Saying Hello

Say "hi" here, and any general non PIC related chat.

Saying Hello

Postby linker3000 » Thu Jun 05, 2014 4:26 am

This seems as good a place as any, soo...

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working as an 'Enterprise Support' engineer for Flash-based computer products - that means SSD (Solid State Disks) and PCI Flash cards - it's really cool to have a PCI card in my support rig with 4.8TB of flash memory on it!! Shame it's not mine to keep!

My role is to support customer deployments post-sales or during evaluations, which means I have to know the technicalities of the products, but, more importantly, how to configure the host systems (apps, networks, Windows and Linux) to run them at maximum performance and also how to tune them for various apps and environments, such as: virtualisation, databases, caching other storage etc. In previous roles I was an IT Manager for a high-tech company working on security, public address and access control systems (airports, railway stations, sports stadiums etc.) and also designing embedded systems and sensors for the automotive industry - things like all-round vision, collision avoidance etc. I wasn't doing the designing - I managed the Windows/Linux systems, comms, virtualisation, networks etc. that allowed the engineers to do their thing.

Absolutely none of that involves PICs!

My first job was as an electronics engineering apprentice, then electronics engineer, for a flight simulator company.. I got the job because electronics was my hobby - this was 1982 when I was 16. No microcontrollers there - but plenty of processors (8086/286/386) and, what was called then, Programmable Array Logic (PALs).

Along the way I also volunteered for a local 'working museum' in the radio and TV exhibition - restoring old valve TVs and radios to working condition.

Back to now - about a year ago I decided to resurrect my hobby and also include some programming - hence the PICs! Since then, though, my wife changed jobs - and so did I. With all the changes I have not really had much time to do anything productive except read a lot and hang out around you guys to learn some useful tips and tricks. So far, my only completed PIC project has been a 'candle flicker' circuit, beefed up with a darlington pair to drive a couple of 12V car lamps as a fire effect for a local theatre production of 'Annie'.

I'm about 2 months into my new job - and currently on 3 weeks training in Silicon Valley! When I get back to the UK I hope things will settle down enough to do some more stuff - it's going to be real fun things - on my list are:

    A Nixie clock with RTC backup and self-setting from the MSF time signal
    A central heating control system - I want to do one based on a PIC/LCD display and another on a Raspberry Pi.
    A 'Superprobe' - along the lines of this: http://mondo-technology.com/super.html
    Something involving the DMX lighting standard

As you can see, PIC stuff for me is a fun thing to keep my mind active and to do something fun and creative. I know a lot of the folks here do embedded stuff as a career and I really appreciate that they take the time to help and encourage the rest of us.

...and a big thank you to Ric for setting up a forum that is a pleasure to use.

PS: I was killing some time in the hotel bar the other night (with laptop) and ended up buying an Arduino clone off ebay - sooo sorry!! Actually, it was more of a reaction to the frustration of trying to use a certain other forum! That'll teach them!

PPS: Yes, I am writing this in the bar!
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Re: Saying Hello

Postby Tom Maier » Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:42 pm

Hi linker,

Sounds like exciting stuff.

The schematic for the SuperProbe is a bit scarey, that it doesn't have current limiting on the LED drive pins. The web page says it is self limiting by the pic pins, but ???. That is definately a no-no. The current is more than likely exceeding the capability of the pic and probably of the LED also. You might get away with that for messing around, but it certainly isn't something you would want to go into production with without futrther investigation. If you put a 1 ohm resistor in line with one of the LEDs and view it wuth a scope, then you will see the true peak current. One volt is one amp with the one ohm resistor, so 25 mA would be 25 mV, etc. Always stay in the boundaries of the data sheet parameters for mass produced designs. or you will end up with a "special prize" in the box. :lol:

You will like the arduino's ability to knock simple projects out of the park in a short time. I tried one and all the complexity is tucked away (like that great cow bassic), so you hit the ground running. The drawback comes when you want sophisticated control of the chip and find you are trapped the gilded cage of the arduino environment.

On the raspberry, it is really cool to have a full multitasking OS with all the programming tools of linux. Drawback is that the raspberry is a real power pig, drawing 250+ mA, if I remember correctly. For some designs that is too much.
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Re: Saying Hello

Postby Tom Maier » Thu Jun 05, 2014 3:06 pm

By the way on the raspberry, there are ways I found that can greatly reduce the power consumption of the raspberry, mostly by underclocking. They got the cpu cranked to max and causes the high current draw. As you back the clock down some of the faetures no longer work, like the video and the usb, but you still have a running cpu that can be clocked back up when you need to.

So it isn't like a "sleep" mode, it is more like a "stop being so spastic" mode. :D
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Re: Saying Hello

Postby Taliesin » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:44 pm

@linker3000: Just out of curiosity, which Flight Simulator company did you work for? I'm on my 11th year working for a family-owned simulator company in Central Illinois, and that description sounds like the kind of stuff I've seen in the archives here...

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Re: Saying Hello

Postby linker3000 » Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:03 pm

Taliesin wrote:@linker3000: Just out of curiosity, which Flight Simulator company did you work for? I'm on my 11th year working for a family-owned simulator company in Central Illinois, and that description sounds like the kind of stuff I've seen in the archives here...

Taliesin


Hi,

It was Singer Link-Miles in the UK About 1982-88
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Re: Saying Hello

Postby Taliesin » Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:16 pm

Cool -- our company's founder got his start on Link trainers after WWII, and loved it so much he decided to start his own business.

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