This science instrument was developed for a NASA AMES project to measure and quantify the number and type of energy particles astronauts are exposed to in space environments. Initially slated for the lab on the International Space Station, our client was responsible for developing instrument mechanicals, electronics and build.

This meant meeting all of the aerospace requirements… including shock & vibration, heat dissipation, radiation hardened components as well as redundancy built into the firmware in order to meet reliability requirements and protect against radiation induced latch up in the electronics.

Advantage designed the printed circuit board specifically to carry heat away from the electronic components into the aluminum enclosure to manage the difficulty of heat dissipation in a zero-gravity environment.

This meant meeting all of the aerospace requirements… including shock & vibration, heat dissipation, radiation hardened components as well as redundancy built into the firmware in order to meet reliability requirements and protect against radiation induced latch up in the electronics.

As part of the navigation system of a spacecraft, Star Tracker Cameras use the stars as reference points comparing what is imaged to a stored software catalog of stars located on the spacecraft’s processor. It collects a picture of the star field around the spacecraft and performs a 3-axis attitude determination using an algorithm that compares the relationships of stars to the craft.

The Advantage team designed a miniaturized Star Tracker Camera with a Scientific Imaging Technologies CCD (512 x 512 parallel array, 24µ x 24µ, 12.3 mm x 12.3 mm imaging area). This camera has a large dynamic range and high sensitivity. It utilizes a patented cooling technology reducing size, weight and cost of an imaging system.

A compact, low mass star tracker camera is ideal for small satellites such as nanosats and microsats which are the trend for both Government and commercial programs.

In November of 2000, EarthWatch (now DigitalGlobe) launched the QuickBird 1 satellite from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia but it failed to reach orbit. A successful launch of QuickBird 2 (QuickBird) ensued on October 18 of 2001.

QuickBird is the first in what will by 2008, be a constellation of commercial imaging satellites. The constellation will enable commercial and government customers to access broad selection imagery.

NASA’s Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite was launched June 19, 1999, on a Titan II rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. It circles Earth at an altitude of 800 kilometers (500 miles) once every 101 minutes, passing close to Earth’s north and south poles.

The scatterometer SeaWinds instrument on the QuikSCAT satellite is a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth’s oceans.

Scatterometers operate by sending radar pulses to the ocean surface and measuring the “backscattered” or echoed radar pulses bounced back to the satellite. The instrument senses ripples caused by winds near the ocean’s surface, from which scientists can compute the winds’ speed and direction. Used for weather forecasting and long-term climate studies, QuikSCAT‘s measurements also provide an early look at developing hurricanes.

The mission is managed by JPL, which also built the Seawinds radar instrument. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center managed development of the satellite, designed and built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

Launch of CloudSat/CALIPSO successfully occurred on Friday morning, 28 April 2006 on the sixth attempt. At approx. 6:02 a.m. EDT, the Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites soared into space from the California coastline.

Sixty-two minutes after liftoff, Calipso separated from the rocket’s second stage. CloudSat followed 35 minutes later. Ground controllers successfully acquired signals from both spacecraft, and initial telemetry reports show both to be in excellent health. Over the next six weeks, system and instrument checks will be performed, and the satellites will be inserted into their final orbits.

Windows let 30% of heat or air-conditioned air out of a building on average. This product, heated windows is a Green Technology product times two. This is because the efficiency of radiant plus the almost complete prevention of temperature loss from inside to out.

Two University Studies have conclusively demonstrated that the heat from the windows does not radiate to the outside of the building.

The controller supplies 110VAC that is present in residential and commercial buildings to the radiant heating elements of the window. Each controller provides control for up to 3 heated windows in a set. The user has the ability to individually configure each of these windows to a specified temperature through the custom Smart Phone application.

Hardware features included:

• Zigbee RF network chipset for local and remote units.
• PIC 18F series microcontroller
• Multiple analog and digital sensors
• Modem with line interrupt relay. Dual line configurable.
• Status LEDs
• 16 character LCD for user interface
• 100 db alarm sounder
• Battery backup
• Up to 10 individual sensors can be networked
• 100 ft range*

This wireless sensor network smart home device was designed with plug and play installation capability. It is based on cutting edge wireless technology and scheduled to be installed in millions of homes nationwide. All product configuration is done remotely by the host and in-home installation does not require re-wiring.

