Accordion Pilot is the graphical interface for the Accordion test system. It is the fastest path from a new Accordion node on the bench to running measurements — connect, discover the installed modules, set channel states, capture data. No scripting, no compilation, no API client to install. Pilot is the default tool when test engineers do hands-on work with Accordion hardware.

At a glance

• Use: hands-on channel control, monitoring, recording, stimuli generation
• Scope: a single Accordion node, or a multi-node test bench
• Setup: auto-discovers installed modules and exposes their channels at boot
• Recording: session capture for later analysis or replay
• Channel model: identical to the REST API, Python wrapper, and .NET wrapper
• Platform: Windows
• License: lifetime, included with the instrument

What it does

Pilot exposes every channel in an Accordion node through a graphical interface. Read voltages, write setpoints, configure modules, sweep parameters, capture measurement traces — operations that would otherwise require a Python session, a TestStand sequence, or a custom client. For bring-up, design verification, and ad-hoc bench work, this removes the scripting overhead.

The interface follows the same channel model as the rest of the Accordion stack. A channel in Pilot is the same channel as a channel in accordionq2 or AccordionQ2.WebApiClient. Engineers who move between hands-on Pilot work and scripted automation use the same names, the same types, the same values — there is no separate vocabulary to learn for the GUI.

Pilot also records sessions — useful for documenting a measurement run, handing off a setup to another engineer, or comparing repeated tests against a baseline.

How it fits into Accordion

Pilot is one of three first-class clients of the Accordion API — the others are the Shell CLI and the Python and .NET wrappers. Every operation Pilot performs is a call against the same REST API that drives every other client, and the channel state Pilot sees is the same channel state any other client sees. There is no Pilot-only configuration, no Pilot-only channel namespace.

For day-to-day bench work, Pilot is the right tool. For unattended runs, CI, or production-line execution, the scripted clients take over — but the test logic and channel state model carry across without translation. A test written in Python and a test driven from Pilot exercise the same hardware in the same way.

Typical use

• First-time setup of a new Accordion node — discover modules, verify channels
• Bench-side debugging during board bring-up
• Design verification runs where the test sequence is still in flux
• Manual channel sweeps for characterisation work
• Demonstrating a measurement chain to a colleague or customer
• Capturing a session for later replay or hand-off

Full documentation

Full Pilot documentation, including UI reference, installation, calibration, session-file format, and integration with the Shell and API clients, is maintained in the E-Sharp Help Center. See the Accordion Pilot reference.