The issue of traceability – the mapping of requirements to their products or systems and to each other – cannot be overlooked. Missing this component in your requirements specification can create problems throughout the development lifecycle, affecting architecture, design, and any subsequent modifications or evolutions to the requirements themselves.

The RFP evaluation process is designed to clarify many aspects of potential partnerships and deliverables – the quality of the vendor, the scope of the project, and the outcomes on which success will be measured.

The only thing you can count on is change. That’s especially true in the world of product and system development. Staff, schedules, priorities, competition, and resources all impact requirements specifications and can drive changes at any time – and at multiple times – throughout the development lifecycle.

So if you are tasked with leading the charge for your company's product development, it is vital that you stay (or become) dynamic - especially when it comes to your requirements specificiations. 

Modbus is an industrial communication protocol that has been around since 1979. 

Originally developed to connect programmable logic controllers together, Modbus has become a de facto standard for communicating between industrial equipment.

How does a Modbus master and slave work? Modbus is a master/slave multidrop protocol. The master initiates all communication transactions. Each slave has a unique id, responding to the master only when addressed by the master.

Tricky Timing Requirements

Although Modbus is a simple communication protocol, its timing requirements can be difficult to meet in an embedded system with other strict timing requirements.

Recently I designed a custom industrial controller requiring both modbus master and slave support. The controller had to communicate with Modbus slaves on one serial port while simultaneously responding to a plc master on another serial port.

When it comes to high quality embedded control systems, one is usually looking for a system that includes the following:

• User Configuration
• Data Visualization
• Data Logging
• PC Connectivity
• Software Interface

For product manufacturers and development companies that test products for compliance, QA, and improved efficiencies, finding accurate and reliable test solutions can be a challenge. For starters, standard solutions that meet the precise needs of a specific industry are not always readily available out of the box. The testing environment, materials, and processes can be complex and constantly changing.

For example, testing may need automatic configuration, control, and failure detection of high-voltage dielectric materials. Other solutions have been sought to add new measurement capability with concern for code reuse, robust design, and long-term maintenance.

In this blog, I'll discuss some of the testing problems that can reduce productivity and profitability for product companies, and show how our automated test team overcame those problems to develop test solutions for marine product development.