We offer a wide range of services, from concept right through to design and production. We get involved in a whole range of engineering disciplines during the design and manufacture of various products. Whilst developing novel solutions for industrial products we have picked up a number of skills. If you have an odd problem or product, we can help - we’re always happy to try our hand at something new!

Since we use many differing chips and technologies from many vendors we can offer impartial advice as to the best solution for your product. We do not have high volume production capability - most of our volume customers use subcontract builders. We work with them all so know how to design for manufacture. Testability is equally important and we also make systems to program, test and document finished boards, subsystems or even completed products for our customers.

The following list is by no means exhaustive but outlines some of the areas in which we specialize:

Analogue & Digital Electronics
Microprocessors & Embedded Software
FPGA & SoC Solutions
Interfacing
Motor Control
Fieldbus Systems
Wireless Communications
PCB Design
PC Software
Low-Medium Volume Manufacture

We have experience with all kinds of analogue and digital circuits, including ultra low power battery operated devices, MEMS devices, ADCs and high voltage industrial systems.

Often the best design includes a good mix of both analogue and digital techniques.

Interfacing to sensors and actuators requires a good understanding of a whole range of design techniques, which comes as second nature to us.

We have used a huge range of processors, microcontrollers, real-time operating systems and programming languages over the years.

We use 32-bit processors such as ARM (including ARM7, ARM9 and Cortex), 68K etc, as well as most of the popular 8 and 16-bit devices, various RTOS systems and native environments.

Microcontrollers, particularly those with built in features such as A to D converters and UARTs, will offer the best solution for certain products.

We carry out FPGA & CPLD designs using both VHDL and verilog, targeted at Actel, Altera, Lattice and Xilinx devices.

We have developed everything from simple decode logic and state machines in small PLDs, through to complete system-on-chip designs including a 32-bit processor, SDRAM, Ethernet, CAN & VGA cores.

Systems can be designed for in-system field programming of devices through a USB connection, allowing new hardware/software configurations to be delivered to your customers through a simple web download.

Microprocessors have been pushed to and fro, in and out of fashion as technology marches onwards. We often design with microprocessors but increasingly we are finding that FPGA system on chip technologies can offer significant cost and time to market advantages. In these cases the microprocessor is still there but is now implemented as an IP core amongst the rest of the logic on the chip.

Over the years we have produced products that connect to PCs using many interface standards such as PCI, RS232, RS485, USB, CAN, Ethernet etc.

We have designed products that feature many types of display including LED, LCD, Touchscreen and OLED technologies.

A wide variety of motor control designs have been implemented. PWM controllers for brushed DC motors have been designed into various products. Three phase sinewave commutated BLDC motor drives are one of our specialities. For industrial products where off-the-shelf availability was important, we have used bought in multi-axis motion controllers and inverters. Since we design the hardware and software it is possible to fully optimize the drive for the best price performance ratio.

Fieldbus networks are often required on industrial systems where distributed control or monitoring is needed. There are many different fieldbus protocols in use, each with varying complexity.

We have designed systems using MODBUS, Ethernet and Profibus, and have experience with other fieldbus systems.

A simple MODBUS implementation can be achieved with cost effective hardware.

For more complex systems we have used Hilscher netX controllers, which are highly integrated network controllers.
See www.hilscher.com/netx.html for more information

We have incorporated various systems into products, including RFID, Zigbee, IrDA and Keeloq. This includes straight forward switching applications, as well as data transmission.

We have experience in designing RFID systems from chip level.

We have designed over 400 PCBs. We use the latest design tools and can produce boards that are single-sided, double-sided and multi-layer (typically 4, 6 or 8 layers). PCB List
PCB design has moved on - almost coming full circle. In 1979 single sided boards were commonplace. The advent of large FPGAs has meant that the need for multiple layer boards has gone in a lot of cases. It is truly amazing what can now be packed onto a two layer surface mount PCB with the reverse layer consisting almost entirely of a ground plane.

Modern CAD tools combined with a skilled engineer offer huge benefits to the design process. Optimized placement, chip type and functional partitioning can be achieved with fully integrated schematic capture and PCB editors, powerful design rule checks, 3D viewers, and high dimensional accuracy.

We develop PC software for various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, DOS, various RTOS systems and native environments.

Languages used include C, C++, Pascal, Visual Basic, Assembly, PLM86 and many others.

Product Traceability Database Systems
We can design and build database systems to your requirement. Whether stock control or as part of a manufacturing process or quality monitoring.

We manufacture equipment for our customers in low-medium volume, as well as one-off bespoke units.

Our in-house capability for producing test jigs etc. means that we can ensure that the product is fully tested.

Larger production runs are handled by out sourcing to specialist builders and carrying out final programming, test and calibration in-house.