Development of MIL 1553 Simulator for
Instrumentation System
Mutha Eswara Rao1, Mr. A.V.V.Satyanarayana2, Mrs. M.S. AnuRadha3, Mr. Abraham
varughese4
1
M.E Student, Department of ECE, Andhra University College of Engineering
2
Scientist - C, Instrumentation Division, NSTL
3
Associate professor, Department of ECE, Andhra University college of Engineering
4
Scientist - F, Instrumentation Division, NSTL.
eswar447@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT:
In under water vehicles, it is
very essential to establish the communication
between different subsystems to transmit the
critical parameters. The interface between
subsystems must be a network standard
technology which is well defined with no loss of
data, required speed, command response, less
hardware for connectivity and rugged. The MIL1553B standard provides the facility to combat
this requirement. MIL-1553B has evolved into
predominant internationally accepted networking
standard for the integration of military platforms.
MIL-STD-1553B is the military specification
defining
a
Digital
Time
Division
Command/Response Multiplexed Data Bus that
supports data transfer of 1Mbps. In the
development stage of any embedded system for
under water vehicle, it is required to test the
system with different subsystems in the virtual
environment. The main objective of this paper is
to develop the MIL 1553B simulator which
simulates not only all subsystems data for
verification of instrumentation system but also
acts as a Bus Controller for data retrieval from
the instrumentation system. This Simulator is
implemented by using MIL-STD-1553 AceXtreme
USB hardware. Protocols for MIL 1553
communication developed as per interface control
document using visual C++.To make the entire
simulation process and the data retrieving from
the instrumentation system user friendly a GUI
is developed using visual C++.
Keywords: MIL 1553 STD; Simulation; Bus
Controller;
AceXtreme
hardware;
Data
Retrieving; Visual C++
1. INTRODUCTION
In application areas like integration of
flight control systems, missile interfacing,
telemetry, under water vehicles etc, the system
always require bulk range of signals to be
processed, which includes inputs and outputs
between different subsystems. Monitoring of
particular signals of various subsystems is very
essential. To maintain these signals effectively with
no data loss and no compromise on processing
speed, a well designed networking standard
technology is needed. The MIL-STD-1553
standard provides facility to combat this
requirement. Also the performance of each
subsystem can be analyzed and studied. MIL-STD1553,
Digital
internal
time
division
command/response multiplex serial data bus is a
military standard which has become one of the
basic tools being used today by the defense for the
integration of weapons systems. The standard
describes the method of communication and the
electrical interfacing requirements for subsystems
connected to the data bus.
The 1553 data bus is a dual-redundant,
bidirectional, Manchester II encoded data bus with
a high bit error reliability. All bus communications
are controlled and initiated by a main bus
controller. Remote terminal devices attached to the
bus respond to controller commands. MIL-STD1553B standard establishes requirements for
digital, command/ response, time division
multiplexing (Data Bus) techniques on aircraft. It
encompasses the data bus line and its interface
electronics and also defines the concept of
operation and information flow on the multiplex
data bus and the electrical and functional formats to
be employed.
While testing the Instrumentation system
under virtual environment a Bus Controller has to
be developed to initiate the communication. The
development of a Bus Controller is done by using
visual C++ and BU-67202U USB module. Whether
the unit under test responding to the commands
issued by the Bus Controller properly or not is
tested. A GUI is developed for user friendly MIL1553 message simulation as well as for data
downloading from the Instrumentation system.
2. HARDWARE
A. USB AVIONICS MODULE BU-67202U
The BU-67202U AceXtreme USB device
provides an off-the-shelf interface to 1 or 2 dualredundant MIL-STD-1553 channels, 4 ARINC 429
Receive channels, 2 ARINC 429 Transmit
channels, 8 user programmable digital discrete I/O,
IRIG-B Time Code input, and a 1 Pulse-perSecond (PPS) output. The device is available as
1553 only, 429 only, or the fully populated
1553/429 Multi-IO USB device and can be
powered directly from the USB interface or from
an external power source.
Each 1553 channel can operate in Bus
Controller (BC) mode or Multiple Remote
Terminal (Multi-RT) mode, that is, up to 31 RT
addresses simultaneously. The BU-67202U1 model
allows BC and Multi-RT modes to run
simultaneously and also includes the Test and
Simulation toolkit. The device includes the BU69092S AceXtreme C Software Development Kit
(SDK) to support all modes of operation, including
source code samples, and detailed documentation.
