What is a test bench configuration?¶
In the test bench configuration (TBC) test host specific settings are done. In the test bench configuration Hosts, Tools and Ports are managed. Therefore exists an own Test bench configuration editor.
A Host is a computer on which the tools to be used are installed. This can be the computer on which ecu.test is installed or a remote computer. The latter requires that a Tool Server is installed on the remote host.
For the first start there is a step by step instruction to create a simple test bench configuration in the How to start? - Tutorial in section Creating a new test bench configuration.
Every supported software program that enables accessing test quantities is called tool in ecu.test. A tool is only available in the test bench configuration if it is installed on the host. If a searched tool cannot be found in the list of available tools, it is probably not correctly installed on the host.
The most tools provide more than one interface to access the system under test. For example dSPACE: ControlDesk offers the access of model quantities and can also address application quantities (like calibration and measurement quantities) on the control unit. To separate those separate interfaces, ecu.test uses so-called Ports. For dSPACE: ControlDesk ecu.test provides (amongst others) a model port and an application port. Other tools provide other interfaces and thus offer other port types.
After the declaration of Host, Tool and Port the next topic is the creation of the TBC.
First of all a new host has to be configured by right-clicking the node Tool configuration. If Local is selected the tools that are installed on the local computer are listed. Analog to this also remote hosts can be specified on which a Tool Server is running.
The tool to configure can be activated by choosing Add tool and the settings can be configured on the right side. Furthermore a new port can be created by selecting the context menu entry Create Port. Which options can be configured for a tool and what these options mean can be read in section Tools for the respective tool interface. Also the supported port types (e.g. application port, bus port, …) can be found there.
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In the column Start for a tool can be configured, whether it shall be started Always, If necessary or Never. If the test host shall be initialized manually, select Never for the tool.
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In the column Alias a tool alias can be chosen that will be shown in the change configuration steps in the project to represent this tool. There it can be decided whether a tool will be (re-) started or stopped in this project step.
If the configuration is finished, the test bench configuration has to be saved and selected. Afterwards it can be started in the Configurations window and dependent on the start mode also the configured tools are started.