The Testing Blog

NTS has partnered with the Equipment Reliability Institute to offer this four day course. Aimed at individuals who will need to perform, witness or specify environmental testing in accordance with MIL-STD-810. The course will cover vibration and shock methods will be covered and the course will include a tour of the NTS Fullerton, CA test facility, where the full spectrum of MIL-STD-810 testing is conducted.

Full details and course registration information can be found at the Equipment Reliability Institute’s website.

Enables faster, more reliable RF remotes and provides freedom to operate devices Removing ‘line-of-sight’ barrier of today’s infrared remotes

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CES — Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a leader in touch- and microcontroller-based solutions, today announced that Atmel’s RF4Control platform has received ZigBee® RF4CE certification using the new ATmega128RFA1 wireless AVR® microcontroller. Atmel can now offer its customers an immediate, low-cost, easy-to-implement solution for various remote control applications using the ATmega128RFA1.

The ZigBee RF4CE specification is a standardized specification for radio frequency (RF) remote controls promoted by the ZigBee Alliance. The specification enables flexible control from nearby rooms, enables unique two-way communications between the remote and device, and delivers improved remote battery life for a variety of consumer electronic (CE) devices such as HDTV, home theater equipment, set-top boxes and other audio equipment.

“We are pleased to be among the first to have our wireless platform ZigBee RF4CE certified,” said Magnus Pedersen, product marketing director of MCU wireless solutions at Atmel Corporation. “With this certification, Atmel’s recently launched ATmega128RFA1 can now offer customers more flexibility, reliability and freedom to operate their devices from greater distances. The two-way communication between the device and remote, and by removing the ‘line-of-site’ barrier, enables our consumers to enjoy an even richer experience.”

“The certification of Atmel’s RF4Control platform is another step towards spreading ZigBee’s reach in homes everywhere,” said Benno Ritter, vice president of marketing for the ZigBee Alliance. “ZigBee RF4CE will offer manufacturers a number of advanced remote control features while offering increased flexibility and ease of use.”

“As the authorized ZigBee test lab, we are pleased to certify Atmel’s ATmega128RFA1 to develop products based on the RF4CE standard,” said Osman Sakr, chief technology officer of National Technical Systems Inc. “We look forward to testing more products and platforms to move towards interoperable RF products across multiple vendors based on this new standard.”

More Information

For more information about Atmel’s ZigBee RF4CE solutions, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/RF4CE.

For additional information on Atmel’s wireless microcontrollers, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/wireless.

ZigBee: Control your world

ZigBee is the global wireless language connecting dramatically different devices to work together and enhance everyday life. The ZigBee Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 300 member companies driving development of ZigBee wireless technology. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer electronic, energy, home, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: http://www.ZigBee.org.

About NTS

National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of engineering and testing service to the defense, aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full life-cycle product integrity support, offering world class design engineering, compliance, testing, certification, quality registration and program management. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at http://www.ntscorp.com/ or call 800-794-0926.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of capacitive touch solutions, microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

From http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atmel-receives-zigbee-rf4ce-platform-certification-using-atmega128rfa1-80893507.html

by Vesta I. Bateman, Chair, IEST Working Group DTE032

The IEST Recommended Practice on pyroshock testing has been revised and updated to reflect advances in the art of pyroshock testing and to address common problems related to data accuracy in the pyroshock community. The key changes to IEST-RP-DTE032: Pyroshock Testing Techniques are described here.

New definitions for near-field pyroshock, mid-field pyroshock, and far-field pyroshock adopted by IEST-RP-DTE032.2 are consistent with the definitions given in MIL-STD-810G, Method 517, as shown in the table and the spectra definitions below. The definitions and table values are quantified in terms of shock response spectra (SRS). The SRS, with an appropriate damping value, is the most widely used tool to analyze pyroshock data and is calculated using acceleration measurements near components and subsystems that must be qualified separately. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be revising NASA-STD-7003 during the coming year, and the current NASA values for near-field, mid-field, and far-field pyroshock are also shown in the table.

A near-field pyroshock test requires frequency control up to and above 10 kHz for amplitudes greater than 10,000 g. A pyrotechnically excited simulation technique is usually appropriate, although in some cases a mechanically excited simulation technique may be used.

