The need to have programming skills to customize is eliminated, and the user is able to implement user interface displays as simple or as complex as needed. This also enables other OPC compliant software packages, such as a programmable logic controller (PLC), to share real-time access to any measurement or control tag in the Test SLATE configuration.

Test SLATE Control Loops

Test SLATE features user-definable PID loops and control loop tuning/troubleshooting tools. In-test controls are provided for the transfer between automatic, semi-automatic, and manual modes. The user can define PID loops attributes, such as loop type (e.g., open and closed), loop activation tag, loop disabled tag, output tag, and feedback tag. Depending on the hardware being used in the application, sophisticated or high-speed PID controls may be implemented with external hardware and coordinated through Test SLATE.