Brink Climate Systems develops and produces ventilation systems and heating and cooling solutions for the consumer market. One of their products is the Flair, the central unit for a ventilation system with heat recovery. It consists of, among other things, a heat exchanger, fans, an automatic bypass, and a preheater.
The production line for the Flair series includes test stations for the final inspections before the products get packaged and shipped. At these stations, operators check specific components and functionalities of the devices before they leave the factory. The test software used on these stations is customized and based on TestStand sequences and LabVIEW drivers.
Brink Climate systems had some problems with the test stations. It wasn't clear which version of the software was running on each teststation (there was no version control or configuration management). The software was not stable and slow. A lot of retests were needed meaning a lot of extra testing time. Additionally, the developer that made the TestStand sequences and LabVIEW drivers was no longer available. So, Brink Climate Systems contacted VI Technologies for LabVIEW and Teststand support.
After initial quick-support we created a new plan and design to fix the shortcomings of the current test station software. Based on the functionality of the existing LabVIEW and TestStand code, we implemented the new design for the test station software. Our team redesigned the TestStand sequences and improved the LabVIEW drivers. This includes the implementation of a revised Operator Interface. In addition, we helped with setting up functionality for storing the test results in a database, improved source code control, and wrote new software specifications. By doing so, VI Technologies helped to:
Improve the structure and readability of the software and test sequences
Ensure that everything is under version control and can be reused by developers working at Brink Climate Systems
Enhance understanding of what the software exactly does
Increase confidence in the test results
Decrease test time
A selection of projects in which we played a major role