A mid-field pyroshock test requires frequency control from 3 kHz to 10 kHz for amplitudes less than 10,000 g. A mechanically excited simulation technique other than shaker shock is usually required.

A far-field pyroshock test requires frequency control no higher than 3 kHz for amplitudes less than 1,000 g. A shaker shock or a mechanically excited simulation technique is appropriate.

via: Pyroshock Testing, Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology

National Technical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTSC) (NTS), was awarded contracts by General Atomics (GA) Electromagnetic Systems Division (EMS) of San Diego, Calif. for the performance of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC and environmental testing for the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).

NTS, under contract to GA EMS, supports environmental qualification testing at GA’s EMS manufacture and test facility at Tupelo, Miss. Some of the tests are being conducted at Joint Base McGuire-Dix – Lakehurst, N.J., where full-scale EMALS and AAG systems are installed and qualified by GA- EMS and the Navy. The EMALS and AAG customer is Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).

NTS will provide environmental and EMC test engineering and evaluation for AAG and EMALS systems to be installed on CVN 78. Testing will be conducted at both the major assembly and component level. Additional testing will be conducted at NTS laboratories located in Santa Clarita and Fullerton, Calif., Boxborough, Mass. and Tinton Falls, N.J. NTS resources support the testing and evaluation program over the next two years.

The EMALS system consists of a high-voltage transformer rectifier manufactured by Neeltran, high power inverters manufactured by GA EMS, a large motor generator, to store energy, manufactured by Kato, and a rectifier manufactured by L-3 Pulse Power Division. Four linear induction motors manufactured by GA EMS will accelerate the launch aircraft from a dead stop to about 150 knots in 3 seconds or less.

Visit this website for more info.

National Technical Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSC) (NTS), is pleased to announce the addition of tunable resonant beam apparatus for metal-to-metal simulated Pyroshock testing at its Tinton Falls, NJ engineering and test facility.

Pyroshock testing is designed to simulate the high-frequency, high-magnitude shock pulse that a product may experience as the result of an explosive event, such as an explosive impact on a military tank structure or the separation of booster rockets from the space shuttle during flight. This type of explosive impact can cause failures in electronic components and thus endanger the survival of the system as a whole.

The Pyroshock test differs from other mechanical shock tests in that there is very little rigid body motion of the product. In this test method, an aluminum bar with rectangular cross-section is clamped to a massive base. Clamps are intended to impose nearly fixed-end conditions on the beam. When the beam is struck with a cylindrical mass fired from the air gun beneath the beam, the beam will resonate at the first bending frequency of the beam, which is a function of the distance between the clamps. The tunable resonant beam method provides a good, general purpose Pyroshock simulator, since the knee frequency is continuously adjustable over a wide frequency range, 500 Hz to 3,000 Hz for example.

NTS’ new 17,000 pound system is designed to simulate the far-field Pyroshock spectrum. The original system design was developed by Neil Davie, Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Mechanical Environments, Sandia National Laboratories. The design was then adopted as a “recommended practice” by the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology and published in the “Pyroshock Testing Techniques” IEST-RP-DTE032.1 document.

“The addition of this new test capability demonstrates both the technical expertise of the NTS engineering team in its construction, and our commitment to continue to add capabilities and capacity to meet the ongoing needs of our customers in the defense and aerospace markets” commented NTS General Manager Richard Gaynor, “We look forward to demonstrating this unique new capability.”

For more information – click here.

NTS  is pleased to announce the approval of our Calgary, Alberta, Canada laboratory as a Verizon Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL). This certification program approval allows NTS Calgary to perform NEBS testing for Verizon’s telecommunications equipment vendors.

Telecommunications equipment suppliers to Verizon must have their products tested to ensure compliance with the NEBS (Network Equipment Building System) specifications. NEBS is the generic requirement for the spatial environmental, EMI/EMC, and product safety of telecom equipment being deployed in the central office. These requirements are mandated by Telecommunications Operating Companies, providing them confidence that all telecom equipment has a high degree of reliability and will work under extreme environments while maintaining service for their customers.

Manufacturers of Information Technology Equipment (ITE) intended for sale in the European Union should take note of some important changes that are slated to go into effect with regard to their EMC testing requirements under emissions standard EN 55022:2006.

