Patent ID: 6859043

Claim:
A method of interfacing a plurality of electronic units with a test apparatus that is operative to test one or more of said units when connected thereto, said method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a housing having a first portion containing a plurality of vertically spaced apart, generally planar and horizontally extending shelves that are sized to receive respective ones of said plurality of electronic units that are insertable onto said shelves from a front side of said housing, said first portion of said housing being vertically spaced from a floor portion thereof and providing for ergonomic access by an individual installing said electronic units onto said shelves; (b) vertically interleaving a plurality of generally horizontally extending input/output connector panels with said plurality of vertically spaced apart shelves therebetween, such that said plurality of generally horizontally extending input/output connector panels are parallel to said generally planar and horizontally extending spaced apart shelves and provide an alternating arrangement of generally horizontally extending input/output connector panels and generally planar, horizontally extending spaced apart shelves, such that a respective shelf is located between a pair of adjacent input/output connector panels, and such that a respective input/output connector panel is located between an adjacent pair of spaced apart shelves, so as to provide an opening that allows for the insertion of a respective electronic unit onto one of said spaced apart shelves, a respective input/output connector panel having a distribution of communication cable terminations at said front side of said housing that are configured to terminate communication cables providing communication connectivity to various testing equipments of said test apparatus installed in a second portion of said housing; (c) inserting, from said front side of said housing, a respective generally horizontally extending electronic unit onto a respective one of said shelves such that communication ports of said respective electronic unit are adjacent to communication cable terminations of a respective input/output connector panel therebeneath at said front side of said housing; and (d) interconnecting said communication ports of said respective electronic unit and communication cable terminations of said respective input/output connector panel at said front side of said housing by relatively short lengths of jumper cable having first ends thereof connecting with said communication ports of said respective electronic unit and second ends thereof connecting with said communication cable terminations of said respective input/output connector panel.