I have been writing test/diagnostic/bench tools from very early on in my career. Many of these tools have been and are still being sold through my mail order company "Dunfield Development Services, Inc.".Period: Late70s-present
DLM is a PC based asynchronous RS-232 datascope. It uses a 'Y' cable to monitor both directions of a serial communications channel, and provides time relative view and timestamps of the data and control signals occuring on that channel. Up to 32000 events can be captured and reviewed with various (ASCII, HEX, Control, Custom) display options. DLM includes a font editor which allows the creation of custom display fonts.
MDLM is a redesign of DLM, adding many features and the ability to monitor up to 24 simultanious data channels (This was done at the request of a customer).
PCLA is a PC based logic analyzer using the parallel port as the input device. It can capture 13 channels with a 500khz sample rate. It includes trigger match (0/1/don't care) for all channels, a 256 entry pre-trigger display and can store and review up to 65536 samples following the trigger event.
LineScope is a PC/sound-card audio frequency digital storate oscilliscope with extra diagnostic features. It can capture, store, display and analyze audio frequency waveforms, as well as create and play custom audio waveforms. It features an echo analysis mode where the created waveform is played, and the echo from the network is immediately captured. It has a wide range of display options, including bounded operations, magnification, absolute or relative scale, off-screen indicators and other features.
This is an PC based Ethernet sniffer with selective packet capture and filtering. It allows monitoring of any traffic occuring on an ethernet connection. Any numbers of packets can be captured to a file for later review, search and analysis.
This is a PC based packet load generator which is used to cause known load on an ethernet network. Packet type, size, content and generation rate can all be configured.
This program uses two PC network interfaces to function as a bridge between two independant networks. It can also inject lost/corrupted packet errors at a definable rate, and has proven invaluable in testing and debugging various ethernet packet protocols that I have developed.
LES is a PC based program using two serial ports program which injects common errors into a serial communications channel at controllable rates. It is used to test communications protocols and other serial devices.
As part of my work is developing a small office telephone system, I have created a PC based diagnostic telephone simulator which allows me to simulate telephone sets of various characteristics connected to the system. This includes a hardware component for the physical interface, and control signals generated from the PC parallel port and sound card. This system can generate tones (DTMF etc.) with complete control over amplitude, waveform, frequency and twist.
As part of my work with power generating windmill controllers, I have developed a PC based windmill simulator. This interfaces to the windmill controller via A/D, D/A and digital inputs/outputs, and allows me to create any type of wind/power scenario I wish. The simulator monitors the control outputs of the windmill controller and adjusts the environmental stimuli accordingly. The operational state of the "virtual windmill" is depicted both as digital readouts, and as a graphical "radar" image showing the turbine, true wind, incidental wind and power levels in real time.