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Advanced bqMTester Environment

3 Advanced bqMTester Environment

This is a brief explanation of the Advanced bqMTester software/hardware environment.

3.1 bqMTester: Hardware

The Advanced bqMTester requires the following:

• An HPA495 Advanced MTester Calibration Board

• Two wall DC power supplies (5 V/2.5 A and 24 V/0.5 A—each with isolated grounds, not included)

• Two SMBus connectors

• A user-supplied Test Head for every test station

• An EV2x00 board (sold separately) for each station to be tested

NOTE: EV2x00 boards prior to version 3.1L are not compatible with bqMTester. StationSetup.exe

warns you if your EV2x00 board is not compatible. All EV2x00-HPA002 and all boards with

USB Tester Ready (as shown in TBD, below right) are compatible.

3.1.1 bqMTester: Software Environment

The bqMTester software is a suite of programs that calibrates and tests modules in the devices listed in

Section 1.2. There are four executable files, but only three are user-executable files. Of those three files,

only two are needed for most applications: StationSetup.exe and MultiStationTester.exe.

• MultiStationTester.exe: The main test program for multi-station testing. This program can only be run

after StationSetup.exe has been run. It requires the calibration board (HPA169/HPA495). This

program's purpose is to coordinate background bqTester.exe functions and data. It initiates tests,

handles priority conflicts, and processes and stores test statistical data received from bqTester.exe.

• StationSetup.exe: This is the setup program for MultiStationTester.exe. This program must be run

prior to running MultiStationTester.exe. The EV2x00/Temperature/Test Limits are configured using

this program.

TesterDFReader.exe: This program can read the data flash and write a ROM file (data flash image

file) to be used by bqMTester software. In most cases, this program will not be used. bqEASY in the

bqEVSW will generate the ROM file. If bqEASY is not compatible with the fuel gauge to be tested,

refer to Appendix I. (For more information on bqEASY, see

http://focus.ti.com/lit/ug/sluu278/sluu278.pdf.)

• bqTester.exe: This program is the backbone of the Multi-Station Tester. It performs all of the testing.

bqTester.exe is a background object that is not visible when called by MultiStationTester.exe. There

is an instance of bqTester.exe running for each EV2x00 test station connected to the PC. The

bqMTester (MultistationTester.exe) software calls on bqTester.exe to perform all the calibration and

testing. All data from this testing is reported back to the Advanced bqMTester where it is displayed and

logged.

NOTE: Do not run the bqTester.exe as a standalone program. This is not supported and can cause

unpredictable results. bqTester.exe executes in the background, supporting MultiStation Tester.

SLUU397A– February 2011– Revised May 2011 Advanced bqMTester

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