Testing devices that "may not" have a date!

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An Electrical Engineer asked me if I can find devices that have a date that is unknown to the average user or can not be accessed by the average user.

A date function, for example, in the devices initial setup or synchronised by another device or system. By the average user I mean, someone who programs the device by using the supplied user manual, not a technician with intimate knowledge of the system.

Most engineers I work with believe that if you can not "see" the date, it does not have one, so therefore why waste my time testing it.

This I believe is the case with most devices that do not have dates available for use. But there must be some devices out there that include a date or date register that do not offer it to the purchaser/user.

Can anyone help me with my query or point me in the right direction? We need proof to encourage a few major people to start testing. Time is already running out.

Thanks, Kim

-- Anonymous, April 12, 1998

Answers

I went to a healthcare year 2000 conference last week and St. Jude Hospital of Fullerton Ca tested 600-some mission critical embedded systems--they identified 809 mission critical systems; they were told by vendors ahead of time that 59 would not work, so they did not test those; of 150 devices, they knew dealt with time and/or dates, but they were unable to test those devices because they could not roll forward the date! Of the remaining devices, 71 failed; and of the 71 that failed, 10 had been identified by vendors as having been Y2k compliant! And of those that failed, some identical model devices were Y2k compliant but some were not! I do not have the names and models of any devices that could not be tested due to being unable to alter the dates. Sorry.

-Roleigh http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin

Kim, if you really want to know about electric equipment with such problems, has your company joined EPRI's Y2k embedded systems program; perhaps in their database they have examples.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 1998


Yes, we are in the process of spending the required amount. I should gain access very shortly. I will be hunting through their database then... Thanks

-- Anonymous, April 15, 1998

I can think of at least two cases where a continuous power supply or manual intervention is NOT required to set the date/time. I have a JVC VCR at home. When the power goes off for any extended period of time, the VCR downloads the date/time from the air waves. To the best of my knowledge, this VCR does not have a battery. My TV operates the same way.

I also have a GPS. Although the GPS does have batteries to maintain waypoints that I have set, the date/time comes from the GPS satellites. There is no way to manually change this date/time.

Since this technology is available for home appliances, I would assume that the same technology can be used for embedded systems used in the manufacturing environment.

B.K.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 1998


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