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Overview

Test SLATE is a powerful, versatile, general purpose test control and measurement application that enables users to quickly and intuitively create a custom data acquisition and test automation program without programming skills, using simple, point-and-click, Windows^®-based graphical tools on any PC. Test SLATE is easily adaptable to a wide variety of environmental test and measurement applications automating and collecting data for conditions including wind, moisture, speed, temperature, and pressure to name a few.This low-cost, PC-based, drag-and-drop software toolkit requires no specialized training, yet it is powerful enough to control even the most complex test and measurement process taking hundreds of measurements simultaneously. Unlike the competition's niche products requiring proprietary, specialized hardware and expensive programming, Test SLATE enables the user to quickly create sophisticated automated test sequences with "if-then-else" functionality without the need for programming skills or lengthy training.

Test SLATE is so versatile, easy to use, and powerful, it is the preferred test measurement and control software for a wide range of aerospace, automotive and motorsports, component, engine, and military testing among many other applications.

Test SLATE is the latest generation of Jacobs' control and measurement software with a heritage dating back to 1984 with our FlexMAC software product and 1994 with our TestVIEW software product. During its dozen-year lifespan, TestVIEW exceeded 300 installations spanning eight countries worldwide. TestVIEW continues to operate in many of today's most advanced and productive test facilities throughout the world. Test SLATE combines the knowledge and experience gained through this heritage with the most advanced software technology and techniques available today.

Test SLATE Benefits

Test SLATE's easy programmability enables a user familiar with Windows-based applications to create customized, highly complicated sequences without programming skills.
Its hardware neutrality eliminates the need for expensive proprietary hardware. This enables virtually any piece of control or data acquisition hardware to be easily integrated with Test SLATE; many legacy hardware modules already exist, and new ones can be created and plugged in with minimal effort (an enormous "plus" for major legacy equipment users such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or Department of Defense (DOD) entities).
Test SLATE is low cost because it is primarily composed of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, including National Instruments' LabVIEW and Microsoft^® SQL Server Express. As a result, competitive products often cost as much as five to ten times the price of Test SLATE.
Unlike the competition, Test SLATE is the product of years of engineering experience and excellence provided through its family ties with Jacobs Engineering, one of the world's largest and most diverse facilities engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance companies, with revenues approaching $11 billion. No one else can claim the total facilities integration knowledge (i.e., design, construction, and operation) that has provided the experience and expertise crucial to the development of Test SLATE.
Test SLATE provides intelligent supervision for all control and measurement activities in automated testing environments, using solutions as simple as single PC configurations to complex, multi-system, networked architectures with a variety of data acquisition and control systems from multiple manufacturers. Because Test SLATE works with virtually any hardware, you can select the best systems and components on the market for your application and tie it all together with Test SLATE.
Test SLATE is easy to use, with a familiar, Microsoft^® Windows-based interface. Sophisticated, almost intelligent, automated test sequences can be developed and executed easily. Data can be visually presented in the style and format you prefer with the display format and content being modifiable on-the-fly using simple drag-and-drop graphics. Relational database storage for configuration information will speed up the development of the multiple configurations needed to operate today's test facilities, resulting in substantial project risk mitigation and cost savings for users. Test SLATE's modular and layered architecture makes it easy to cost-efficiently modify and add additional functionality to the base software package.
Test SLATE can simultaneously integrate control and measurement functions from multiple vendors' hardware systems. For example, a user may have a facility controller from one supplier, a dynamometer controller from another, and a test article pressure measurement system from a third. All control and measurement functions from these different systems can be easily coordinated through Test SLATE. Since Jacobs does not manufacture hardware, hardware is selected that most effectively meets each customer's application requirements. Simultaneously coordinating and collecting data from multiple hardware devices is among Test SLATE's many unique features.
Supervisory control enables setpoint command by our automated sequencer or manually by an operator to process control systems or test articles. Multi-source data acquisition and integration enables data to be gathered from many hardware and software data sources at varying rates while coordinating its collection, integration, processing, and storage. For lower speed applications, this can be accomplished with a single PC, including PID control. Higher speed applications can use Ethernet, reflective memory, or field busses to integrate networked, multiple distributed data acquisition hardware systems.
Test SLATE can connect to nearly any control or measurement device or system. If users have existing (legacy) hardware installed in their facility that ideally suits their purposes, chances are users already have a Test SLATE interface software module enabling them to integrate it and take immediate advantage of Test SLATE's productivity tools. Users can even combine legacy hardware with new hardware, all seamlessly coordinated by Test SLATE. Interfacing unique or custom hardware systems requires minimal effort using templates provided. If programming resources are not readily available within their facility, Jacobs can provide these services for a reasonable fee.
A customizable workspace using dockable windows enables users to organize Test SLATE anyway they like. It includes a tree-and-branches format for configuration of measurement and control tags, resembling the interface used by Microsoft^® for Windows Explorer and its folders and subfolders mode of navigation.
Customizable user displays are a key feature of our software, and now customizing a user's display is easier than ever. Users have the option of using the new built-in drag-and-drop graphical editor and/or configuring Test SLATE as an OPC data server to share data with third-party, off-the-shelf HMI type packages, such as WonderWare, Iconics, RSVIEW, WinCC, or Cimplicity. The built-in editor works seamlessly with the configuration explorer to drag and drop data tags directly onto the graphic display.
A relational database stores all configuration information for various test cells/stands, test configurations, and instruments. Historical event recreation activities are easily performed to reassemble what hardware was used, its calibration coefficients at the time, and any mathematical conversions applied. This traceability, as required for complying with the ISO 17025 standard, is extremely useful days or weeks after completion of a test to validate test system operation if test article performance results seem questionable.