Testing System for Control Panel of Switchgear Using MATLAB and PIC

This paper describes the implementation of testing system for control panel of medium voltage switchgear using MATLAB and PIC. The system checks ‘Normally closed’ and ‘Normally open’ status of pin pairs of control panel mentioned in the wiring diagram. The input to MATLAB is wiring diagram which is in the jpeg format, this jpeg image is used for getting the information, like which pin pairs are ‘NO’ which are ‘NC’ and the components connected between those pins. After finding such information from the jpef image, it is save in text file for further reference. The external hardware is needed for actual connection to socket of control panel and it is also used to sense the status of pins. The necessary information is transferred to external hardware by serial communication which is controlled by MATLAB. This external hardware can be any microcontroller. Here PIC18f877a is used as external hardware. The PIC shows the result on LCD display connected to it. The results are also transferred to MATLAB by PIC so that MATLAB can print tested ok certificate for the control panel.