Bloomy Controls, Inc. today announced at NIDays North America 2013 the introduction of the compactUTS™ electronics functional test platform. The compactUTS enables design and manufacturing engineers to quickly create automated test solutions for connectorized printed circuit board assemblies and electronic subassemblies. The compactUTS functional tester improves the productivity and competitiveness of manufacturing operations with high product mixtures by simplifying the reuse of its general purpose instrumentation. A robust interconnect allows quick connection of devices under test (DUT) via DUT-specific cables. A Bloomy Controls switch matrix routes the various analog, digital, and power signals to the instruments, all under the control of a PC running National Instruments software. Small and simple for operators to employ on the manufacturing line, the compactUTS is also easy to program by test engineers using the included compactUTS NI LabVIEW drivers and optional Universal Test System (UTS) Software Suite for NI TestStand.
Versatile instruments power the compactUTS under the control of a standard PC or laptop computer via USB interface, including an NI USB-4065 DMM, NI USB-6341 data acquisition device, and a Bloomy Controls switch matrix and power control module. These instruments are interfaced through a high-density Virginia Panel Corporation (VPC) i1 jack on the desktop enclosure, providing a mass interconnect for test cable mating to the DUT. Each DUT-specific cable contains a unique electronic key that assures the proper test procedure executes for the attached device with up to 65 test points under 50V.
LabVIEW developers benefit from the included compactUTS drivers, and TestStand developers can dramatically reduce test sequence creation effort by using an optional UTS Software Suite that abstracts the compactUTS functionality to a collection of configurable test steps in TestStand. Test sequences for the compact UTS can migrate seamlessly to the Bloomy Controls UTS, a full-featured electronics functional test platform for PCBAs and subassemblies of any complexity.
"The compactUTS is an excellent demonstration of the scalability of our graphical system design platform in an active community of users and partners... specifically with Bloomy Controls, an NI Platinum Alliance Partner," said Luke Schreier, Senior Group Manager for Automated Test at National Instruments. "Their clever integration of National Instruments hardware and software helps customers improve productivity and product quality, both of which are necessary with the increasing complexity of modern devices under test."
"The compactUTS empowers electronic design, manufacturing and test engineers to quickly and easily create automated test solutions," says David Moschella, Product Marketing Manager for Bloomy Controls, Inc. "It is particularly beneficial for manufacturers and contract manufacturers producing a mixture of low-complexity electronic products who want to replace time-consuming manual or partially automatic processes with a flexible, reusable automated test platform composed of industry standard hardware and software."