peter.wrigley@www.bermondseyelectronics.com – Bermondsey Electronics Ltd

ISO9001: Recommended For Certification

On August 22nd, Bermondsey Electronics had its second ISO9001 assessment. We are proud to report we have been recommended for certification.

Internally we follow a documented development procedure. We start by gathering customer requirements. We write a test plan. For customers in industries requiring it, we complete a traceability matrix, allowing traceability of requirements to deliverables. We do the expert work and return with a test report. For those customers requiring it, we may take part in product risk assessments.

There are other ways to develop products, but for customers prepared to engage in the process, there’s no more efficient way to scope the work than this. It helps us all keep within agreed scope and reduces the risk of requirements being missed.

ISO9001 certification further qualifies the process by expanding scope out from the core development process to cover the business as a whole. We have more in place than just a development process. The time and cost of certification demonstrates a willingness on our part to improve our business, not just our development process, continuously. We do not just make bold claims about how we do business, we carry them out too.

Debugging Large Embedded Memories

One from the archives. Today we reveal some tips and tricks on debugging some difficult situations. This case study relates to development on a large memory target dating back some years. The difficulty was testing the memory correctly fills and wraps, when the target takes a long time to fill naturally. How did we increase our test coverage? Read the pdf to find out …

Debugging Large Memories on Embedded Targets

Bermondsey Electronics begins ISO9001:2015 journey

After some years working in quality controlled environments and seeing the benefits, Bermondsey Electronics Ltd. announces its decision to pursue ISO9001 certification. The move aims to ensure superior quality control across the Company’s outputs. This requires extending the existing product design cycle control outward to the remainder of the Company’s processes.

ISO9001 is an internationally recognised standard for quality management systems. It provides a framework to help organisations establish and maintain robust processes for continuous improvement. By obtaining this certification, Bermondsey Electronics aims to align its operations with global best practices, and reinforce a reputation for high quality deliveries.

The decision to pursue certification underscores a commitment to providing quality controlled products and services. The certification process involves comprehensive external evaluation of the company’s quality management system, working through areas including risk management, opportunity assessment and operational workings. The overarching focus on customer satisfaction ensures this is at the forefront of all interactions.

By implementing ISO9001, a focus on continuous improvement can be nurtured, while encouraging employees to actively participate in improving customer deliveries. Allowing employees to take ownership of their activities helps foster a culture of care.

Our first audit, carried out by BSI Group, took place on June 27^th 2023 and resulted in 3 minor NCRs. Our second audit is scheduled for later in 2023.

The decision to embark on certification was not taken lightly and reflects our commitment to delivering superior products. New product introduction (NPI) is typically fraught. The goal at Bermondsey Electronics is to make the process repeatable, documented, verifiable, timely, predictable and transparent. ISO9001 certification should help us in this goal. Our friends at 3Point1 Developments will be joining us on this journey soon!

Case Study: BELIeVE with BLE

We have release to discuss a case study from a customer. Early in 2023, an issue arose around Bluetooth LE. Specifically, there was a question of the bandwidth available to cell phones. Reports had been received of differing behaviours with different handsets. We set out to investigate.

What we found surprised us. We were able to reproduce lower bandwidth results from the field on our test equipment, without having to buy a lot of handsets for testing. Armed with this knowledge, future testing can be automated.

Getting to this stage took some effort customising the BLE library. We had to figure out how to control the bandwidth settings, and expose methods to our runtime.

BELIeVE v 1.4.0 released

Today we have updated BELIeVE with some much-requested features.

Our popular 34465A DLL has been enhanced with support for its extended triggering modes and reading multiple data in a single stream. Network testing here shows we can transfer 2,000,000 readings in around 90 seconds. The test engine can process them in the blink of an eye and produce summary results.

We have introduced a DLL to support arbitrary IVI-VISA power supplies. Our 2280S DLL could already perform this role but support has been made explicit for multi-channel power supplies. The 2280S DLL has been enhanced with methods to read the measured voltage (for battery charging) and is API-compatible with previous releases.

Similar to the power supply, we have introduced a DLL for arbitrary IVI-VISA DMMs. This supports basic reading setup and transfers. If the specific features of your equipment are missing, it supports arbitrary text transfer in and out, to exercise any equipment you may have in the lab.

We have also made small quality-of-life improvements, including normalising highlighted keywords against ECMAScript 5.1, and three minor stability fixes.

These enhancements make BELIeVE more accessible than ever to the T&M community. Download your free evaluation copy today!

New Electronics article

We contributed a three page article to New Electronics centred around testing for Connection Interval in Bluetooth LE devices, which has been published in their March 2023 issue. Go check it out here!

Assuring IoT device robustness through HIL testing

PCBLive Presentation

Bermondsey Electronics’ MD, Peter Wrigley, will be giving a talk at PCB Live, part of the Engineering Solutions Live event, on March 23 at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon.

Entitled ‘Functional Verification of Prototype PCBs Using HIL Testing’, Peter’s presentation will explain how a comprehensive and highly repeatable hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test environment for prototype boards can be created using networkable benchtop test and measurement equipment.

