Other Projects

Work and non-work projects of interest.

Touch Screen Controlled STB Automation

During my time with Sky (BSKYB), I designed and built a touch-screen controlled (Java script) Set Tob Box (STB) testing platform which utilised the same 'Dusky' RS232 controllers its predecessor (VB) to automate recordings and actions on, and to greatly simplify and speed up the recording and test review process.  This is still in use at the Chilworth site.

Router Acceptance Tester

For Sky's Inbound Quality Control at their Rugby factory, I was asked to reduce the time it took to test a Broadband Router. I took 3 stage approach. First, I simplified and looked for overlapping tests in the Standard Operating Procedure. I then delivered a day's training for the team doing this activity, explaining what was going on in the background.  This reduced the test time per router from around 50min to 10-15min. Later I designed (on a weekend) a Raspberry Pi-based tool which automatically completed the tests on the SOP, and gave feedback via LEDs. In its final form, this was on a Beaglebone Black with a custom LED board, a customised fast-boot version of Arch Linux and Dual-band Wifi tests. Later this could detect router types (as another was introduced) and report to a logging server for audit. The software part of the testing now took below a minute.