CableEye Needs Analysis

CableEye Needs Analysis

Harness Testing

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adpator cables needs analysis
customer specific interface
harness test
motorsport harnesses - hvx printed test report

Needs Analysis

When considering investing in a Cable Tester some initial groundwork identifying your specific requirements using a Needs Analysis can make the process a lot easier. This page will get you started on collating the information you will need to narrow down the wide range of CableEye products and options to suit your application.

Ask yourself

  1. Are you testing cables or harnesses, or both?
    Some of our customers produce straight-forward cables, such as Ethernet cables. Others produce very complex harnesses/looms. From a cable testing perspective, this can affect the number of connections required.
  2. The number of connector types
  3. Products and variants:
    • How many different cable/harness types need testing
    • How many variants of a given product need testing
  1. What will be the method of connection to the CableEye?The three main options are connecting to CB boards, Connecting via adaptor cables, and connecting via a fixture/connector panel
  2. Will interface cables be used between the CableEye and the cable/harness under test?
    • If yes, what is the longest interface cable expected?
  3. The number of cables/harnesses to be tested per month?
  4. Existing test method?
  5. Average time to test a cable/harness?
  6. Which sector is the cable/harness destined for?
  7. Working voltage of end product (cable/harness)
  8. Are you looking for a tester to configure yourself or a turnkey solution?
  9. The timescale for implementation?
  10. Budget?

We are happy to help in this process. Please just drop us a line and we’ll get back to you.

needs analysis thumbnail

Needs Analysis

When considering investing in a Cable Tester some initial groundwork identifying your specific requirements using a Needs Analysis can make the process a lot easier. This page will get you started on collating the information you will need to narrow down the wide range of CableEye products and options to suit your application.

Ask yourself

  1. Are you testing cables or harnesses, or both?
    Some of our customers produce straight-forward cables, such as Ethernet cables. Others produce very complex harnesses/looms. From a cable testing perspective, this can affect the number of connections required.
  2. The number of connector types
  3. Products and variants:
    • How many different cable/harness types need testing
    • How many variants of a given product need testing
  1. What will be the method of connection to the CableEye?The three main options are connecting to CB boards, Connecting via adaptor cables, and connecting via a fixture/connector panel
  2. Will interface cables be used between the CableEye and the cable/harness under test?
    • If yes, what is the longest interface cable expected?
  3. The number of cables/harnesses to be tested per month?
  4. Existing test method?
  5. Average time to test a cable/harness?
  6. Which sector is the cable/harness destined for?
  7. Working voltage of end product (cable/harness)
  8. Are you looking for a tester to configure yourself or a turnkey solution?
  9. The timescale for implementation?
  10. Budget?

We are happy to help in this process. Please just drop us a line and we’ll get back to you.

needs analysis thumbnail

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CableEye Twisted Pair Testing – NEW FEATURE

CableEye Twisted Pair Testing – NEW FEATURE

Harness Testing

You asked for Twisted Pair Testing, and CAMI Research delivered!

Now available on the ever-popular CableEye range of cable testers are two new features:

  • Capacitance measurement
  • Twisted pair testing and verification
  • Twisted pair ethernet cables

Combining these two features also gives a distance-to-fault testing capability, which means that incoming inspection can test new reels of cable prior to accepting for production.

Available immediately, the new CableEye M4 tester is the same, compact and rugged format as the M2 and M3 systems and utilises the same software, though extended for the new twisted pair testing and capacitance testing capabilities.

The initial application is to detect the infamous ‘Ethernet’ cable issue of incorrectly paired cores (eg CAT5/CAT6 cables).

During a single test phase the CableEye M4 will:

  • check continuity for shorts and opens
  • check resistance (the 4-wire option will increase precision when needed)
  • check for diodes (presence, polarity, and forward voltage drop)
  • check capacitance
  • check for miswired pairs using a new technique across multiple pairs
  • report Pass/Fail
  • display results in wiring diagram or table format
  • log the result – even to a network drive
  • print a detailed report on any windows printer – even networked
  • print a label on local or network label printers

And all of this happens within a matter of seconds, using a single button-press from a low-skilled operator!

