Newsletter: Testing Battery Management Systems Boards

2/26/2010
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From the Editor of the PXI Newsletter, Bob Helsel:

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Welcome to the February 2010 edition of the PXI Newsletter.  Our intent is to educate and inform you about how the PXI standard is being used in modular test systems for a wide variety of industries.

Backwards compatibility is a key characteristic of the PXI standard, as it continues to evolve to meet customer test requirements. For example, the PXI Express backplane integrates PCI Express while still preserving compatibility with current PXI modules, so users benefit from increasing bandwidth while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing systems. PXI Express specifies hybrid slots to deliver signals for both PCI and PCI Express. With PCI Express electrical lines connecting the system slot controller to the hybrid slots of the backplane, PXI Express provides a high bandwidth path from the controller to backplane slots. Using an inexpensive PCI Express-to-PCI bridge, PXI Express provides PCI signaling to all PXI and PXI Express slots to ensure compatibility with PXI modules on the backplane.

The PXI MultiComputing (PXImc) Specification, which supports  a high performance, communication architecture for multi-controller PXI and automated test systems, also continues the innovation of the PXI standard while ensuring backwards compatibility with the more than 1,500 PXI products available today.

In this issue of the newsletter, we highlight the flexibility and power of a PXI platform to test battery management system boards for hybrid electric vehicles. Our application article discusses a functional test solution using PXI for subway electronics. We hope you enjoy this month's issue.

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Main Article

Testing Battery Management Systems Boards for Electric Vehicles using a PXI Platform

The Challenge: 
Design and develop a flexible and cost-effective test system for Battery Management Systems (BMS) balancing and management circuit boards.  System requirements include simulating a pack of lithium-ion batteries, performing high accuracy voltage and current measurements, simulate telemetry and control signals, and communicating with the Unit Under Test via serial and/or CAN.

The Solution:
Create a flexible Battery Management System (BMS) test system which tests all necessary BMS functionality throughout the lifecycle of a product, from research and design, validation, verification, to manufacturing.  Utilize commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware such as PXI instrumentation to shorten design time and ensure the system will provide the flexibility to expand capability, and provide the accuracy needed to test multiple customer products.

 

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Thanks to all our readers.
Bob Helsel, Editor
www.pxisa.org
Application Article

DiagnoSYS Subway Electronics Functional Test Solution Using PXI

DiagnoSYS has incorporated the  PXI modular digitizers into a functional test solution for subway car electronics validation. DiagnoSYS is a global company that leverages industry standard hardware and software to create flexible and scalable turnkey test solutions.  PXI’s flexible software drivers and powerful built-in measurements proved to be a great match for DiagnoSYS’s test system.

For this subway electronics test system, DiagnoSYS used PXI which is mounted in a 19-inch rack. Within this system, the ZTEC ZT450 PXI  is used mainly to test the functionality and accuracy of the train’s speed sensing equipment. This equipment consists of a microwave Doppler box that generates a 26 GHz signal which is focused onto the train track.

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