Software features included:

• Automatic RF authentication, connect, disconnect, polling and re-transmit
• Cascading alarm reporting, multiple reporting hosts
• Test and Mute modes
• Configurable alarms and status reporting, multiple alarm tracking
• Dial-up remote configuration programming
• Dial-up remote system control

Our engineering team designed, tested and debugged the hardware and software using leading Zigbee pre-production products. This product posed a significant engineering challenge because much of the design and testing effort was conducted while Zigbee part specs and protocols were still being developed.

*Maximum range depends on several factors including building environment and RF interference.

In this example we look at how cost savings can be realized through embedded technologies, thoughtful design and transformation of a product.

The Advantage engineering team evaluated the functions of all 6 instruments, devised a design plan that maximized embedded technologies, performed component engineering to convert obsolete components to surface mount and ROHs technologies in such a way that the functions of all 6 products could be combined onto 1 instrument with 1 main printed circuit board. All functions of all instruments plus a few additional features meant that – not only was the targeted cost savings realized, but a novel, fresh-featured instrument emerged from their ashes.

1. Reduction in total number of different components used, resulting in higher volumes for each and less effort in sourcing and maintaining the bill of materials.
2. Conversion of the older thru-hole designs to surface mount, CE compliantcomponents resulting in significantly decreased manufacturing costs for all 6 independent instruments.
3. The customer’s product support team now has fewer hardware designs to support.

Our clients, innovators with a disruptive medical product concept had deep clinical experience but no product development experience. They engaged our services to flesh-out their idea and develop their system from end to end as well as to protect their concept, and take it through complicated regulatory testing then manufacture and get it out to the market.

Their life-changing idea minimized the size, weight and complexity of prosthetics while adding the intelligence and means to control its settings by using a smart phone (which many of its end users already owned) and making it in such a way that that intelligence that that intelligence can be moved forward to the user’s next socket. This technology gives the prosthetist the means to record the usage and other information required for reimbursement of the device, as well as real time information about what is going on in the prosthetic socket (the plastic shell the residual limb fits into) as the wearer performs various activities.

The Smart Phone as a remote control allows the user to interact with a graphical interface they are familiar with, avoid the expense and bother of another wireless device and spares any awkwardness the user might experience in explaining what a separate remote is for. It is one less thing to have to carry around.

Check out Fox 31’s news story on how Advantage’s mhealth solutions are allowing amputees to take control of their prosthetics.

Our clients, innovators with a disruptive medical product concept had deep clinical experience but no product development experience. They engaged our services to flesh-out their idea and develop their system from end to end as well as to protect their concept, and take it through complicated regulatory testing then manufacture and get it out to the market.

Their life-changing idea minimized the size, weight and complexity of prosthetics while adding the intelligence and means to control its settings by using a smart phone (which many of its end users already owned) and making it in such a way that that intelligence that that intelligence can be moved forward to the user’s next socket. This technology gives the prosthetist the means to record the usage and other information required for reimbursement of the device, as well as real time information about what is going on in the prosthetic socket (the plastic shell the residual limb fits into) as the wearer performs various activities.

The Smart Phone as a remote control allows the user to interact with a graphical interface they are familiar with, avoid the expense and bother of another wireless device and spares any awkwardness the user might experience in explaining what a separate remote is for. It is one less thing to have to carry around.

Check out Fox 31’s news story on how Advantage’s mhealth solutions are allowing amputees to take control of their prosthetics.

While testing the GroundHound in the field alongside other warning equipment workers discovered that many of the “false positives” showing up on other monitoring equipment were actually transients or rogue currents flowing from something happening at a location close by. Depending on the characteristics of the soil, resistance varies widely with each worksite.

The revolutionary new GroundHound – Site Safety Warning System instrument from Advantage Electronic Product Development provides live, real-time monitoring and alarming of voltages associated with Step & Touch hazards on high-voltage work sites. The system monitors and alerts workers of the presence and severity level of their site’s ground/step potential rise, allowing them for the first time to safely make truly informed decisions regarding procedures and the level of protection required at the job site.