For more details on all of the CableEye products from CAMI Research take a look at our dedicated section here

twisted pair testing

Cimbian UK will be demonstrating a brand new M4 on Stand A52 at the WNIE show (NEC 25th and 26th September), and will also be available for technical discussions, and to help you get the best from your Cable and Cable Harness Testing.

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Motorsport harnesses

Motorsport harnesses

Harness Testing, CAMI Research, Motorsport, Wire & Cable Equipment

Motorsport harnesses live in a hostile world… CableEye makes sure they are ready.

If you stop to think for a moment of the environment that motorsport harnesses have to operate in, it’s a pretty mean place.

  • Chemical contamination
  • Extremes of temperature
  • Vibration
  • Electrical noise

Cimbian UK, working as exclusive distributor for CableEye from CAMI Research, has many years of helping people to both improve their processes and, up-rate their testing to ensure that cable-harnesses leave the assembly department ready for reliable, long-life operation.

CableEye provides two real options for testing motorsport cable-harnesses:

  1. A low-voltage system (M3U) for testing continuity between programmable thresholds as well as measuring resistance and testing diodes.
  2. A high-voltage (HiPot) system (HVX) which does everything the M3U does but also provides a parametric test at high-voltage to test for insulation breakdown and/or whiskers.

The unique measurement algorithms used in CableEye ensure that every point is tested against every other point at high speed, and is tested using a bi-polar method to ensure that the continuity is good in both directions.

After a cable-harness has passed its low-voltage test it will then switch, automatically, into the HiPot mode. Here the assembly undergoes several different stages of test including dcV and acV, both with a programmable ramp-up and ramp-down rates to prevent damage to the insulation that may lead to early life failures (vehicle breakdown).

 

motorsport harnesses - programmable ramp-up

Both the CableEye M3U and the CableEye HVX use the same software, which includes serial number entry by barcode (a single barcode can contain Serial number, batch, operator ID, part-code and more), data logging, and reporting.

Testing motorsport harnesses in the real-world:

Colin Harmer, owner of Creative Motorsport Solutions and user of a 256 pin HVX HiPot tester, seen below, said:

In this test, the customer had an issue that pointed at the corner looms being “suspect”. These were not looms we built but because the CableEye tester is so flexible we could quickly reverse engineer the loom, check it against the supplied drawings, and perform a Hi-Pot test in very little time. In general, motorsport-type builds are typically low volume which puts a premium on flexibility with fixtures and ease of use, which is a true delineator of the CAMI testers. We are now able to easily Hi-Pot test every product we produce which ensures that the client receives a goods that are exactly to specification. By keeping records of all the tests, we can easily retest at a future point to ensure that there’s been no change in the loom.

motorsport harnesses - test result

There are no “off the shelf” (interface fixture) solutions for motorsport connectors, so these have to be made.” “Each board is a breakout of 64 test points. Boards are modular so you can mix and match to fit the loom you’re testing.

motorsport harnesses - test station and report

Image (Courtesy Of Creative Motorsport Solutions) Of  A 256 Test Point Continuity &Amp; Hipot Harness Tester With Interface Fixtures Comprising A 128 Test Point Base Unit ,With One Expansion Module. The Tester Is Further Expandable To 1024 Test Points.

For more information on how a CableEye cable test system can help you in testing your motorsport harnesses simply fill in the form below and drop us a line.

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Generate test reports quickly and easily with CableEye

Generate test reports quickly and easily with CableEye

Wire & Cable Equipment, CAMI Research, Harness Testing, News, Testing

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In these days of traceability the ability to generate test reports is essential, but how easy can it be?

With a manual test using a buzzer, bulb or semaphore, generating test reports is also manual, generally involving a clipboard and a pen. Manual tests are normally restricted to ‘GO NOGO’ testing only unless a fault is suspected. What this means is that a positive connection from end-to-end marks a pass; however, it does not test for stray connections on other pins/cores in the cable. So an open circuit is a NOGO, and a short circuit is a GO. The potential, here, for allowing ‘False Accepts’ is huge.

