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Product Design and Manufacturing

 
Consulting

Before starting any job it's important to hammer out a specification for what is expected.  Communication skills are an essential part of this process because many clients don't have the detailed technical understanding of what it takes to convert that napkin drawing into a real product. Flexability is another requirement! Without exception, every design I've started has had more than one mid-course correction, most often from the clients themselves.

A consultant must also keep up on the ever changing tecnologies of the day! But, there is so much to know, it's best to focus ones skills. I now intend to take my knowledge and experience of Microchip PIC® MCU controllers and expand into the rapidly growing Android market. The need for Android to external embedded controller functionality is very high, with many large corporations getting involved. As part of that effort I am prototyping an embedded controller with Bluetooth and jumping into Android programming. I've found some unique programming tools from Anywhere Software (Awesome software: Imagine being able to create an App for your smartphone with no prior knowledge of the Android OS, or JAVA for that matter within one day). Tools like these are critical to today's fast turn-around environment. Also, due to my interest in blind and vision impaired accessability I am also researching how blind accessability to the Android platform might be achieved with simple touch screen gestures and TTS voice response.

I looking forward to talking with my next prospective client, and I hope to add your project here soon!

PIC® is a registered trademark of Microchip Technology, Inc.

MAJOR PROJECTS AND CLIENTS


EXPERIMENTAL DISK CONTROLLER: Developed for Microsoft (1996)

Experimental Disk ControllerFor several years of my consulting activities I was involved in floppy disk controllers, and their design.  Microsoft was in the process of distributing their software on CDs, but they wanted the security of some kind of dongle, or other means to control the installation.    A floppy disk was going to be the key.  I  made a proposal to produce a diskette that was impossible to copy, yet was readable by the PCs of the day and designed this experimental disk controller using two Altera FPGAs, allowing for custom designs to be quickly implemented.  I wrote all the software, designed the FPGA logic, and did the PCB layout as well.  While the system worked as desired the decision was made to not use it.

 

Brooks Technology,  Killeen, TX, 76542
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