DMC designed a custom circuit board from the ground up to be compatible with existing Dickson devices. These devices include replaceable sensor pods that measure different metrics such as humidity and temperature. The batteries in the sensors last up to a year, or more depending on how often they are transmitting. These RF devices are designed to communicate over long distances at low data rates and low power.

Learn more about DMC’s Product Development expertise and contact us for your next project. 

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For this project, DMC automated the client’s previously manual testing process. This increased efficiency while maintaining quality, as automated testing is faster and less error-prone. With our extensive experience in automated battery testing, we were qualified to follow the client’s step-by-step process and create a tester tailored to their needs.

Functional Specification

The test stand comprises a high-performing NI 4065 Digital Multi Meter (DMM), an NI RMX-4101 programmable power supply, and a Hioki ST5520 Hipot meter for measurement instrumentation. This test suite makes a wide range of testing options available to the client. A Pickering Switch Matrix and a Pickering High Voltage Multiplexer provide a robust switching infrastructure to allow additional instrumentation to be added or new test configurations to be defined depending on future product requirements.

Switch Matrix

The core of the test system is built around a Pickering switch matrix which allows many connections between Device Under Test (DUT) signal lines and instrumentation. This is the heart of the test system’s ability to adapt to changing product requirements.

Not only does the switch matrix allow the test stand to reconfigure a test setup in real-time, it also allows for the addition of instrumentation or DUT signals in the future with minimal changes to hardware or software.

Digital Multi Meter (DMM)

The DMM, in combination with the Pickering switch matrix, allows the test stand to make differential voltage measurements between any two DUT signals or single-ended measurements referenced to ground or the common line of the programmable power supply.

Programmable Power Supply

The PDU provided the power to the Battery Management System (BMS). The Programmable Power Supply (PPS) allows the test stand to apply a wide range of voltages or voltage profiles to the DUT, allowing the PDU to be tested under a wide variety of operating conditions.

The Hipot meter allows the test stand to perform Hipot testing on the DUT. In this case, the Hipot meter was combined with the Pickering high power 12 bank 2:1 multiplexer to provide high voltage isolation for up to 12 DUT lines.

Stand Form

All of this measurement and switching hardware is contained in a compact rollable test cart. This test cart provides the operator interface along with the interface for the DUT.

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The customer needed experienced Siemens PLC programmers to implement additional features to a pilot program that DMC had previously developed for the client. The customer chose DMC because of our success with the pilot system development, our deep knowledge of Siemens PLC programming, and our previous experience with their plant software infrastructure.

The customer first contacted DMC regarding the possibility of adding quality of life and “nice to have” features on their recently installed pilot system. The customer had a long wish list of items and a very limited budget, so DMC’s first task was to assess which features could be completed within the budgeted time and provide an accurate estimate to the client.

The client responded with their full list of features in order of priority and asked DMC to complete as much of the list as possible before the budget ran out. 

COVID-19 Impact

During the early stages of development, the Coronavirus pandemic hit the US, and DMC began working remotely, which added a significant obstacle to the planned onsite installation. After discussing options with the client, we decided to try installing software updates remotely on a weekly schedule.

We quickly found that the remote installation was very simple to execute thanks to tools like Microsoft OneDrive, which allowed us to share the updated project files with the client, and Zoom Meetings, which we used to remotely take control of the plant’s computer and download to the PLC.

Additionally, we found that the weekly schedule minimized system downtime by allowing the client to incrementally test the updates as DMC continued development and made tweaks to existing features to install during the next remote session. 

During the current COVID-19 situation, DMC is still open for business and exceeding expectations while working remotely. 

Learn more about DMC’s Remote Industrial Automation solutions and our Siemens expertise. Contact us for any inquiries. 

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DMC also assisted with the preparation and execution of validation plans to ensure cGMP compliance. Following the success of the initial project, DMC has completed a number of additional rooms with the same client.

Learn more about DMC’s PLC Programming services and our partnership with Siemens, 

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• The enterprise-level software platform provides options for future scalability
• Cross-platform compatibility for access via PC or mobile device, which meets the client’s requirements for remote viewing capabilities
• Easy to create a responsive UI to allow for screen resizing
• Web browser natively supports viewing multiple windows simultaneously
• Web sockets provide high-performance data transfer to ensure the displayed data is always up to date
• Popular and well-supported graphing packages are available for web applications
• Microsoft’s Entity Framework facilitates database querying and manipulation
• Good integration with version control and continuous integration software to manage a large, multi-developer team

DMC was able to leverage many libraries compatible with the React and ASP.NET Core framework to make this happen and deliver the client with an aesthetically appealing, performant solution. On top of React, we made use of the powerful Redux state management library to control our application state. The chosen web socket solution allows for a high volume of data collection, real-time data display, and the connection of clients to essential data. We decided to use the SignalR library from Microsoft as our web socket implementation.

