home: http://starling.us/tet
by Ĝan Ŭesli Starling
copyright 2003 — 2007
Purpose: By profession I am a test engineer, not a full-time programmer. Yet in that capacity I sometimes find my currently available software tools either constraining or otherwise inadequate. These shortfalls I address myself...unpaid and on my own time. I am by no means alone in this.
Constraints: There aren’t any. This collection is a cumulative result, built atop the work of others, whose own Perl modules I obtained from CPAN free of any license or cost. Thus do I, in like spirit, enjoy to share my own modest contributions equally freely.
Organization: General purpose scripts are located nearer the top. Those of more limited scope (such as for automotive only) I have relocated further down. Refer the the table of contents at right.
OS Support: The scripts are intended for use on most any OS. I am only able to test them, however, on NetBSD and WinXP. And even though they work just fine via ActiveState Perl for Win32, I can still sometimes be persuaded to compile a binary *.exe version for Win32 (refer to SEE ALSO notes in POD). Beyond this, whoever has a specific concern with Linux or MacOS X kindly inform me and I will address the issue soonest.
Revisions: I do not bother at all with tracking formal relases, but only by revision date as noted below, near the head of each script, in its embeded documentation (Perl POD), and the Help—About pull-down menus if GUI-enabled.
Scope of Use: General.
Description: Utilities for electonic documentation of reports.
Link:
XML
Easy format viewable in any browser on any platform.
Link:
XML
Spreadsheet avoidance trick.
Scope of Use: General.
Description: Barometric pressure compensated for elevation.
Suppose you need to know the current barometric pressure, compensated to absolute for your elevation. This script will provide it for you. It displays the readings in a GUI and also records to a file.
Link:
XML
Scope of Use: General.
Description: Merging channels from Tektronix Digital O'scope
Use this script to merge a pair of TEK0000*.CSV files and graph them.
Link:
XML
Scope of Use: General, especially behind firewalls.
Description: An XML-RPC Server/Client pair with which you can trigger remote PCs to do almost anything.
A suite of Perl scripts comprising an XML-RPC Client/Server pair and companion support files. Their presentation has ballooned well beyond the scope of this page to include many further uses. Please find the entire gus_xml-rpc_*.pl family of Perl scripts now on its own page here: XML-RPC Client/Server Pair
Scope of Use: Automotive, in conjunction with FlexTestGT (and similar) softwares by MTS.
Description: A companion script for the above XML-RPC Client/Server pair. Used for triggering sequential backup of multiple MTS FlexTest controllers (principally their config and calib directories).
Stable: Last modified 2005-03-24, lines of code 121, comment lines 26.
Info:
POD as HTML
Download:
Perl *.pl
Scope of Use: General.
Description: A graphical user interface for creating formatted calibration records. Allows for any number of data runs, any number of points-per-run, various common units of measure, etc.
Stable: Last modified 2005-01-20, lines of code 1811, comment lines 415.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Examples:
ASCII *.txt
Download:
Perl *.pl
Win32 *.exe
Scope of Use: General.
Description: A graphical user interface for calculating the gain and output of a Wheatstone bridge while shunted by a calibration resistor.
Stable: Last modified 2005-01-21, lines of code 286, comment lines 45.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Download:
Perl *.pl
Win32 *.exe
Scope of Use: General.
Description: A graphical utility to simplify annotating graphics. Helpful for identifying specimen photos from fatigue and durability testing.
Caveats: Requires the free library ImageMagick to also be installed. See POD.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-11, lines of code 455, comment lines 112.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Examples:
Photo *.jpg
Download:
ImageMagick
Perl *.pl
Scope of Use: Mainly automotive, particularly in conjunction with FlexTest MultiPurpose TestWare by MTS. Light editing, however, would easily adapt them for general use.
Description: Securely tracks the progress of MTS MultiPurpose TestWare tests over the internet from any computer.
Your IT department likely already maintains in-house an FTP (File Transport Protocol) server. If not, then prevail upon them, for it is cheap and easy enough. Via FTP you can scope out your on-going tests from anywhere by day or by night.
