This is what an ST helped design/build

[TGB1718]

Many moons ago I led a team responsible for designing and building an Automatic Test Set to test 21 "black boxes" for the VC10 Aircraft.

I was the lead designer for the hardware and software and wrote the test program using HP5000 controllers in HP BASIC, which is

more of an OS than a mere language.

 

The Automatic Test Set used an 8 pole by 512 pole relay matrix and each "black box" had it's own interface tray, it also consisted of

various instruments to inject/measure signals/voltages etc. controlled via an IEE488 interface bus.

 

The software was written to read Test Data files from disk and run automatically through the tests, this is where the ST came in, I already

owned a 520STM (still have it) and was using "C" on a daily basis.

 

So managed to procure a Mega ST, I used "C" to write several programs which allowed the "Non-Programmers" 

in the team to write the Test Data files to drive the ATE by inputting various selections, they could set any instrument up, switch any relay,

take any measurements they needed. It was quick and easy to use, it also allowed editing of the Data Files.

 

The second thing the ST was used for was all the Technical documentation (Word Processor) and Technical drawings, we used GFA Draft to create circuit diagrams

which we could then draw on 10 pen HP plotters, even though the plotters had IEE488 interfaces, we managed to purchase an RS232 to IEE488

interface, this worked a treat. 

 

Although the disk format was different, we also used the RS232 interface to transfer the Data Files to the HP controller disks.

[+DarkLord]

Wow, that's pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for sharing it with us! 

 

PS Do you have any pictures of the Mega ST actually in use there?

I can't seem to see it in these pictures (if I'm overlooking it, sorry)

 

[TGB1718]

No, unfortunately, I didn't think to take a photo of the ST  only recently found these, thought I'd lost them years ago

 

[Jinroh]

Super cool! Thank you for sharing. I love that setup!

 

Very impressive to do black box testing on that rig. Especially with the ST being a crucial piece of development.

 

I used to do aircraft telemetry and flight sims for Northrop Grumman, and we had equipment that was 1000x more powerful, so seeing aircraft data on this rig is super cool! ❤️

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Jinroh

[TGB1718]

This rig was developed to replace aging manual/semi automated test equipment from the 50's/60's

that was producing unreliable test results and failing too often.

Most of the technical problems were interfacing that older technology to modern electronic equipment.

 

When we produced the first full working system and installed it, we found that if the box passed the

testing, it worked when fitted to an aircraft (which wasn't always the case using the older equipment).

Also the throughput was 10X fold so they stopped using all the older test equipment and just used

this machine.

 

This was the best thing I think I ever did during my working life, used to say weekends get in the way

of what I want to be doing (sad really  )

 

As an aside from this, the knowledge I built up using "C" on the ST put me in a strong position as

a Senior Analyst/Programmer for a major bank some years later, so again thank you Atari ST ?.

 

Who would have thought buying a 2600 in the early 80's could lead to major career opportunities.

[mimo]

Nice one, my grandfather was a draughtsman at Rolls Royce so probably hand drew the tech drawings for the engines that went in that 

[+thanatos]

That's pretty cool!

 

I have a friend who was an engineer at Boeing in the 90's, and he brought in his Amiga to work on things because it was more appropriate than any PCs or Macs they had at the time for what they were doing.  But he couldn't say what they were doing.