Creating Sustainable Metrology Software

We are currently in a 30 year old software rut. There is nothing new on the market designed specifically for metrology. This paper is on both the direction the rest of the software industry is headed and how we adapted those trends to metrology software problems. This paper outlines how we de-siloed our software development and moved to a more sustainable solution.

View the Article

CAL LAB: The International Journal of Metrology | Apr-Jun 2019 (Vol. 26:2)

How to Add Dynamic Measurement Uncertainties to Any Metrology Software

Changing the approach to measurement uncertainties allows software systems and users to share the same resources.

View the Article

Quality Magazine | October 2015

An Enterprise Resource View of Metrology Software Systems

Software running on a single computer or platform is a thing of the past.  Today's metrology software needs to be scalable, flexible, and dynamic. It must be designed to integrate with enterprise business systems, taking full advantage of distributed computing and service oriented protocols.

View the Presentation

NCSLI Workshop & Symposium
Orlando, FL | July 30, 2014

Calibrating a UUT on a Remote Computer Using Fluke MET/CAL®

Current and next generation test equipment will be modular and tightly coupled with a computer's operating system. Calibration labs have to be highly dynamic supporting all the measurement test systems turned in for calibration. This presents challenges for automation, but technologies can be designed to work together. This paper will show how a Fluke MET/CAL procedure can be written integrating Metrology.NET® tools to remotely calibrate a UUT connected to a remote computer on a completely different operating system.

Read the Paper / View the Presentation

Measurement Science Conference (MSC)
Long Beach, CA | March 14, 2014

Rethinking the Flexible Standards Paradigm

In many of today's software projects, developers are challenged with the task of designing interchangeable standards architecture into their metrology based applications. Currently, many developers see an oscilloscope as an oscilloscope and believe that all oscilloscopes are created equal, and are therefore interchangeable; at the same time, any oscilloscope manufacturer will tell you their oscilloscope is different with special features requiring non-standardized sets of commands to implement those special and specific features. Consequently, developers write their code to implement special and unique feature in what was designed to be a generic driver. Cal Lab Solutions took a step back to re-evaluate the problem and all the solutions. We came up with a software design methodology that allows the user to incorporate non-standardized features of complex standards while maintaining a highly flexible, interchangeable instrumentation model. This paper will demonstrate how a process centric model allows greater flexibility over the generic command centric model.

View the Article

CAL LAB: The International Journal of Metrology | Apr-Jun 2012 (Vol: 19-2)

Using Fluke MET/CAL® to Implement a Flexible Measurement Driver Model with Expanded Measurement Uncertainties and Error Checking

Writing one or two automated procedures is easy; however, automating an entire calibration lab is not an easy undertaking. Even with today's software tools built specifically for metrology, a significant effort must be put into designing an architecture that will foster the reuse of code, flexibility of standards and incorporate expanded measurement uncertainties. Companies and/or developers who skip this crucial step are quickly overwhelmed with rework that ultimately hinders long-term productivity. After more than 15 years of MET/CAL procedure development trial and error, we believe we have found the balance between productivity and architecture. This paper outlines the structure and development methodologies we use to write more robust code, with a greater emphasis on quality and testing with less refactoring of our procedures.

View the Paper / View the Presentation

NCSL International Workshop & Symposium
National Harbor, MD | August 2011

Implementing A2LA's New Budget Requirements for Electrical and RF Uncertainties in Fluke MET/CAL® Procedures

In April of 2009, the A2LA Measurement Advisory Committee adopted the minimum required contributors that must be included in your Electrical and RF & Microwave uncertainty budgets that support the Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMC) on the scope of accreditation. Their June 2009 newsletter explains the new requirements that went into effect for organizations with a renewal date of May 31st, 2010 or greater. For many labs, software is an integral part of their calibration process as well as the primary tool used to calculate uncertainties. So, it is crucial that existing calibration procedures be updated to meet this new requirement, as the basic steps do not include specific lab and traceability contributors. In this paper, we explain our interpretation of the requirements and suggest a standardized method to retrofit them to existing MET/CAL procedures. Additionally, we describe enabling guard bands and check for <2% false accept risk through MET/CAL's Crystal Reports®. Our presentation will demonstrate using a high voltage source calibration.

View the Paper / View the Presentation / A2LA Sample Uncertainty Budget

NCSL International Workshop & Symposium
Providence, RI | July 2010