Wiring mistakes, tin whiskers, faulty materials can all lead to shorts within the cable and are unlikely to be found. Overall, Manual testing is far from desirable, particularly if having to test AND generate test reports at the same time.

So, we come to ‘system’ testing of cables. Again, there are some products that will test GO NOGO on individual cores, albeit simultaneously. Aside from speed this kind of tester is no better than manual testing and is best avoided. The report may be generated by a simple ticket printer or the ubiquitous clipboard and pen.

Let’s now get a computer involved.

A computer will switch test points much faster and much more reliably than manual testing and can, therefore, test for connections that should NOT be present. Really good computer-based cable testers will also learn the connections (and resistances) from a known-good cable so there is no real programming involved.

Obviously, once we involve a computer we can generate test reports… or can we?

With an embedded computer this can often be a time-consuming task, particularly if it uses an operating system where printer drivers are not readily available.

Enter CableEye, from CAMI Research!

CableEye is Windows PC based where the ever-increasing power and speed of PCs can, and does, positively affect the overall performance of a test station. CableEye will generate test reports and print to just about any printer that has a Windows driver and will print to label printers for labels or A4 printers for generating test reports.

This video will demonstrate the ease and speed of loading a cable, testing a cable, getting the result and generating test reports:

animated gif showing how to generate test reports

Now THAT is cable testing…

For more information or the loan of a demo system, get in contact with us.

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Generate test reports quickly and easily with CableEye

I need a cable harness tester, CableEye does both.

Harness Testing, CAMI Research, Testing

I need a cable harness tester,  not a cable tester!

During a recent discussion with a customer, he declared that he started out looking for a cable harness tester but was put-off by the price and complexity so he decided to opt for a cable tester to handle the ‘simple’ cables.

As the discussion moved ahead we went through some of the hundreds of applications currently running on CAMI Research CableEye systems around the world when the penny dropped for him… CableEye IS a cable harness tester!

CableEye also self-learns, tests, logs the test result data, and generates a test result record.

customer specific interface harness tester

He laid one of his cable harnesses on the table. the cable harness, which had seven connectors sections, was from a “mission-critical” project, where ‘near-enough’ was not ‘good enough’. Three connectors could clearly be seen as ‘one end’ of the harness whilst the other four were along the rest of the cable harness. This was, simply, no problem for CableEye.

As soon as the connectors had been selected/created in the PC’s library and added to a CableEye ‘fixture‘ it was a simple case of learning the cable harness, checking the learn against the design drawing, and saving. CableEye was now ready to test these harnesses. Development time around 10 minutes… test time, less than three seconds, including generating a PDF report!

cable harnes tester report

It is the power of the PC-based architecture that enables CableEye to be so versatile. Capturing continuity is one thing, using the captured results in a meaningful and useful way takes a PC and very special software.

FAQ

What is cable harness tester?

A cable harness tester is a precision electronic instrument that will verify that a cable or wiring harness is connected correctly between the different connectors fitted. For example, CableEye is an automated tester that will also learn the correct connections from a known-good cable or wiring harness.

What is the difference between a cable and a harness?

A cable is typically made ‘end-to-end’. It may have multiple connectors on either end but don’t, generally split-out to additional connectors. a wire harness, on the other hand, may have one or multiple connectors at one end and may split out across several connectors along its length

How is testing a cable harness different from testing a cable?

The principle difference is in the software. Testing a harness requires advanced algorithms, such as in CableEye, to make sense of the interconnections between the terminal connectors. Most cheap cable testers struggle with this.

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Consultative test services

CAMI Research, Harness Testing, Military, Motorsport, News, Testing

Consultative test services help to understand and control costs.

Most people in our industry know the cost of manufacturing their product but, likewise, most do not fully calculate the cost of test, especially in development and our consultative test services can help.

Cimbian has over thirty years of experience in delivering cost-effective, flexible test solutions across a wide range of applications.

Services available from Cimbian include:

– Test solution development

– Test system integration

– Servicing, calibration and repair Cable testing service

Get in touch with us and we’ll guide you through the process.