SignalR is an excellent library with thorough and comprehensive documentation. This library allowed us to create performant and powerful functionality for the client. Receiving test data and test status updates via a web socket rather than actively polling for them from the React app ensured that the user interface (UI) always had access to the same data, whether this be actual data for our graphs or information on what stage the test is in/important status updates. In general, Redux’s underlying pattern of dispatching actions on events and reacting to these actions to update the application state works extremely well with web sockets.

Our polling for data, therefore, was done on the server. By using the Redux-saga library within our React app, our web-client acted reactively, waiting on messages and data received over our web socket connection. By harnessing the power of React and Redux, we could then update our application state and graph. We used some downsampling techniques and algorithms to preserve the shape of the data over time and maintain the performance of the graph as well. For some situations, we implemented our downsampling algorithms, such as when the time interval window of data being viewed dictated what we would show on the graph. Then, for other situations, we used the LTTB (largest triangle three buckets) downsampling algorithm.

In summary, DMC’s ability to make the right choice between a field of platform options, and our resourceful use of different libraries for React and ASP.NET Core allowed us to offer an impressive solution to a request of great scale.

Learn more about DMC’s Application Development Services. 

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DMC worked with partner firms to quickly replace and rewire the controls hardware to minimize machine downtime, as well as provide engineering documentation of the revised system. The retrofitted machine has proven to be much easier for operators to use and for maintenance departments to service, and has dramatically improved the reliability of the system. 

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The 3D Kinect camera tracks full wire frame skeletons of visitors’ bodies, allowing them to interact with the system with natural gestures and movements. This provides an intuitive and enjoyable control method, which engages users while teaching them more about products and features that the company offers.

The multimedia display was created in .Net 4.0 using Visual Studio 2010 and the Microsoft XNA Game Studio. A 3-D world was created to mirror the physical display case and to provide natural feedback and navigation. When users select an item to learn more about, the .Net application is able to present a variety of customizable images, text, and video information.

This display exhibit uses many cutting edge technologies to create an interactive system that engages visitors in an informative presentation. By leveraging the available technologies DMC was able to create an appealing, engaging tool to feature products and information about the company.

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Learn more about DMC’s Allen Bradley PLC programming services.

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To accomplish this, DMC restructured the Panasonic FP-e PLC software to run on a State Machine architecture.  The code was also reworked and optimized using more advanced software functions to reduce the program size to 1/3 of the original program, allowing additional features to be added to the PLC’s limited programming space.

Finally, to improve robustness of the heater, DMC used infrared temperature measurements of the system to calculate heat transfer properties of the machine.  Because the production machine was to run with no temperature feedback due to cost constraints, these measurements and calculations were essential to creating repeatable, robust performance.

DMC used the heat transfer calculations to implement a virtual model of the system in the PLC program, allowing control of the system to adjust to its usage and the conditions of its surroundings.

Thus, by restructuring the system architecture, improving the engineering calculations used for control, and optimizing software functions to reduce programming size, DMC was able to provide an updated system that was more robust and easier to maintain.

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This specific system was responsible for indexing packaging material to set sheet lengths, cutting the material, and dispensing it on demand for placement directly into boxes.

In order to establish an ongoing standard for this manufacturer’s software, DMC created set memory and program layouts and provided a “Standards” document.  This helped immensely in creating uniformity among different product lines and in facilitating technical support and updates of machines in the field later in the products’ lifecycles.

DMC used this standard to develop a State machine-based architecture, which allowed clear, repeatable operation.  This provided straightforward output control and error checking for indexing the material, cutting specific sheet lengths, and dispensing it in the appropriate manner.  DMC also worked to tune and optimize the system’s components in order to maximize speed and throughput.

Finally, DMC helped the development process by providing versions of user and technical manuals.  DMC was also involved when the machine reached CE Compliance testing by helping to develop universal HMI screens and documents.

Thus, DMC helped the customer ramp their machine from development into mass production more quickly while also improving internal processes and planning for future support.

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