Stephen Piper Email & Phone Number

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Uk

Working in a team on electronic projects.

Bury St Edmunds

I design hardware modules from concept through to production using the Microchip PIC range of microcontrollers and products. These are usually bespoke requirements where alternative modules are either non-existent, or do not cover all of the requirements. I design the electronics and produce the firmware in either assembly language or C.I have been working with a number of clients where I provide electronics services and firmware coding.I have recently worked on an an… Show more I design hardware modules from concept through to production using the Microchip PIC range of microcontrollers and products. These are usually bespoke requirements where alternative modules are either non-existent, or do not cover all of the requirements. I design the electronics and produce the firmware in either assembly language or C.I have been working with a number of clients where I provide electronics services and firmware coding.I have recently worked on an an interactive touch-sensitive TFT GUI for a PIC microcontroller that interfaced to a Raspberry Pi. The project was to provide remote surveillance information on the TFT which was captured by the Raspberry Pi. I designed the hardware and developed the graphical firmware for the PIC.I have also designed an ultra low power wake-up circuit for wrapping around other products to reduce their power consumption. When asleep the circuit typically draws 110nA and can wake at a pre-determined time up to 31 days and switch a load current of up to 3A.I also designed a variant of the wake-up circuit which draws less than 10nA when off, and still switch 3A when on. The on and off states are latchable and can be controlled by a microcontroller. Show less

Buckinghamshire

I worked in a multi-disciplinary team on aircraft electrical power generation and management systems. The aircraft in question was a high profile business jet. The role included electronic design, electronic circuit analysis, investigation for functional improvement, and in-depth VHDL review and analysis. My role was concentrated on the firmware and equipment levels of the project.I authored 13 engineering documents, both internal and external, covering topics from low-level… Show more I worked in a multi-disciplinary team on aircraft electrical power generation and management systems. The aircraft in question was a high profile business jet. The role included electronic design, electronic circuit analysis, investigation for functional improvement, and in-depth VHDL review and analysis. My role was concentrated on the firmware and equipment levels of the project.I authored 13 engineering documents, both internal and external, covering topics from low-level investigations to requirements capture and analysis.I was also part of the VHDL verification team and made enhancements to the test benches to provide greater vector output detail. I also re-developed the VHDL firmware of two primary power distribution cards (PDCUs) to transform them into test equipment for future work packages.I used IBM DOORs extensively for the requirements capture and traceability exercises and DXL to organise and manipulate DOORs information.I provided investigative analysis of the automated test equipment to fix or rationalise product acceptance test failures.I was actively involved in on-going investigations, including interpretation of aircraft data and fault analysis, and was regularly involved in joint investigations with Safran's customer. Show less

Ipswich, United Kingdom

I was part of a team that provided complex software solutions for Openreach’s Customer Verification Facility (CVF) platform, which is a cut-down of the live EMP (Equivalence Management Platform) platform. My activities included developing interfaces, message handling, data handling and writing supporting code in Transact-SQL and VB.Net, based upon (sometimes scarce) design documentation covering the latest software releases for EMP. This was no easy task because the CVF platform must be ready… Show more I was part of a team that provided complex software solutions for Openreach’s Customer Verification Facility (CVF) platform, which is a cut-down of the live EMP (Equivalence Management Platform) platform. My activities included developing interfaces, message handling, data handling and writing supporting code in Transact-SQL and VB.Net, based upon (sometimes scarce) design documentation covering the latest software releases for EMP. This was no easy task because the CVF platform must be ready for Openreach's customers at least two weeks ahead of the formal releases onto EMP. We were essentially coding new functionality whilst that functionality was still under test!I designed and coded an interface layer in Java to connect the GeSS component (GenericSystems Simulator developed by Barrastone) to the rest of Openreach’s CVF platform. The interface layer supported incoming web services connections by expsosing a bespoke web-server, JMS bridge connections to WebLogic and Websphere MQ queues. This allowed almost all of the platform's components to be simulated resulting in a cost effective solution for Openreach. The interface layer was developed with performance being the key aspect of the design. We noted that the interface layer had been constantly running for over a year, with no exceptions or problems, and had handled tens of thousands of transactions per day.I also developed a watch-dog facility in Java which could be configured to watch various running applications. Upon certain conditions being met, SMS messages would be sent to a distribution list so that problems could be dealt with immediately. Show less

Ipswich, United Kingdom

I worked as a performance assurance consultant on Openreach’s Jupiter test platform, a scaled version of the Live EMP platform. I analysed the platform's components post-test in order to guage where the platform had failed, and to recommend changes to compensate for the failure.During that time, I developed a range of automated data mining tools in Java and Microsoft Excel to reduce the data collection time after performance tests and therefore facilitate the quick turn-around of the… Show more I worked as a performance assurance consultant on Openreach’s Jupiter test platform, a scaled version of the Live EMP platform. I analysed the platform's components post-test in order to guage where the platform had failed, and to recommend changes to compensate for the failure.During that time, I developed a range of automated data mining tools in Java and Microsoft Excel to reduce the data collection time after performance tests and therefore facilitate the quick turn-around of the platform.These tools included: - a real time monitor in Java which gave an insight into the state of the current test to allow decisions to be made on whether it should be aborted. - an Excel VBA tool to pull data from Server Vantage for each component and to streamline the production of post-test reports. - various Java tools to reconstruct the inter-server transactional data fragments so that accurate measurements could be made of the performace of data through each component. - mixtures of Java/shell script to automate the collection of of log files when at test completion. - Java tools to scan and collect information from WebLogic servers at test completion. Show less

Ipswich, United Kingdom

Provided software consultancy on Barrastone's projects with BT.

I was principal designer for audio and video automation systems for private residences. I designed the connectivity between video and audio system and the integration into their existing equipment. I programmed the systems to provide ease of use whist maximising functionality.

Bury St Edmunds

I spent a long time in this role, and was responsible for requirements capture and development of the company's clients software and internal enhancements to the practice's practice management system. Unfortunately I spent 10 years developing code and reports on a 4GL language that almost no-one has heard of....

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc) First Class Honours, Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence, First Class Honours

Ordinary National Diploma, Electrical And Electronics Engineering, Commendation