Programmable Power Supplies

The programmable power supply unit feeds the components to be tested and allows for simulating real voltages, such as the vehicle battery voltage during start-up. The power supply unit is remotely controlled from the real-time model.
Various power supplies are available for different applications, for example:

• 0 ... 20 V
• 0 ... 60 V

Fault Simulation

For fault simulation, the SCALEXIO rack system provides I/O boards with integrated fault simulation, namely the HighFlex boards (DS2601, DS2621, DS2642, and DS2671) and MultiCompact I/O Units (DS2680 and DS2690).

Technical Details

¹⁾ Without a SCALEXIO Processing Unit

Hardware Components

The SCALEXIO Failure Insertion Unit (FIU) consists of several components:

• An onboard failure routing unit (FRU) on the I/O channels prepares fault simulation by switching the I/O channels to failrails. The FRU is available for each channel on the MultiCompact and HighFlex boards and uses relays to provide the features of the central failure simulation unit to each channel.
• Depending on their properties, the channels are connected to the failure simulation system by the high-current (up to 80 A) or the low-capacitance (up to 1 A) failrail. The low-capacitance failrail for an optimized signal quality connects signal generation channels and bus channels to the central FIU. The high-current failrail connects signal measurement channels to the central FIU.
• The central FIU is located on either the DS2642 FIU & Power Switch Board or the DS2680 I/O Unit. The central FIU uses semiconductor switches for switching the faults. It switches very fast, which makes it possible to simulate loose contacts or insert faults for a very precise duration.
• The failrail segment switch is used to switch selected segments into the failrails for fault simulation. This way, the conducting capacity can be minimized to avoid signal corruption, even for large simulation systems that have a high number of inputs/outputs or that are distributed across several cabinets.

¹⁾ Requires the option “Activation by FRU relay” and is only possible on I/O channels without current enhancement.
²⁾ Depending on the ampacity of the failrail.

License Concept

The SCALEXIO HighFlex and MultiCompact boards include a fault simulation (FS) function. You need an additional FS license to activate the fault simulation. The FS license will be checked at the host PC. Each license can be used for one SCALEXIO system. The licenses are scaled for fault simulation with different numbers of I/O channels capable of fault simulations. The fault simulation is configured in ConfigurationDesk, so you need the appropriate SCALEXIO Failure Simulation license for the number of I/O functions that are mapped to channels with an FRU that you use in your real-time application. The FS license is needed only for running the simulation, not for configuring the I/O channels with ConfigurationDesk.

Tracing FIU States

The diagnostic functions of ECUs have to detect each fault within a specified time. To help test an ECU’s diagnostic functions, SCALEXIO provides FIU state tracing. This enables you to measure or plot FIU states and therefore to monitor the time from a change in FIU state to any other event, such as the detection of the fault.

Faults on Multiple Signals

SCALEXIO supports the simultaneous insertion of multiple faults during simulation to allow fault classes such as broken wire, short circuit to ground or UBAT, or short between channels. This function can be enabled in ConfigurationDesk for channels without current enhancement.

Overview