FIELD NOTES
Get better at hardware test.
Guides, tutorials, and best practices to help you build better hardware tests.
- Migrating from Legacy Systems
Replace TestStand Callbacks in Python
Map each TestStand callback to its Python equivalent, and learn which ones you should delete instead of porting during a migration.
- Test Station Setup
What Are Test Sockets and How to Use Them
A test socket is one fixture position plus the context that owns its unit. Learn how sockets isolate results and how to configure them as slots.
- Test Station Setup
Sequential vs Parallel vs Batch Testing
Compare the three test execution strategies, learn which one your fixture requires, and see how to configure parallel slots and shared phases.
- Concepts & Methodology
What Is a Test Process Model
A process model is the fixed lifecycle around your test code. Learn what it handles, why callbacks exist, and how Python frameworks replace it.
- Test Data & Analytics
What to Log in a Production Test
The fields worth recording in a production test so failures are still debuggable six months later, and the four that are painful to add afterwards.
- Quality & Process Control
Why Is My Yield Dropping?
Nothing changed in the design but boards started failing. A practical method for finding the cause using test data you already have, or should be recording.
- Concepts & Methodology
Python Test Framework for Hardware
Most Python test frameworks are built for unit-testing code, not system-testing devices. Here is what actually works for production test, and when.
- Test Data & Analytics
How to Store Manufacturing Test Results
A practical guide to storing production test results: flat files, SQL schemas, STDF and ATML standards, and when each approach stops scaling.
- Migrating from Legacy Systems
WATS Alternatives for Test Data Management
Compare alternatives to WATS for manufacturing test data management, with a feature matrix, cost breakdown, migration paths, and when to stay on WATS.
- Migrating from Legacy Systems
Import Historical Test Data via the API
Learn how to backfill years of legacy test results with the runs API, keeping original test dates so trends and analytics stay correct.
- Test Data & Analytics
Record Test Conditions as Measurements
Learn how to capture supply voltages, temperatures, and other test conditions as measurements so they chart, export, and correlate.
- Test Data & Analytics
Add Derived Measurements to a Test Script
Learn how to record computed values like spreads, margins, and ratios as first-class measurements, so analytics can chart and correlate them.
