Independent consulting for electrical engineering and software systems. Done during own time with consent of full-time employers. Have helped many clients find solutions that served them well.

Design state of the art high performance miniature stabilized camera systems for airborne use, especially unmanned aircraft. Also miniature autopilot systems. Solved video quality, system noise, various failure modes and other pressing problems in existing designs; architect and designer of the power, HD-SDI and other systems of the TASE500 gimbal line; ISO 9001 auditor; next generation autopilots.

Design, development and support of on-board and support avionics for unmanned aerial systems. Prime examples are the RQ-21A STUAS / X-300 Integrator UAV, the ScanEagle, as well as hardware-in-the-loop systems, launchers, etc. Technologies include embedded processors and FPGAs, analog, digital and power circuits, optics, lighting, communications systems. All designed to stringent military and FAA requirements. Created new standard for UAV anti-collision and navigation lighting for visible and near-IR. Co-created engineering reference guide and engineering process standards for company.

Design, development and support of CyberDome and Legend pan/tilt/zoom cameras and related video systems using RS-170A and IP. Embedded processors (Power PC, Blackfin, MSP430, Cortex M32 ARM, 8051, NIOS and MicroBlaze) from 8 to 32 bit, including DSP and FPGA IP. DC/DC switching power supplies; analog signal processing. Tools include WindRiver, various C/C++/Assembly systems, PADS Logic and Layout, Subversion version control, Altera and Xilinx FPGA suites.* Met with our largest customer to fix long-standing issues with our product line. Updated CyberDome to eliminate video artifacts and other concerns. Showed revised product to them in two weeks. Customer went from largest critic to strong advocate for us, immediately buying over $1 million more systems and leading to long-term sales.* Solved long term issues (including video compression ASIC and system firmware in C) in Legend, helping reduce production failure rate from over 22% to under 0.2%.

Design and development of the embedded processor for the Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) and Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance (COBRA) sensor platforms, from architecture through timing and schematic to realization. Reengineering of most legacy systems. Use of Protel99SE and Altium schematic capture, VHDL in Altera Quartus and Xilinx ISE FPGA tools, Perforce and Source Safe document control.* Reengineered an existing Intel i960 processor based design to 4 times speed, 5 times memory, use of Altera CPLD and FPGA logic, added IEEE1394 Firewire interface, increased A/D and D/A resolution from 12 to 16 bits. Overall design is simpler than the original, meeting severe size, power, and ruggedness constraints.* Redesigned boards for the Model 12 and 14 product lines, allowing continued production despite part obsolescence and improved performance in a drop-in replacement. Kept the production line going despite several threatened shutdowns.

Created the ipSMART 1000 mini-DSLAM and IP router from architecture through circuit design, circuit board, and testing. Use of dual Motorola 68360 processors, Xilinx CPLDs, Globespan and Conexant ADSL and SDSL chip sets using Protel, Foundation, and other CAE tools.* The ipSMART 1000 addressed a market to double the size of the company before competitors could enter it. The design provided 4 ADSL and G.lite lines with follow-on design capability of 8 lines or more, again doubling company market space.

Responsible for the Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) home terminal project. Designed and specified system architecture and design, schematic diagrams, and parts specifications. Use of CadStar and VeriBest schematic capture, Windows NT 4.0, Visio.* Specified and designed the Optical Home Terminal for an ATM based Advanced Passive Optical Network to deliver cable TV, multiline telephone service, and wide bandwidth Internet service to customers’ homes, allowing entry into a new and dynamic market. Results include networking options, RISC (Power PC) microprocessor control, POTS line interfaces, switching and linear power supplies, battery systems, enclosure, etc.

Coinventor of ARTS (Advanced Rural Telephone System), US Patents 5845201, 5918171. Design and implementation from system architecture through individual elements, including hardware and software. Management and engineering of subscriber site and switching control computer projects. Use of Altera, Data I/O, and Philips ASIC / CPLD tools, View Logic, Windows, NetWare, C, assembly, C++, and Internet access management.* Designed and created the ARTS system backplane, backplane interface, 80486 based control, EPLDs/FPGAs, and subscriber radio interfaces for Indonesia to very tight time, reliability, cost, and mass production requirements.* When progress on initial demonstration system was foundering, took charge of engineering development of that system seeing it into successful completion and operation. Coordinated development teams involved subscriber, switch, and wireless local loop hardware and corresponding software efforts.

Chemical vapor deposition system design. Use of PCAD, MS/DOS, Windows, and AutoCAD.* Took responsibility for debugging the design and integration of a third party's multiaxis servomotor controller system. Working with the designer over the telephone was able to bring the system on line saving weeks of development time.

Plasma etch processing system design: Project scheduling, costing, and planning. Radio frequency power generation, control, and measurement; optical and electrical design and automation; creating custom hardware/software for system measurement and analysis. Involved with all phases of system, including vacuum, physics, chemistry, electromagnetic compatibility, and mechanical design.* Solved a plasma tuning physics and design problem on site for Tegal's largest customer in Japan, preventing the return of over $15 million in sales, satisfying the customer, and opening a new branch of plasma science study at Sandia National Laboratory.

Design and develop hardware and firmware for high performance modular spectrum analyzers and their development tools. Heavy use of the UNIX environment, C, Pascal, and assembly code. Operating system design, human interface, and signal processing firmware emphasizing performance; interface and control hardware; software quality control and metrics. Customized workstation DMA interface hardware.* Designed and created the human interface system, code, and development tools used in HP's modular measurement system and third party sources. Resulting tools cut each new product's firmware development time by weeks to months and provided a consistent design between different modules.

Engineering and management support of the Department of Defense's worldwide satellite control network. Specification of new systems, management of procurement and installation, and testing and evaluation on delivery. Training included communications systems, radar, microprocessors, and RF.