Another equipment fault

After trying to get this current piece of equipment through the first part of its qualification test and failing several times it finally seems like I am going to guide it through the test successfully. The fault was recently diagnosed as a design issue, resolved with an internal tweak and has passed vibration testing in the axis where it repeatedly failed. However, with about five-sixths of the vibration testing complete and the electronics still working I find I am having trouble getting the control system to pass its self-check loop test prior to the next stage of testing.

I try cajoling the control system in to seeing more signal at the accelerometers but it is all in vain and I have to seek a senior colleague for assistance. With a bit of investigation with a 'scope we find that there is an immense amount of noise on the control lines, caused by the amplifier itself. A module probably developed a fault during the previous run and was masked by the higher magnitude of the signal during the run, but it cannot be masked from the more sensitive loop test. No more testing until this fault is fixed.

It seems that the finger of death continues to afflict me.

Posted in Work |
Tags: vibration