What do you get when you cross a mixed-signal oscilloscope, a function generator, a multimeter, a power supply, and some programmable digital I/O in a box? Sounds like the set up to a very geeky joke, but it is actually National Instrument’s VirtualBench product. [Shahriar] has one and wanted to know what was inside, so he did a tear down.
Developing new products can be challenging during the debug and test phases, often you have your head down trying to probe the lead of some SOT23 transistor, and just when you get it, you scan your eyes up and find that your multimeter is measuring resistance and not voltage.
[Charles] had this issue compounded on his NI Virtual Instrument. It has an interface totally driven from a PC, which may or may not be in a convenient location to mouse around. Luckily NI just released an API for the 5 in one lab test station and [Charles] quickly whipped up a python wrapper which gives him ultimate control over the instrument.
Tying the script to a USB footpedal and adding some text-to-speech capabilities using google’s API [Charles] is easily able to switch from continuity to voltage to resistance and anything else he pleases with just the tap of a foot and listening to the measurements, making sure he never takes his eyes off the work which is risking a short.
Join us after the break for a quick video demonstration.
Continue reading “Talking, Foot-Pedal-Controlled Bench Probes For VirtualBench”
