Smart-Lights® Devices

Smart-Lights devices are used to reduce time spent creating new tests and attaching adapter cables (the intermediary fixturing between your device-under-test and your Cirris tester) to your tester. Smart-Lights devices are most useful when adapter cables are changed often (high-mix, low-volume). They are also useful for shops that use CR systems for guided assembly and CH2 systems for final test.

Smart-Lights devices reduce the time spent creating new test programs by eliminating the process of having to manually probe each adapter in your adapter cables. When setting up to test, the adapter cables do not have to be connected to the tester in a specific order – just plug in the adapter cables anywhere and start the test. This saves time and reduces errors that are made as a result of incorrectly setup adapter cables.

Three areas that are especially suited for Smart-Lights devices are:

• Final Testing with adapter cables
• Testing on the build board
• Distributed Testing

For more information on these areas, and to learn where Smart-Lights devices could be used in your process.

Currently, Smart-Lights devices only work with Cirris CR and CH2 testers with Easy-Wire software version 2014 or later.

Smart-Lights devices work with your existing CR or CH2 systems. Smart-Lights devices are ordered in sets of 5 (Part# SMRT-05) and come with some basic hardware for attaching them to your adapter cables (the intermediary cable between your device-under-test and your Cirris tester). You will need the Easy-Wire software (version 2014 or later) to use Smart-Lights devices. Each adapter cable requires one Smart-Lights device and two available test points.

Once you have registered Smart-Lights devices in Easy-wire, simply check the “Uses Smart-Lights” checkbox in your test program. The Smart-Lights device bi-color LEDs will then automatically blink to indicate status and errors during a test.

It depends largely on what you have to start with. If you are just about to build new adapter cables and set up new test programs, then you are at an ideal point to implement Smart-Lights devices; the effort to integrate them into your process will be minimal.

If you have existing adapter cables and would like to retrofit them with Smart-Lights devices, the effort required may increase, but it depends on how your adapter cables are built. If you have 2 spare pins in your adapter cable then you can easily attach a Smart-Lights device to create a Smart-Light adapter (see “How do I wire up Smart-Lights devices in a Smart-Light adapter?”). If you don’t have 2 extra pins available in your adapter cable, you may have to rewire your adapter.

Each Smart-Lights device requires a one-time registration. After initial registration, each Smart-Lights device can be used in any number of test programs.

Existing Easy-Wire test programs can easily be modified to accommodate the new Smart-Light adapters. Once all Smart-Lights devices necessary for the test have been registered, simply check the checkbox on the “Adapters” tab to indicate that program now uses Smart-Lights devices. This is all that is necessary to update an existing program.

Inside each Smart-Lights device is a tiny computer chip that integrates with the Easy-Wire software to keep track of the connector type it is associated with and how the points attach to the tester and control the bi-color LED.

Easy-wire requires a tester (either a CR or CH2) to complete the registration process of a Smart-Lights device.

Smart-Lights devices must be wired using two consecutive test points attached to the tester. The rest of the wires from the adapter can be in any order. For maintenance and troubleshooting, we recommend a consistent wiring pattern and pin order.

For example, Adapter/Smart-Light Device Relative Test Point:

At the beginning of a test, the hardware scans all test points to discover the Smart-Lights devices necessary for that test. Once the Smart-Lights device discovery scan is complete there is no impact to actual testing time. Subsequent testing of the same part does not require a new full discovery scan as long as the adapters are not moved. For any additional tests of the same part (same test program) an optimized scan is done using the last known positions.

In most cases the time to scan is negligible and happens within seconds. In the case of a 20,000 point CH2 system, a full Smart-Lights device scan would take approximately 6 minutes, which is much less time than it would take to figure out where each connector will plugin on a test this size.

Yes. Duplicate connector types are resolved after the tester scans for Smart-Lights devices. The operator is given a list of connector types along with their reference designators and asked to choose the connector in the list that corresponds with the currently lit Smart-Lights device. Once all duplicates are resolved, the test can proceed.

We STRONGLY recommend using the Easy-Wire server software and networking your testers if using multiple testers. In this case you only have to register each Smart-Lights device one time then it is available to all of your test stations. However, if you are not networked you can transfer Smart-Lights device registrations between individual testers. In this case, we recommend you set up one system as the main Smart-Lights device management station and export the registrations from there.

No. Once a Smart-Light adapter is registered in the Easy-Wire software as a particular type of adapter, it can be used in any test for any connector requiring that same adapter.

Yes. For existing test programs with which you want to use Smart-Lights devices, you just need to make one small edit to the test. Go to the “Attach Connectors” tab (tab 1) and check “Uses Smart-Lights”.

Note: If you have some stations that will use this same test with traditional fixturing rather than Smart-Lights devices, make sure to save the changed test to a new test name so both versions will be available. Alternatively, you may uncheck the “Uses Smart-Lights” box and save the test program again for traditional fixturing.

Yes. You are free to make the transition to Smart-Lights for all your adapter cables as time and opportunity permits. In a test program with mixed adapter cables, the Smart-Light adapters are defined and attached automatically then traditional adapter cables are defined and attach using conventional methods. The indicator lights in the Smart-Light will function normally, but only until the traditional adapter cables are defined and attached in the test program.

Yes! This is one of nice features of adding Smart-Lights devices to your adapter cables, particularly if it is not all wired in the same pattern. During the registration process, the adapter cable can wire back to ANY of the points on the tester. Once registered, Smart-Lights devices will recognize common connector types identically! At this point, any DB-25 adapter will work for ANY DB-25 connection on your device under test. With the aid of Smart-Lights devices, the tester is able to “unscramble” all of the inconsistencies in the wiring of your adapter cables.