Optional graphical software packages include the
MIL-STD-1553 Bus Tracer Analyzer/Simulator,
ARINC 429 Data Bus Analyzer (DBA), ARINC
615 Data Loader, Lab VIEW Multi-I/O support
package, and data SIMS Data Analysis Tool. The
optional software packages allow users to easily
generate or monitor avionic data for 1553 or 429
operation.
data retrieved is written in a raw file named
‘test.raw’.
The interrupts are issued according the
Interface Control Document (ICD) of the unit. The
below ICD table gives the information about the
messages and their word counts and sub addresses.
S. No
Message
WC
SA
1
Inst
16
1
2
OBC
27
4
3
PRESET
14
5
4
FASC
22
6
5
RTC
06
2
6
AHRS
15
10
Table 1: Simulated subsystems
To differentiate frames in a message an
“87 F7” word is written between every frame of a
message. The starting header of an each message is
indicated by a “7E FX” word, where ‘X’ indicates
the sub address value, in word count times whereas
an ending header of an each message is identified
by the word “7E FD” in word count times.
B. GUI DEVELOPMENT
A GUI is developed to ensure the user
friendly simulation of an Instrumentation system
and also to download the data from the unit.
Figure 2: GUI of MIL1553 Simulator
Figure 1: USB MODULE BU 67202U
3. SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
A. DEVELOPMENT OF BUS CONTROLLER
GUI based software is provided by the
DDC (Data Device Corporation) to simulate the
data for the testing unit whereas for downloading
the data from the unit, a software code is developed
using visual C++ to function the USB module
BU67202U as a Bus controller. This BC
development is done by using some necessary ACE
functions provided by the Acextreme C Software
Development Kit. The unit responds to the
commands issued by the Bus Controller and the
The GUI shows the different simulation
buttons, 1553 command buttons and download
button. Here “ON” button is to turn on the
simulation, “OFF” button is to turn off the
simulation and once ON button is pressed the
simulation last until OFF button is pressed. There
are some 1553 commands where “ABORT ON” is
to turn off the unit and “ABORT OFF” is to turn on
the unit by setting the particular bit in OBC flags.
The “UNCAGE ON” button is to set the un cage
bit in a OBC flags and “UNCAGE OFF” button is
to reset the bit.
In Data Downloader the “BROWSE”
button is to select the location at which the file to
be downloaded and “DOWNLOAD” button is to
download the messages from the unit.
4. RESULTS
GUI based software, DATASIMS, is used
to simulate the data for the instrumentation unit.
The simulation mode of the softw
ftware is used to
simulate the data and monitoring
ng mode of the
software is used to observe the data
d
transactions
taking place while simulating.
A. SIMULATION RESULTS
Figure 3: Sequential raw mess
ssage display
CONCLUS
SIONS
Simulation of six different subsystems
messages using this module
le has been implemented
and tested. In the virtual environment
en
to simulate
the data for the Instrumenta
ntation system is simple
using BU67202U USB mod
odule when compared to
the other simulation proceduures like using a PC add
on cards because of its por
ortability and plug and
play. The simulation of an IInstrumentation system
using PC add on cards can
c
also be done but
portability is the main cconcern whereas the
BU67202U module can be ea
easily powered by using
an USB cable. In the develo
lopment of a MIL 1553
Simulator, a data SIMS software is used for
simulation along with the AcceXtreme hardware and
the simulated data is obs
bserved in data SIMS
monitoring mode. The data
ta downloading software
is developed using Visual C+
C++ software to retrieve
the data from the instrumeentation system and a
Graphical User Interface iss developed
d
using Visual
C++ software for user frien
endly simulation and to
retrieve the data from the instrumentation
ins
system.
REFERE
ENCES
Figure 4: Monitored raw messages
m
data
The above figure illustrate
tes the simulated
messages sequence to the instrume
mentation system
with simulated data, message typ
ype, word count,
Receiver command and with the tim
imings.
B. DATA DOWNLOADING RESULTS
LTS
Figure 5: Down loaded Meessages
The above figure shows tthe downloaded
data using visual c++ software.
[1] MIL-STD-1553 Design
gner’s Guide Reference
Manual DDC (Data Devic
ice Corporation), New
York.
[2] Microsoft Visual C++.N
.NET Step by Step by
Julian Temple man Andyy Olsen published by
Prentice Hall of India, 2002.
[3] AceXtreme Hardware functions
fun
- BU-69092SX
Software Reference Manua
ual DDC (Data Device
Corporation), New York.
[4] BU-67X02/3U AceXtr
treme 1553/429 USB
Avionics Device Hardware
re Manual DDC (Data
Device Corporation), New Y
York.
[5] www.ddc-web.com.
[6] www.ddc-web.com/datas
tasims.