FIELD NOTES
Get better at hardware test.
Guides, tutorials, and best practices to help you build better hardware tests.
- Quality & Process Control
Why ESC Solder Joints Fail in Flight
Learn why power-lead solder joints on drone ESCs pass bench tests but open in flight, and how to fix, detect and track them per operator.
- Quality & Process Control
Why Units Pass the Bench but Fail in the Field
Learn why units pass production test but fail in the field: coverage gaps, wide limits, intermittent faults, and how to feed returns back into the test.
- Test Types & Methods
Use Thermal Imaging in Production Test
Learn how to find resistive joints and shorts with an IR camera under DC current, recording ROI temperatures and images on every unit in TofuPilot.
- Concepts & Methodology
Vibration vs Thermal Cycling for Screening
Learn which defects random vibration and thermal cycling each precipitate, when to combine them, and how to choose a production screen from data.
- Test Types & Methods
Stress Screening (ESS): A Complete Guide
Learn what environmental stress screening is, how it differs from HALT and HASS, and how to set screen levels and record every screen in TofuPilot.
- Instrument Control
Read BLHeli_32 ESC Telemetry in a Test
Learn how to read BLHeli_32 ESC telemetry in a TofuPilot test: parse the KISS frame, convert eRPM to rpm and record per-motor measurements with limits.
- Test Types & Methods
Why Is My Motor Test Showing Current Spikes?
Learn why a brushless motor bench shows current spikes, from throttle steps to regen and supply foldback, and how to fix each cause and record the evidence.
- Test Types & Methods
Ramp Motor Throttle Safely on a Test Bench
Learn how to ramp brushless motor throttle on a test bench with DShot from a microcontroller, abort limits and a teardown that always stops the motors.
- Instrument Control
Measure Motor Current Accurately
Learn how to measure brushless motor current with a shunt and an INA228, size the shunt, choose the sampling rate and record mean and peak current with limits.
- Concepts & Methodology
DUT vs UUT: Is There Actually a Difference?
DUT and UUT mean the same thing: the hardware being tested. Where each term comes from, who says which, and what actually matters: the serial number.
- Migrating from Legacy Systems
Call a 32-bit DLL from a TofuPilot Plug
Learn how to keep a 32-bit vendor DLL working on a 64-bit TofuPilot station by hosting it in a msl-loadlib 32-bit server behind a plug.
- Migrating from Legacy Systems
LabVIEW Alternatives for Test Automation
Free and paid LabVIEW alternatives for test automation compared: OpenHTF, pytest, OpenTAP, and TofuPilot Framework, with what each is actually good at.