In November 2008 the European Union’s Official Journal (OJ) published lists of standards for the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive and Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive (R&TTED). Both lists include references to EN 55022:2006 and its amendment A1, released in 2007.

EN 55022:2006 will supersede EN 55022;1998 and become the requirement for Information Technology Equipment (ITE) sold into the European Union after October 1st 20091 , with the requirements of Amendment A1:2007 coming into force one year later on October 1st 2010. What are the differences between the 1998 and 2006 versions of the standard and what new requirements will be introduced by A1:2007? Let’s begin by reviewing the history of CISPR 22 from 1997 onwards. International Standard CISPR 22 is the basis for not only EN 55022 but also for many of the other national versions of standards for ITE.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Elliott Laboratories is currently equipped to conduct the EU free space testing above 1 GHz per EN55022:2006+ A1 and/or CISPR 22:2005 + A1 in all chambers at our Fremont facility. For more information about how this change affects your products or for a price quote to test your product, please contact us at info@elliottlabs.com or call at 408-245-7800.

I’ve you’re a hardware or software developer, you obviously know that Microsoft Windows 7 is on the way – and it’s coming quickly! According to the latest rumors (backed up by the stability of the test builds being made available), Windows 7 should be released by the end of the year, but the question is are you (and your products) ready? Have you tested your hardware and/or software products under Windows 7?

With the dismal release that was Windows Vista, many users and corporations have held off on upgrading their Windows XP or earlier platforms to the latest version of Windows. There is a huge amount of pent-up demand for a fast, stable, secure operating system, and as soon as Windows 7 hits, a large number of computers will be upgrading. Don’t get caught unprepared, as many manufacturers did with Windows Vista.

Windows 7 is much more than just fancy window dressings. Windows 7 has made significant performance improvements on the underlying technology which is based on Windows Vista, including much of the same driver technologies. If you’ve submitted products for Windows certification, you’ve probably already discovered that Microsoft is requiring that new submissions include testing under Windows 7. So, if you haven’t already, make sure to get testing NOW!

Ever have a computer just totally die on you in the middle of testing? Of course, if you’re testing a new product, it’s not that uncommon to have it crash, and sometimes even corrupt the system. The problem is if you’ve still got data on that computer that you need to get to – or even the debug logs to see what happened before every went to heck. Problem is, what do you use to get into your dead computer?

As long as you can still boot from a CD, you’ve got options. Check out this article from PCWorld: Six Downloadable Boot Discs That Could Save Your PC

And don’t forget to back up your system! Even if you can reproduce the data, you probably don’t want to spend the time (and your boss doesn’t want to spend the money on your salary) to get it back.

During many discussions that President Ronald Regan had with the Soviet Union regarding nuclear disarmament, he outlined his position very clearly with the phrase “Doveryai, No Proveryai – Trust, But Verify.” This important concept is the very basis of certification programs. Certification programs aren’t about lack of trust on the part of the standard group/alliance; rather, it’s an acknowledgment that even well-respected companies, that have developed many products based on the same specification over many years, may still have times in which their products don’t meet the standard.

As with any technology developed by a group and products developed by individual manufacturers interpreting that specification, it is highly probable that, left to themselves, individual products may not interoperate nor necessarily meet the spirit of the specification due to nuances in interpretation of the specification. If you don’t make sure, via certification, that your product is interoperable, you negate one of the very reasons that standards and alliance groups are formed in the first place – interoperability. One of consumers’ biggest gripes (about everything from wireless technologies to kid’s building blocks) is a lack of interoperability.

Although interoperability is certainly the most important reason for certifications, it isn’t the only reason. Certification programs are also valuable marketing tools to help manufacturers sell more products by proving interoperability to customers. Customers want to know that they can just pick up a box off a store shelf with a specific logo on it and know that it’ll work with other products they own using the same logo. Plus it provides name recognition for the standard/alliance. Products that “just work” lead consumers to come back and purchase other products that “just work” from the same standard over and over again. Even soccer moms know what common standards like USB are.

With the growing market place of competing products, technologies, and standards, now more ever, it is important to make sure that you get your products certified before they’re released.