Speed of Execution
The speed at which these tests can be
performed is remarkable. These tests used to manually take
about an hour and fifteen minutes. The same test can now be
done in under a minute!
Quantitative
Voltage Measurements:
Regulator Circuit: .1% accuracy @ 2.7V or lower
Coils Circuit: 3% accuracy*
Current Measurements:
Regulator Circuit: .15% accuracy @ 2.7V or lower
Coils Circuit: .5% accuracy
* Less accurate due to the
inability to turn off the second MUX in current revision.
Comparison to Manual Testing:
Many variables, but diagnostics
between PCB and manual testing are comparable for voltages
that we can actually apply without damaging the circuit.
Safety
This board implements a circuit
breaker that will trip if the power board shorts out. This
is mainly to prevent a wall adapter from being broken or
possibly preventing a building circuit breaker from being
tripped. Also, this will limit current in the board to 2A.
In the future, fuses should be added to different areas of
the circuit to prevent damage to individual areas.
Interference
We did not receive
interference from other groups and we are fairly certain
harmful interference was not emitted. However, this was not
carefully studied and should be reviewed prior finalizing
the design, especially before integrating into a satellite.
Usability
While the design of this
project is not finalized, we found the board to be very
usable and surprisingly immune to shorting. The software is
functional, but for the satellite implementation, a
scripting language would make more sense as the feedback
mechanism is logistically better and we could potentially
run new scripts from the ground upon error. |