This page records more notes on work arounds to make measurements used when testing a smart phone app.
Automation is really difficult.
Another problem with automation is that the physical interfaces are difficult to automate to summarise down to events for asserts required for the test's pass / fail criteria.
SmartPhones? need a robot with a dabbler and some video and vision analysis to provide feedback. See
On a desktop PC, I could use JavaRobot?. It can move the mouse and press keys and capture the Apps screen running on a PC. I would have to use some vision recognition to convert the screen capture, to find the buttons and "understand" the screen image. The same java app running on a PC or linux were different slightly different.
Security also gets in the way. Windows has a way of automating key presses, but disables "CNTL-PrintScreen?" which would allow me to copy the screen, so I could paste it into a test record. It does not have a simple way of reporting what text and boxes are displayed. The automation software would still need and "AI" ability to understand what it is seeing.
Also you are not allowed to connect "non-approved" devices, and my automation tools are "non-approved" as I am inventing them as I develop them!
I brought a USB-A to lighting OTG cable dongle, that did not have the Apple chip it it, and it only worked for a minute or two before it was detected.
For a short while it was possible to buy the white dongle in the picture above, that allowed my Apple phones to be charged while I used my AutoTyping devices.
I could "measure" the current used by the App undertest, if I fully charged the device.
When the Smartphone device was fully charged, I could use the eBay sourced "USB Tester Digital Power Meter Tester Multimeter Current & Voltage Monitor" to report the current.
It went from 200mA to sometimes 900mA depending on how the App was opened.
One of those laser guided thermometers was also used to measure the temperature of the back of the Smartphone. I could use my Raspberry Pi and a DS18S20 chip as well!
The Service used TextPhones?
It is possible to use modems.
The Service uses Textphones and Apps on Smartphones and laptops.
https://www.dougrice.co.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WebAudio http://www.dougrice.plus.com/dev/UART/UART2_V18.htm https://www.dougrice.co.uk/webaudio/mic.htm
http://www.dougrice.plus.com/dev/UART/UART2_V18.htm#UARTgenerate
A USB modem can be used. On some devices, WebPages? can now control Serial Ports so I could write this page:-
https://www.dougrice.co.uk/webaudio/simpletermModemOne.html - There was a version with more buttons to trigger tests