LINKING DATA REDUCTION SOFTWARE TO AIRBORNE DATA ACQUISITION SOFTWARE

Abstract

With the incorporation of microprocessors providing dynamic control capability in flight test data acquisition and telemetry systems, software is now becoming a critical part of the airborne data system. Software importance generally appears to be underestimated by many users of the airborne systems, as until now they have only had to worry about programming a PCM data cycle map into EPROMs and plugging them into the airborne hardware. With newer programmable systems using microcomputers with E²PROM and RAM to provide a realtime EU display and control capability, airborne software can become a critical link in scheduling. Programming requirements for realtime data display and control in these data acquisition systems now makes it essential that there be software configuration control and a software (firmware) link between the data reduction software residing in the ground station and the data acquisition software in the aircraft. This paper addresses one solution to this new class of problem in flight test.