A test fixture that would be able to test multiple wires at once

This is a department-wide design competition and fair for the University of Calgary Engineering students in their fourth year. It focuses on preliminary and detailed engineering design and implementation of an engineering system that applies engineering knowledge to solving a real-life problem. The emphasis is on the design process as it is associated with electrical, computer and software engineering, design methodology, general design principles for engineers, teamwork and project management.

Large industrial facilities carry out many complicated processes that must be monitored and controlled to ensure they run properly. To accomplish the monitoring and control of these plants, wires connect equipment, sensors and control mechanisms to centralized computers. Often there are large quantities of wire that must be carefully inspected before a facility can be commissioned. Many man hours are spent by electricians and technicians ensuring that wires are not broken and are going to the correct places. Traditionally it takes two people, one on each end of the wire, with radios and multi-meters to run tests on the wires. They must relay information back and forth until all the wires are confirmed to be going to the correct places. This is very time consuming and expensive.

We are designing a test fixture that would be able to test multiple wires at once. With just the push of a button, many cables would be tested simultaneously and relay test results to the technician to inform them of any breaks or mis-wired components. This would greatly reduce the time it takes to carry out these tests compared to two technicians. The solution involves two devices, one for sending signals down the wires and one to receive the signal and determine wiring faults. The system should test up to 64 wires and have a battery life greater than 12 hours. The device should be controlled through a touch screen where results are displayed to the user. Results may also be accessed through Wifi and ethernet connection on a webpage hosted on the device itself.