Project Process

On-site Evaluation

Give us a call and discuss your application with an experienced engineer. After consulting with you about your needs, we schedule an on-site meeting at your facility. The on-site meeting is at no cost or obligation to you. At the meeting we discuss specific needs from your measurement system. The goal of the meeting is gather enough information to generate a quote. We don't go into a lot of detail at this stage, just enough to get an idea on how much the system is going to cost.

Some items to think about at this stage are:

What is being measured, i.e. force, temperature, position, etc.
What hardware are you using, i.e. CompactDAQ, Stand Alone Instruments, GPIB, etc.
How is the data being displayed, i.e. graph, numeric display, etc.
How is the data being saved, i.e. text file, excel file, database, etc.
Any data analysis needed, i.e. FFT, Averaging, Filtering, etc.
Additional screens beyond the main screen.

Scope of work documents, sketches, block diagrams, and any other documentation are welcome.

AST RFQ Form

Quote

After the initial meeting we put together a quote. The quote is a budgetary estimate of what we think the project will cost with the available information. If you find the quote acceptable a purchase order and a down-payment are required to move to the next phase.

Prototype

This is an optional step. If there are areas of the project that are not well understood we will prototype to make sure the area will perform as needed. Examples are

Prototyping hardware to make sure it performs as expected
Making sure a software architecture will be adequate
Communicating with a data base or cloud based service

Specification

After a valid purchase order and down-payment have been received we begin developing the specification. The specification is a detailed document that contains all the requirements for the project. We include an overall block diagram, hardware specifications, and a prototype user interface of the proposed software with detailed descriptions of all the functions. The specification is an iterative process and we try to involve the customer as much as possible. Once we have an acceptable specification, programming begins.

Programming

With an approved specification we begin to program your LabVIEW application. Automated Software Technology uses standard LabVIEW development guidelines in all of its projects. This insures scalable, modular, and readable code.

After the program is coded per the specification we run preliminary tests to make sure the code performs to the specification. Once the software is successfully tested it is ready to be installed at your facility.

Installation

When programming is completed an on-site visit is scheduled at your facility to install the software and do initial debugging.

AST provides an executable with all necessary support software (i.e. drivers, run-time engines, etc).

Debug

AST can provide software updates via our secure website during the debugging process. AST can also remotely debug an internet connected computer using Microsoft Quick Assist. Once the software performs satisfactorily the project is done!

AST can provide source code at no additional charge once project is complete.