Peter will also describe a variety of tests that can be used to stimulate the prototype, inject faults and advance milestone events – all to verify that the internal hardware and software have been integrated properly and that the PCB can interact with the real world.

The presentation is aimed at embedded systems engineers and PCB designers, who will learn how they can de-risk their projects through automated HIL testing and go into volume production safe in the knowledge the prototype was thoroughly verified (i.e., no corner cases left unexplored) and that they have a record of all tests performed and their results.

Peter has the 11:30 to 12:00 slot in Lecture 1. Booking is recommended.

Event details can be found here: www.engineeringsolutionslive.co.uk

EPD&T Coverage of BELIeVE

We contributed a three page article on BELIeVE to Electronic Product Design and Test, which has been published in their February 2023 issue. Go check it out here!

Electronic Product Design & Tests – February 2023

BELIeVE Awes Industry: Amazing Coverage in the Trade Press

It’s three months since BELIeVE launched, and the coverage the technical / trade press gave our JavaScript-based integration verification engine (an industry first) was just amazing… and there’s more on the way!

Off the back of the formal press release going out we received several requests from editors for articles, the first of which appeared in EE Times. We’ve also been approached about giving seminars and workshops at a number of industry events in 2023.

Of the publications that wrote about BELIeVE, we were particularly delighted to have been named Editor’s Choice! in the October issue of Instrumentation Monthly, in which our news covered two full pages. Other publications that ran our news included Electronics Weekly, New Electronics, Electronics Today, Electronics World, Electronic Product Design & Test, eeWorld Online, Design News, EE Journal, Electronic Specifier – Test & Measurement, Softei.com and Microcontroller Tips.

We’re extremely proud of how well BELIeVE has been received, testament to our product’s true value and usefulness within the engineering community.

We’ll shortly be adding a new section to our website in which we plan to display the articles and cases studies appearing in print. We’ll also provide details of industry events at which we’ll be exhibiting and speaking. Watch this space.

Introducing BELIeVE – Industry’s First Independent JavaScript-Based Automated Solution for Hardware / Software Integration Verification

London, United Kingdom – Bermondsey Electronics, an embedded systems design and test house, has launched the Bermondsey Electronics Limited Integration Verification Engine (BELIeVE). A JavaScript-based solution, this advanced integration verification engine is the first of its kind and automates the operation of networkable instrumentation to exercise a device under test (DUT) and verify that its hardware and software are functioning together as intended. BELIeVE can also be used for continuous integration (CI) and end-of-line quality assurance in manufacturing scenarios.

During product development, BELIeVE can be used to inject faults and mimic events/conditions that would otherwise be hard to replicate. In addition, reports are automatically generated, which is of great benefit to engineers that must demonstrate their designs were thoroughly verified; for safety-critical applications, for example, but also good engineering practice.

Peter Wrigley, Managing Director of Bermondsey Electronics, comments: “BELIeVE is all about providing confidence in a design and going to market quickly with thoroughly verified products, it’s as simple as that. Also, BELIeVE epitomises everything that is good about automation, such as repeatability and being able to run tests during out-of-office hours, which makes great use of the instrumentation in which the user has already invested.”

Wrigley goes on to say that BELIeVE is effectively a new kind of embedded system development tool, one that builds on the well-proven test-driven development (TDD) methodology, with which software engineers will be familiar.

BELIeVE not only brings the product’s real hardware into the equation but also allows the creation of a simulated environment in which the DUT can operate. Once networked with instrumentation – such as benchtop power supplies, oscilloscopes, dataloggers, DMMs – BELIeVE runs scripts that can, for example, change input power, drive analogue and digital inputs, and record outputs. It is also possible to simulate user interactions, such as keypad button pushes and switch throws, meaning test can run unattended.

BELIeVE is available in two versions:

BELIeVE-DV is ideal for design and verification work and is supplied with editable interface libraries so that engineers can write their own tests. Enabled user interfaces include Test Manager, Project Manager, Test Editor and Command Line Interface. An unrestricted period BELIeVE-DV node-locked licence for a single PC costs £8,495 + GB VAT. Alternatively, for a node-locked licence for a single PC for one year, the cost is £4,995 + GB VAT. BELIeVE is supplied with a Getting Started guide, sample interfaces (including BLE and ANT+ serial ports), a comprehensive list of Test Editor commands and comes with up to 10 hours of free support from Bermondsey’s technical specialists.

BELIeVE-QA is for use in product manufacturing scenarios, or as part of a CI toolchain, and runs on the PC’s command line. It is supplied with a Getting Started guide and a node-locked licence for a single PC for one-year costs just £950 + GB VAT.

Fully functional evaluation versions of BELIeVE-DV and -QA can be downloaded from Bermondsey Electronics’ website, www.bermondseyelectronics.com, and will function for 30 days before requiring a licence.

“Like all good inventions, BELIeVE was born of necessity,” concludes Wrigley. “We needed a highly capable integration verification engine to support our own design and test services. When we presented the verification engine at UKEmbedded in May this year, the audience reaction was staggering. In just a little over four months we have commercialised a powerful embedded systems verification tool we feel has the potential of transforming the industry.”