EV BMS test rig from Pickering Interfaces at Automotive Testing Expo Europe 2024

Hosted annually in Detroit, Shanghai, and Stuttgart, the Automotive Testing Expo is the world’s leading international trade show for all aspects of automotive testing, development, and validation, from prototype to production. Alongside the co-located ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo, the show covers ADAS and AV test, electric and hybrid powertrain test, battery and range test, EMI and NVH test and analysis, and the full spectrum of test and validation technologies for full-vehicle, component, and systems development. Over 400 exhibitors will showcase the latest products, services, and technologies in measurement tools, test rigs, simulation packages, durability testing, crash testing, dynamometers, emission measurement systems, and dynamic assessment tools, as well as proving grounds and test facilities.

Outlining the BMS test rig demo, Paul Bovingdon, Simulation Product Manager at Pickering, explains: “With increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), one significant challenge to be tackled is effective testing and validation of battery management systems (BMS). Using modular, PXI-based switch and simulation products offers many advantages for BMS hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test, including flexibility to optimise the test system to meet exact requirements, simple modification to address evolving needs and an open, industry-standard architecture that promotes system longevity and mitigates obsolescence while providing seamless integration of multi-vendor modular instrumentation.”

Pickering has developed modules optimised for automotive electronics and is focused on ways to make ECU and BMS testing easier, faster, and more reliable. In addition to its BMS test demo, the company will also highlight the following switching and sensor simulation products on booth 1130 at Automotive Testing Expo Europe 2024:

• A range of PXI/PXIe and LXI high voltage switching solutions to 9 kV, as well as fault insertion, programmable resistor, and sensor simulation modules.
• RF & microwave switching products, including new PXI MEMS-based RF multiplexers that deliver 300x operational life and 60x test system throughput compared to existing electro-mechanical relay products.
• Significant high channel-count additions to our large range of PXI Digital I/O modules.
• Fully integrated turnkey LXI microwave switch and signal routing subsystems – including a custom 12x12 18 GHz microwave switching matrix demo.
• Supporting cables and connectors, together with our free on-line graphical Cable Design Tool.
• Switch Path Manager (SPM) – the latest version of this automated signal routing software adds auto-detection and route caching features that improve speed and performance.
• eBIRST Switching System Test Tools – designed to simplify system fault-finding by quickly testing a switching system and graphically identifying any faulty relays.