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Inaccurate Measurements are Costly
This month continues the series on
making accurate measurements. Last month’s article discussed the necessity
of calibration and the importance of accurate calibration sources. This
month covers some scenarios illustrating how inaccuracies in measurement
equipment can lead to costly choices in passing or failing a unit under
test. August continues with the considerations of test setup effects
on measurements, including interactions with the test operator. September
discusses a method to understand the sources of measurement uncertainty
called Gauge R&R.. We are proud that one of our avid readers, Ken Samuelson,
helped define the topics for this issue as well as contributed content and will be assisting for the next 2 issues too. I've really enjoyed the recent discussions and conversations he and I have had about measurement accuracy. Thanks Ken! If any other readers would like suggest
a topic and\or to contribute, I’d be happy to collaborate. Send me your ideas! Cool Videos
Here’s techo-babble at its best.
Watch and learn, my friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QcwH7_duxU
LabVIEW Source Control Tortoise SVN Toolbar
We first announced in April
our beta for the Tortoise SVN Toolbar. Now, after feedback from our
initial users, we have improved TSVN and made it available on our website
as our latest beta release. We now work with LabVIEW versions 8.2 and
up. Our goal in making this toolbar available is to enhance the productivity
of LabVIEW and help developers of large-scale, multi-developer projects.
We’ve been using this toolbar internally for a long while and wanted
to share. Check out the following link: http://www.viewpointusa.com/ With this toolbar, you can
view the SVN status of files in your project and perform TortoiseSVN
actions right in the Project Explorer with one click of a button. Superior
to other SVN tools, Viewpoint’s TSVN Toolbar will open TortoiseSVN
dialogs for each repository. This feature is a must-have for anyone
who has a library of VIs used over and over. We’ve also included a
Dashboard to manage multiple files at once. Check it out. Note: you will need to have Tortoise
and SVN installed to use the TSVN Toolbar. Enjoy! And please give us feedback.
Jim Campbell |
 Making Good Measurements
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When bad product is found in the field, potentially huge costs can be incurred as warranty claims, as service calls, or as disgruntled customers upset by a requirement failure. Everyone agrees that bad product should not be shipped. But did you know that even if you have a calibrated device (i.e., sensor, instrument, or test station), you can still pass a bad product? Your immediate question might be “How can a test pass but the unit fail?” This topic is discussed in this month’s newsletter. |
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The Second Worst Typo in History |
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On July 22, 1962, the first spacecraft of the Mariner mission took off on a mission to collect a variety of scientific data about our closest celestial neighbor, Venus. However, less than 5 minutes after launch the craft began to maneuver unexpectedly, and the NASA range safety officer ordered a destruct command. The political atmosphere of the US-USSR space race and the explosive nature of the abort sequence lead to a series of obscure official reports – which in turn, have lead to a series of urban legends about what caused the flight failure. Reports indicated a typo of something appearing to be a hyphen. The typo was possibly omitted code or placed incorrectly in code, however it may have been a misunderstanding or misuse of hand written transcriptions. Arthur C. Clarke once quipped that Mariner 1 was "wrecked by the most expensive hyphen in history". What typo could possibly have been worse than that? In 1631, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas published a re-print of the King James Bible, but forgot the word “not” in the sentence “Thou shalt not commit adultery” causing wide spread outrage. King Charles I ordered them to appear before the strict, arbitrary and secretive Star Chamber. |
Greetings,
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