Boeing 777 ATE Fire Detection and Suppression

Elliott Tech designed, built, and verified ATE equipments used by manufacturer and airlines maintenance.  These systems include hardware and software.  The equipment tested is the Boeing 777 Engine Fire Overheat Detection System (FODS) card.  There are 3 FODS cards in each 777 aircraft; Left Engine, Right Engine, and Auxiliary Power Unit (APU).  The FODS monitors for engine fires, alarms for a detected fire, performs continuous self test/fault analysis, and communicates, over the ARINC-429 bus, with the aircraft computer system. 

The ATE equipments simulate the aircraft environment in sufficient detail to thoroughly test and troubleshoot a FODS board.  The ATE includes simulation of dual redundant engine fire detection sensing elements, pilot interaction controls, and the ARINC-429 bus communication with PC based aircraft computer simulation.

The Portable LED Tester is based on an embedded 16-bit processor and is designed to test multiple LED configurations; including up to 32 two (2) terminal LEDs, or 16 three (3) terminal/bi-directional LEDs. The unit includes a PC interface for download of test parameters and retrieval of SPC (production) data. One PC can communicate with up to thirty-two (32) testers simultaneously via an EIA-485 Communications interface. The tester includes flash based non-volatile data storage, an LCD display with LED backlight, a built in calibration check,  built in self test capability, and power failure protection.

The concept around the Burn-In System Project was eight different fixture types that supported two panels of a particular board type. Electrical connections were made to each board by "bed of nails" spring pins. These fixtures were designed to slide into a (temperature chamber) rack system, which accommodated twenty (20) fixtures. Each fixture made connections to a back plane via an integral edge fingerboard. Connectors and harnessing on the back plane would allow for external equipment interface through chamber opening(s).  

The fixtures provided electrical connections through a "bed of nails" with spring pins. These two hundred (200) spring pins were soldered to a single circuit board with edge finger contacts to provide termination/connection to  back plane mating connectors. 

The C-17 Functional Tester performs the necessary functional and burn-in testing of the Manifold Fire Detection Controller for the C-17 aircraft.  This system is a PC based system comprising of custom interface circuitry as well as 1553 communications.   Tests are logged and reported via printed data sheets as well as a manual mode for troubleshooting.

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