Description: A Perl/Tk GUI utility to auto-upload a constantly-fresh FTP mirror of user-selected status and log files.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-03, lines of code 6229, comment lines 116.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Download:
Perl *.pl
Description: A non-GUI Perl script allowing any 3-rd party program to auto-upload its current status by FTP.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-03, lines of code 36, comment lines 15.
Info:
POD as HTML
Download:
Perl *.pl
Win32 *.exe
Description: Download-companion for the two utilities above.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-03, lines of code 217, comment lines 17.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Download:
Perl *.pl
Your IT department likely maintains in-house an SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server. If not, then prevail upon them, for it is cheap and easy enough. Via SMTP your on-going tests can automatically email for help at night and on weekends.
Description: A graphical utility to for monitoring status files and emailing notices in event of error, warning, etc.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-15, lines of code 489, comment lines 64.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Download:
Perl *.pl
Scope of Use: Mainly automotive, particularly in conjunction with MTS and nCode softwares.
Description: A standalone editor for MTS RPC-III & RPC Pro time history data files. Employ it to extract, reorder, offset, taper, han filter, peak slice & expand etc. Easy to use with help balloons for every feature. Intuitive controlls resist accidental clipping of channels. Specialized hanning filter does not round off peaks. Editing choices are remembered from file to file during a session. Graphing outputs to PNG format. No license required!
Perpetual Beta: Last modified 2006-06-04, lines of code 6261, comment lines 1808. Updated frequently to add new features.
Dependencies: These external programs ImageMagick and the GD Graphics Library are required for graphing. See details in Perl POD via its button below.
Caveats: A very few features yet to add. Enough are already built in, however, that PaulstraCRC in Grand Rapids, MI, USA employs it routinely. Their Vehicle Laboratory uses it to convert the *.csv output from their Roadrunner ADC hardware to MTS RPC file format. Their Engineering Department uses it to batch pre-process RPC files for input to NCode analysis software. And their Validation Laboratory uses it to re-polarize, re-scale, and re-order channels for playback on their 3-axis FlexTest bedplates.
See Also: View RPC time history data as 3D models via OpenDX as an aid to editing decisions.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Examples:
Output *.png
Arbitrary Wave *.png
Block Cycle *.png
Download:
Editor *.pl
Comma Separated Value (*.csv) files output by Pimento Software on Roadrunner data acquisition hardware are non-compliant with the IETF standard for CSV. Here is a Perl script to batch-rectify an entire directory of them.
Download:
Perl *.pl
Scope of Use: Automotive, in conjunction with FlexTestGT (and similar) softwares by MTS.
Description: A command line script for creating *.seq files for the Road Surface Output process of MTS MultiPurpose TestWare. A single, TAB- and line-delimited *.dat input text file generates up to 99 *.seq output files.
Stable: Last modified 2005-05-06, lines of code 140, comment lines 19.
Info:
POD as HTML
Examples:
Input *.dat
Output *.seq
Output *.dat
Download:
Perl *.pl
Scope of Use: Automotive, in conjunction with elastomer testing under MutiPurpose TestWare by MTS.
Description: Employ these utilities to extract and better represent all that mixed data buried inside your specimen.dat files. The pure ASCII output is simultaneously suitable both for spreadsheets and for word-processors. This is accomplished by taking the trouble to not only TAB-delimit the cells externally, but to internally SPACE-justify them as well.
Description: Reads in any MTS-default specimen.dat file. From amongst any other formats therein, the script will seek out only static deflection records. It then re-calculates all tests intelligently seeking the shallowest slope via hanned, average chords. It lastly reports loss-of-stiffness in percent as compared against a user-selected N-th test from the series. Easily user-configured for: span of chord in points, subtlety of hanning filter, which data to present, etc.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-30, lines of code 1046, comment lines 316.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Examples:
Input *.dat
Output *.dat
Download:
Perl *.pl
Description: Reads in one or more MTS-default specimen.dat files. From amongst any other formats therein, the script will seek out only dynamic characterization records. From these it will then extract user-selected columns.
Stable: Last modified 2004-03-03, lines of code 618, comment lines 136.
Info:
POD as HTML
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Examples:
Input *.dat
Output *.dat
Download:
Perl *.pl
