The Test System for Automotive Connectors, TESACON, with up to 6 or 8 contacts performs manual and semiautomatic testing of the automotive connectors’ electrical contacts’ quality.
The system was developed for testing the connectors of the auto headlights lamps but it can be used for any type of lamp or connector with up to 6 or 8 contacts. A customized version can be developed for testing any larger number of contacts.
The system offers several information about the quality of the contacts, like the variation of the contact resistance during different test steps as well as the presence and number of micro-cuts (contact resistance changes which exceed certain value and duration limits). Additionaly, TESACON has the possibility to connect and control optional equipments as temperature and climatic test chambers in combination with vibration capabilities for additional test conditions defined in standards such as e.g. MIL, IEC and DIN.
The system has the following components:
DAQ/DMM Switch System – digital multimeter model Keithley Integra 2700 Series Systems with 61⁄2-digit resolution and up to 5 switch plug-in modules.
Switch module – multiplexer card model Keithley 7700 with 20 voltage channels and 2 current channels. This module is plugged in the DAQ/DMM instrument.
Micro-cuts detector/counter – 6/8-channel module for micro-cuts detection and counting (up to 256 values), model OFRIM Engineering PDC-06/08 (Pulse Detector and Counter). Each channel has two selectors for defining the micro-cuts’ duration (10μS and 20μS) and value (1Ω and 2Ω) thresholds. The PDC-06/08 module communicates with the PC via the USB 2.0 interface.
Multi-channel constant current source – model OFRIM Engineering MCCS-06/08 (Multi-channel Constant Current Source), consisting of a DC voltage power supply and a 6/8-channel voltage-to-current converter. The MCCS-06/08 provides a constant test current which has the same value (e.g. 100mA) for all channels. The MVCS-06/08 (Multi-channel Variable Current Source) model enables the user to set different constant current values for each test channel.