Modern aviation systems require electrical components to continue operating despite voltage variation, dropouts, spikes, etc. and frequency variations. Depending upon the airframe manufacturer, electrical components may run on 115VAC, 230VAC buses operating at 400Hz, 800Hz or somewhere in between. In addition, there are DC buses at 28V, 32V and 270V. Tests can include nominal tests as well as margin testing. Until now, there has been no way to accurately run all of these tests, verify that the device under test (DUT) experienced the desired electrical perturbation and generate a pass/fail report. All of these elements are required by the specifications whether they are aircraft manufacturer specific standards or harmonized standards such as DO-160.

The EACS meets all of the specification requirements. The core of the system is the SmartWave AC/DC power source. The SmartWave is driven from a PC using Test Suite software running under the SmartWave Control Suite to generate waveforms according to industry specification. A measurement system using the Yokogawa DL750 is controlled through the Test Suite software to trigger and measure based upon SW activities. The system also stores and manages all waveforms to allow easy recall of any test run. The final step is to generate a test report using the report generator. The flexibility of the system allows customization of the test report as well as user-defined pass/fail criteria and entry.