Poc-it is a power-on cycler and intermittent tester, providing a one step solution for power-on cycle testing. Improve the quality of your hardware and software products with this inexpensive and easy-to-use tool. The following are just a few examples of systems that can benefit from testing with Poc-it:

Input Counters:	2 high speed 5 VDC inputs
	1 optically isolated 10-30 VDC input
Cycled Outputs:	1 120 VAC @ 10 amps
	1 5 amp relay contact
User Interface:	1-Line LCD Display, 4 button key pad
	Simple menu driven interface to:
	-Set On and off times of each output with a 10 ms resolution
	-Reset Input Counters
	-Start and Stop the test
	-View cycle counter for all three inputs and both outputs

View the Poc-it Manual for more detailed information about how Poc-it works.

The following options extend Poc-it's functionality:

PC Remote Control - allows Poc-it to be controlled from a PC.

PowerCycler - adds AC phase control, making Poc-it a powerful tool for testing power supplies and power sources.

In over twenty years of developing electronic systems, we have seen a common problem plague many systems during the development cycle. This problem usually manifests itself intermittently and occurs following power up. It can be caused by either hardware or software, and it is never obvious which is the problem's source.

Frequently, such a problem is difficult to duplicate, and occasionally the fix is questionable. Often, several attempts must be made to fix it. After each change, the system may need to be retested for thousands of cycles before the problem manifests itself again.

Here are just a few of the design problems that can cause intermittent operation following power-up:

Two things generally characterize our experience. First, design engineers rarely test their equipment under repetitive power-on cycling (i.e. thousands of cycles) as part of their design verification. Testing generally occurs only when the problem manifests itself as a "cannot duplicate". Secondly, once the problem occurs, the test engineer or designer jury-rigs a piece of test equipment consisting of a pulse generator, a relay, and a couple of counters, usually wired up at 6:00 PM.

Another common solution in the manufacturing environment is to use a general-purpose PLC. Generally, this is expensive and complicated to set up and to operate. Most design labs do not have access to such equipment.

Our dissatisfaction with existing methods while working on our own projects led us to search for an easier way to perform this type of testing.

Now there is a better solution. Poc-it's power-on cycler and intermittent testing capabilities provide an integrated solution to the problem of power-on cycle testing. Not only is the Poc-it simple to use, it is inexpensive enough to have several in the lab to facilitate early testing of systems by hardware and software engineers before the problem manifests itself.

Every microprocessor controlled system should be subjected to this kind of testing during the design phase. In addition, every sophisticated power supply should be tested in this manner. Many systems should be subjected to this kind of testing during production testing. Generally, in the past, neither design not production testing of this type were performed. Now, Poc-it makes it easy and cost-effective to do both. Poc-it is used here at MicroTools, where our philosophy is, "If it's not tested, it doesn't work!"

On one job, a sophisticated avionics box was designed for a fighter aircraft. During production temperature and power cycling, one in approximately one hundred boxes would fail one relatively simple power on test (Power and temperature were being cycled by a piece of sophisticated Automatic Test Equipment). Deep in the production cycle, it was discovered that a certain part was being used outside its acceptable design tolerances. Poc-it could have been used early in the design cycle by the hardware designers to uncover this problem long before production.

On another job, certain pre-production units of a PC-like embedded system were occasionally failing to become operational following power up. When it was failing, it would fail once every 10-20 power ups. At other times the same system could be cycled hundreds of times with no failures. After several days of test and analysis by a hardware and software team, a very small window in a commercial communications library was found where interrupts should have been disabled but were not, causing the software to crash. Software had already been released and production PROMS burned for a large quantity of systems. Poc-it could have been used early in the design cycle by the software designers to uncover this problem long before the software was released.