When a worker comes into contact with energized soil caused by the voltage difference between the ground and an energized object Step Potential, (also known as Ground Potential, or Earth Potential rise) extreme danger to people and equipment may be present. The line worker no longer needs to step on dangerous ground and touch dangerous equipment to read the alarms. A self-contained Sensor Unit in an iPhone or Android communicates vital information via wireless protocol to a foreman standing a safe distance away.

This wireless sensor network smart home device was designed with plug and play installation capability. It is based on cutting edge wireless technology and scheduled to be installed in millions of homes nationwide. All product configuration is done remotely by the host and in-home installation does not require re-wiring.

Hardware features included:

• Zigbee RF network chipset for local and remote units.
• PIC 18F series microcontroller
• Multiple analog and digital sensors
• Modem with line interrupt relay. Dual line configurable.
• Status LEDs
• 16 character LCD for user interface
• 100 db alarm sounder
• Battery backup
• Up to 10 individual sensors can be networked
• 100 ft range*

Software features included:

• Automatic RF authentication, connect, disconnect, polling and re-transmit
• Cascading alarm reporting, multiple reporting hosts
• Test and Mute modes
• Configurable alarms and status reporting, multiple alarm tracking
• Dial-up remote configuration programming
• Dial-up remote system control

Our engineering team designed, tested and debugged the hardware and software using leading Zigbee pre-production products. This product posed a significant engineering challenge because much of the design and testing effort was conducted while Zigbee part specs and protocols were still being developed.

*Maximum range depends on several factors including building environment and RF interference.

Windows let 30% of heat or air-conditioned air out of a building on average. This product, heated windows is a Green Technology product times two. This is because the efficiency of radiant plus the almost complete prevention of temperature loss from inside to out.

Two University Studies have conclusively demonstrated that the heat from the windows does not radiate to the outside of the building.

Several hundred of the windows were installed in a Platinum rated LEEDs building, the Golisano Library in Rochester New York.

For this project, our client asked us to developed windows of various sizes with the ability to heat up to 140 degrees when power is applied to them. We developed a controller to regulate the window temperature and smartphone applications for both Android and Apple to give the user configuration control and access to diagnostic information (such as error or fault conditions) through these applications.

Designed utilizing Texas Instrument’s TMS320DM310 CCD controller/video DSP chip, TI’s TMS320LF2407 DSP microprocessor and TI’s TRF6900 single chip UHF 850UUHF 830-950Mhz RF transceiver. This camera also incorporated a TLV320AIC23 stereo audio codec, LV4135W LCD controller, flash ram, USB and RS232.

TMS320DM310:

• Real-time MPEG-1, -4 encode at CIF resolution (352 x 288)
• Real-time MPEG-4, video decode at VGA resolution (640 x 480)
• One-second shot-to-shot delay for 6-megapixel image
• Supports multiple applications and file formats, including AAC, H.263, H.265, JPEG, JPEG2K, M-JPEG, MP3, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, WMA and WMV
• Highly integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) design reduces overall system cost

As part of the navigation system of a spacecraft, Star Tracker Cameras use the stars as reference points comparing what is imaged to a stored software catalog of stars located on the spacecraft’s processor. It collects a picture of the star field around the spacecraft and performs a 3-axis attitude determination using an algorithm that compares the relationships of stars to the craft.

The Advantage team designed a miniaturized Star Tracker Camera with a Scientific Imaging Technologies CCD (512 x 512 parallel array, 24µ x 24µ, 12.3 mm x 12.3 mm imaging area). This camera has a large dynamic range and high sensitivity. It utilizes a patented cooling technology reducing size, weight and cost of an imaging system.

This wireless sensor network smart home device was designed with plug and play installation capability. It is based on cutting edge wireless technology and scheduled to be installed in millions of homes nationwide. All product configuration is done remotely by the host and in-home installation does not require re-wiring.

