Using OpenHTF for HW testing? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: frozenbeef
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 07, 2021, 12:51:43 pm
content: Currently working on setting up a testing platform for the product I'm developing at work. Basically, I want to set the product in the rig (hooked up to signal generators, oscilloscopes, etc), push a button to run tests as automated as possible, get a green or red light, save the results in a database somewhere ... I think you get the general idea. This platform should also be able to be handled by any average minded gorilla, that happens to be the poor person that gets to manufacturer our product.Anyway, I first started to build everything from scratch in Python and quickly got bored and wanted to do something else. So, I thought that there must be someone that has built something to test HW. Since there are so many SW testing frameworks around there must be something for HW!I found something that is called OpenHTF, apparently put together by some Google people. (Not an official Google product!). I downloaded the git repo and got some basic examples to run and it looks decent enough to maybe base our HW testing platform on. But before I go on a spend a zillion hours to get this to work, and maybe realize that it isn't working the way I want, I thought that I should ask around to see if anyone else has used it.Link to OpenHTF git repo:https://github.com/google/openhtfTo summarize my post, here are some questions I would love to hear from the forum about:1. Have you used OpenHTF? For what purpose and did it work as intended? Is it worth the effort to learn about it?2. Is there any alternative open source HW testing platforms?3. Are there any "closed" source HW testing platforms that could be interesting?4. Also, feel free to include any stories (good, bad, horror!) about HW testing platforms in general.Also found some company called SpinTop that has continued the development on OpenHTF, has not look too much into it, but could be intresting as well:https://spintop-openhtf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

author: miceuz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2021, 08:09:38 pm
content: I remember reading a blog post from Bunnie about a test framework they developed for themselves, might be worth having a look:https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=5450

author: Gribo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2021, 01:49:38 pm
content: 3. Closed source: There are many test platforms out there, NI, Keysight, and tons of others have everything from a simple test sequencer to a full blown hardware/software platform.Examples: Teststand, ATEasyIt really depends on your budget and time vs money considerations.

author: raphaelcasimir
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 03:18:24 pm
content: Hello, reviving this topic because things changed.The main obstacle for OpenHTF adoption in my previous hardware test & validation teams was lack of documentation. This problem is now solved.OpenHTF is now documented onhttps://openhtf.comand the company behind the website is planning to contribute to the project code as well (they do a platform for test analytics with a one-line openhtf integrationhttps://tofupilot.com).As for my personal experience with OpenHTF, in my previous job we converted all our test benches across multiple countries from an in-house MATLAB framework to Python / OpenHTF.It has been easier to maintain because of an overall better developer experience.