Weibull Distribution but with a varied cycle time

Hi,

Im no expert at statistics as the following question might prove but
i'll try to explain what I wish to achieve.

Basically for work i would like to perform some reliability tests on
an electronic unit, the tests will include powering it on and ensuring
that the outputs are as expected. I am going to automate this part of
the test.

But my question is, having read this article (http://
www.qualitydigest.com/jan99/html/body_weibull.html) to reinforce my
existing knowledge it uses the explain of a spring, this only really
has a set duration of operation, ie - when the box is opened it
expands, and prehaps fails.

Now my problems lies here, my unit could fail anywhere turn on to
24hrs into the test, so thats partly my question will my weibull
function hold up for this? do I need to test for the average period of
usage? becuase testing based on cycles seems stupid to me for my
problem becuase i could turn it on and off 100's of times and it might
fail, alternativly i could turn it on once and leave it for hours/days
and it might fail, but then it would only be one cycle...

So really I suppose im after some pointers. Obviously i need to define
a period to test for and that it can operate for without problems I
think.

I know my questions somewhat vague, but thats due to not truely
understanding the best way to go about this.

Regards

David

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