Product Development Projects |
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Product development projects I was involved with between 1982 and 2006. |
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Roke |
2000 to 2006 |
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Roke’s Top Project Manager
in 2005, I managed a number of complex, high risk projects, all delivered
on time and with record profit margins: XSCard - the world's first tri-band UMTS & HSDPA PC Data Card MC55 & MC56 - the worlds smallest GSM-GPRS modules Sarbe G2R – a military Search & Rescue Beacon - this product trebled our client's book value CF45 – the only compact flash format GSM-GPRS product in the world As a Team Leader: Ripcore – the world's first petabit internet Router TDD Node B – a UMTS TDD Base Station LMU – the world's first E-OTD emergency call location Unit for GSM Base Stations. |
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Siemens |
1990 to 2000 |
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Project Manager for
CombiMaster, a combined induction motor and variable speed drive. As an engineer at Siemens I was responsible for FPGA, ASIC and control and microprocessor system design for communications test gear, telecoms power supplies, UPS, and variable speed drives. |
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1982 to 1990 |
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In an attempt to make my electronics hobby pay for itself, in 1992 I set up a company, 'Safe-T-Guard', to design, manufacture and install electronic security systems. Why security systems? This stemmed from my general interest in domestic electronic gadgets and the home of the future (appliances communicating with each other, home automation in general). I also noted the high prices being charged for security systems. The systems themselves were often very simple, easily bypassed. I thought that I could do better, and with such a margin between manufactured cost and selling price, I felt that there was good scope for profit. I designed a modular system, based around the idea that each home required similar modules, but often a different mix to suit the number of rooms, the customer's budget and any particular installation issues. The detectors used were off-the-shelf, standard units like reed switches, pressure mats, passive IR motion detectors and breaking glass detectors. They all indicated their status via switched outputs, either normally open or normally closed. I used a 'tracking window comparator' design as the core of a resistance sensing loop for monitoring of the detectors. This gave a very high level of security (extremely difficult to bypass) whilst the tracking ability incorporated ensured that the steady drift of the loop voltage over time did not lead to false alarms - the circuitry simply tracked slow changes, whilst responding immediately to fast ones. Over of four years I manufactured and installed just over 100 security systems. I continued to provide annual maintenance for these installations for a further four years, as this was a requirement of BS4737. |
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Modular Security System Designs |