Hardware features included:

• ZigBee RF network chipset for local and remote units.
• PIC 18F series microcontroller
• Multiple analog and digital sensors
• Modem with line interrupt relay. Dual line configurable.
• Status LEDs
• 16 character LCD for user interface
• 100 db alarm sounder
• Battery backup
• Up to 10 individual sensors can be networked
• 100 ft range*

Software features included:

• Automatic RF authentication, connect, disconnect, polling and re-transmit
• Cascading alarm reporting, multiple reporting hosts
• Test and Mute modes
• Configurable alarms and status reporting, multiple alarm tracking
• Dial-up remote configuration programming
• Dial-up remote system control

This wireless sensor network smart home device was designed with plug and play installation capability. It is based on cutting edge wireless technology and scheduled to be installed in millions of homes nationwide. All product configuration is done remotely by the host and in-home installation does not require re-wiring.

Hardware features included:

• ZigBee RF network chipset for local and remote units.
• PIC 18F series microcontroller
• Multiple analog and digital sensors
• Modem with line interrupt relay. Dual line configurable.
• Status LEDs
• 16 character LCD for user interface
• 100 db alarm sounder
• Battery backup
• Up to 10 individual sensors can be networked
• 100 ft range*

Software features included:

• Automatic RF authentication, connect, disconnect, polling and re-transmit
• Cascading alarm reporting, multiple reporting hosts
• Test and Mute modes
• Configurable alarms and status reporting, multiple alarm tracking
• Dial-up remote configuration programming
• Dial-up remote system control

Smart Prosthetic Controlled by iPad, iPod & iPhone

Our clients, innovators with a disruptive medical product concept had deep clinical experience but no product development experience. They engaged our services to flesh-out their idea and develop their system from end to end as well as to protect their concept, and take it through complicated regulatory testing then manufacture and get it out to the market.

Their life-changing idea minimized the size, weight and complexity of prosthetics while adding the intelligence and means to control its settings by using a smart phone (which many of its end users already owned) and making it in such a way that that intelligence that that intelligence can be moved forward to the user’s next socket. This technology gives the prosthetist the means to record the usage and other information required for reimbursement of the device, as well as real time information about what is going on in the prosthetic socket (the plastic shell the residual limb fits into) as the wearer performs various activities.

The Smart Phone as a remote control allows the user to interact with a graphical interface they are familiar with, avoid the expense and bother of another wireless device and spares any awkwardness the user might experience in explaining what a separate remote is for. It is one less thing to have to carry around.

Check out Fox 31’s news story on how Advantage’s mhealth solutions are allowing amputees to take control of their prosthetics.

The maritime navigator computer was designed for a client that is a software developer with strategic relationships with satellite resources for link data and GPS positioning information. They enlisted us to develop a product vehicle to market their navigation related software to aircraft and watercraft owners.

The client had already decided upon the OS and Application software that was to run on the system, designed a case to fit a selected LCD screen and so forth. Our task was to take what they had previously determined and expand on it to meet their needs.

Advantage has remained at the forefront of technology with the development of a variety of FPGA and ASIC development/emulation platforms. These development environments are high speed signal designs such as PCIe and SAS/SATA interfaces utilizing SERDES (Serializer/ Deserializer) techniques as well as DDR interfaces. With the high speeds of these designs (many 3.5Gbs and higher) signal integrity analysis is required to ensure a viable product.

When driving high speed signals through “Large Scale” devices such as FPGA’s, the design and layout becomes an exacting discipline.

The clocks (and usually data paths) must be differentially driven with matched length using impedance controlled circuit traces. Devices with internal clock multipliers/dividers need low ‘jitter’ clock sources with appropriate PCB layout to minimize reflections or losses that can keep a design from working properly. The power distribution system (PDS) must be carefully considered to maintain clean power to all power and ground connections to these active devices and power/ground planes must be properly placed and configured. The voltage keeps going lower and the current keeps going higher as the speeds of today’s designs ever increase. This adds the complexity of having local voltage regulators (and usually several voltage levels) placed near the high speed parts. These regulators generate heat that must be dealt with, and the regulators ability to supply clean power must be carefully considered.