Hardware Control Interface to Automated Test Equipment
- Garrett Nelson
- Taylor Colety
- Terence Williams
- Alakh Patel
- Brooke Cochran
- Megan Samuel
Team Name: Coco Control
Sponsor: Samtec Inc.
Our sponsor Samtec specializes in High-speed Digital Communication such as cables and connectors. To guarantee a certain rate of performance using techniques such as Bit Error Rate tests. Currently, Samtec has an existing unit that conducts these tests. However, the unit only communicates with a PC which runs automated tests. This limits the flexibility test engineers have by making quick tests cumbersome and requires the PC to be always present. Our task was to implement a hardware controlled interface, modifying the existing Samtec unit with a Touchscreen and Keypad to implement manual control, as well as adding in a new microcontroller to manage communication. Overall, the unit retains the previous functionality while as the ease of use of a touch screen interface for test engineers when working within a clean room or demonstration purposes.