Cell Phone Test System

Background

Motorola is a world leader in cellular phone technology. Since cellular phones are meant to go almost anywhere, they can suffer much abuse and mistreatment. To build phones that can survive, Motorola spends significant effort pushing the phones to the limit with Accelerated Life Testing (ALT). They heat them, freeze them, drop them, electrocute them, and stress them in many other ways until they have a design that survives.

Solution

We were brought in to re-architect the system to improve maintainability, improve error handling, and make the program run reliably.

• Test Executive: The Test Executive provides all the services for the user interface, database access, user parameters, etc. The test executive architecture allows the test developers to concentrate on just their test code. It also helps prevent duplication of effort.
• Error Handling: Error handling was greatly improved. The program can accurately determine the point of failure even if the phone is badly damaged. 
• Database: Data is logged to a SQL Server database. The database is open-format; parameters can be added easily at any time.
• Maintainability: We worked with Motorola to develop improved software maintenance procedures. This will help new tests follow the same architecture as they are developed.
• Web reporting: With the new architecture in place, we were able to provide some new features. Technicians and engineers are able to see the result of any test right at their desk using their internet browser.

Technical Details

LabVIEW™, Microsoft SQL Server, Web reporting with Interdev / ASP / IIS