Below are some example use cases illustrating the various ways the Cuica can be employed.

I/O Debugging Tool

Problem:

A simple component which communicates over I2C has been received from a vendor and the task for the engineer is to ensure that it performs as expected and will meet the requirements. In order to do this, some basic I2C communication is required to access registers on the device and exercise some functionality.

Solution:

For this configuration, the Cuica is connected via the Squeak Board to provide the power and to also communicate across I2C. Using a web browser, the engineer can quickly write small code snippets, execute them against the device, and easily store or download them for future use.

Software Deployment Station

Problem:

A shipment of boards has arrived and the operations group would like to have a particular version of software on some and a different version on others. The boards must also be programmed on an electrical workbench without a computer workstation.

Solution:

Instead of using the Test Script functionality of the Cuica, the Binary Image programming functionality of the Cuica is going to be utilized. In this situation, the technician connects the target boards to the SWD lines only. Since a full PC workstation is not available where programming will occur, a $30 used tablet is provided to allow the technician to import, select, and program the new boards.

Hardware Validation Tool

Problem:

Several hundred subassemblies have been manufactured. Quality assurance requires that the results of a Power-On Built-in-Test (PBIT) be recorded to verify that the units function as expected. There is a legacy test executive software suite already in place for environmental testing and other analyses, so there is a desire to keep a consistent interface for the test engineers performing the tests.

Solution:

In this situation, the legacy test executive uses the built-in HTTP client library to interface with the Cuica. An electrical technician builds an ad hoc test fixture containing the specific connectors supported by the subassembly. This fixture connects directly with the Cuica across the 20-pin interface. The test engineer uses a PC workstation to craft and test the Test Scripts that extract the PBIT results using sequences of GPIO and commands over UART. These scripts are then executed using the legacy test executive software.

CI/CD Test Fixture

Problem:

Embedded software hosted on GitHub needs to be validated to satisfy the pull request's successful build requirement by running automated integration tests.

Solution:

To perform the integration tests as part of the CI/CD pipeline, the Binary Image, Test Script, and Test Suite functionalities of the Cuica will be used. After debugging and testing the Test Scripts via the Cuica's web interface, the developer commits the tests to the GitHub repository. The pipeline specification build.yml file is then modified to include a job after the build stage that constructs and sends the Test Suite to the Cuica CLI, executes the Test Suite, and retrieves the results. Depending on these results, the build state is either passed or failed.