Elecsys Solutions

Jason Fuith and I formed Elecsys Solutions in early 2004.  We sold Elecsys to Norscan Instruments at the end of 2006.  In between, we had the time of our lives… although it wasn’t very profitable.

Working in a small company is fantastic.  I hadn’t had that much fun since Vansco was under 40 people in size!

We had lots of exciting projects.  Some developed into products, others we just created proofs of concept, and others didn’t get past the proposal stage.  They were all mind expanding, and I’m thankful for all of it.

In 2005, we hired Nishant Dhruve, a graduate student as our first (and only) employee.  He was enthusiastic and intelligent, worked hard and learned a lot.

When we sold Elecsys, Jason and I went to work as managers at Norscan, and Nishant joined Norscan as a developer.

Wabtec

I managed a group of 10-12 software developers – engineers and CompSci grads of varying experience and confidence.  It was quite a change to see the railroad industry perspective.  There’s a lot of opportunity in the railroad industry, for sure, and Wabtec is well placed to provide solutions!  The Wabtec Winnipeg group makes some cool products, basically hardened network infrastructure, internal/external communications, sensors, and edge computing resources for the locomotive.

During my time at Wabtec, one of our brilliant junior engineers went off to work at Tesla Motors, so sad.  On the other hand, I was asked to hire three more people, which I did in December 2019/January 2020.

Unfortunately, during the recession connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, locomotive sales declined, and this had a big impact on Wabtec.  A large number of staff were laid off in June 2020, including me.  You never know what the future will bring!

NxtPhase

NxtPhase acquired the APT Division of Vansco on January 1st, 2001, and I went with the sale.  NxtPhase was venture capital funded, and ran into cash troubles repeatedly.  In June 2003, they announced a plan to move its Winnipeg operations to Vancouver in May 2004.  I was asked to move, but advised of my intention to seek a termination instead of moving.  In December 2003, they decided to cancel the move.

I decided to do consulting instead.  A former colleague joined with me and we created Elecsys Solutions Inc.

Involvement in Revitalization of SAE Manitoba Section

they would be on time in their reports… I trained them, and assisted them… and they never were on time either.

Meanwhile, we did OK but were existing hand-to-mouth.  It was tough.  I got on HQ to give us the US5k that they had in trust…  but it seemed as though maybe whoever said that, spoke too soon!  We got part of it.  But then, as I rose to vice-chair and then to chair of Manitoba Section, I kept on them, and eventually, they remitted the full US5k – which, in Canadian terms, was a whole lot more!

Somehow during that, I became the “grand old man” of Manitoba Section Governing Board operation.  After I’d been through Treasurer, twice through Chair, and been on the board as Member at Large for several years, I just started putting myself down with the position of “General Annoyance”.  Which others just chuckled at, possibly because it was true.

I was asked once why I worked so long with SAE Manitoba Section.  Well, it’s because the other SAE members involved here in Manitoba were so engaging, the topics so interesting… and, darn it, it was so much fun!

Further, SAE involvement got me better at presenting, public speaking, and running meetings (I actually read Robert’s Rules cover to cover, at one point).  And, of course, per above, I learned how to balance assets & liabilities versus profit & loss statements, which has been important to me since.

When I moved to Arizona, I quickly became chair there, and had a similar experience – good people, interesting topics.

For anyone thinking of getting involved in IEEE or SAE or whatever – you really should!

Serve as Chair of IEEE Winnipeg Section

In the quiet days of early 2019, I answered the call from Dr. Witold Kinsner to take up the vacant position of Vice-Chair of IEEE Winnipeg Section.  I was happy to do so.

In October 2019 and again in February 2020, I was able to go to the Region 7 (Canada) Board Meeting, and got to see how IEEE Canada works.  I thought I was well prepared for the coming year…

Then COVID hit.  We’ve been trying to regain our balance since.

I formally took over the position of section chair in May 2020.  As of June 2021, I have turned over the position to Dr. Philip Ferguson of the University of Manitoba. I trust he can do more in person, especially as the pandemic eases (we hope!).

Develop ComSat Infrared Satellite Dish Positioner with CSA Approval

In the early 1980s, satellite television became a fairly large thing, especially for those who lived in rural areas and who couldn’t get cable.  Indeed, even moderately wealthy city dwellers who had a large yard (or a large roof) would get satellite TV.

In order to watch multiple channels on multiple networks, you had to reposition your satellite dish to point at different satellites, then retune your receiver for the new satellite.  Of course, people soon tired of moving the dish manually, so a market for satellite dish positioners arose.

A company in Winnipeg called ComSat commissioned Vansco to create satellite dish positioners for their customers.  There were two or three models, with different sizes of memory storage, and sophistication of function.  However, they were all front panel activated – one had a wired remote control.

On one of those existing dish positioner systems, I was asked to investigate recurring field failures, where the boards came back burnt up.  The first thing we found out was that somehow the two opposite drive channels were coming on, shorting out the supply.  As we were using thyristors (triacs), we suspected a thyristor commutation failure.  The first thing I did was put a fuse in the circuit, to prevent board damage if and when such a failure to commutate should ever occur, although it really should never occur.  Then we realized that the failure was occurring periodically as the dish positioner motor was crossing the end limit switch – apparently the inductive kick from the circuit opening was enough to engage both triacs!  We replaced the fuse with a push-to-reset circuit breaker, and beefed up the copper weight on the output driver board (1/2 oz copper wasn’t enough, I had it increased to 1 oz on that board only), and we were able to start shipping again.

The market was calling for a high end dish positioner.  I was to create a new product with wireless remote control, alpha display, high resolution high performance positioning, and full CSA approval.

The first thing, of course, was to address the problem we’d just been through.  Rather than use triacs on full-wave-rectified DC, which would sometimes fail to commutate due to the induction of the motor under load, I created a full wave bridge using SCRs, which are guaranteed to commutate.  And, of course, we used 1 oz copper on the output board 🙂

We got the high-end MC68705 MCU for the processing, with lots of program memory.  We put an NM93C46 serial EEPROM for the many memories this unit would have.

I did a survey of the wireless remote control systems at the time.  I tested RF and infrared remote controls… and briefly considered ultrasonic (my family had a very old Zenith television with Space Command, and as I recall, there was an electronic system that worked similarly).  I didn’t seriously consider it.

In the end, we used a Philips infrared remote control system.  The initial prototype used the Philips chips on both ends, but when we added up the cost of the bill of materials, the receiver chip was just too expensive!  So on a lark, I wired the IR detector directly to the MCU and modified the code to try to decode it directly… and made it work!  With only a minor bit of circuitry, we had full IR decode capability.

We built more prototypes.  We contacted our local CSA office and proceeded to get the prototype CSA approved.  It was all done, except for the issuance of the tags…  when the project was cancelled.

It turned out that the satellite receiver manufacturers had figured out that they should incorporate the dish positioner into their receivers, so that customers could program one device with both the location of the satellite and the tuning.  Can’t say I blame them.  But, literally, the bottom fell out of the satellite dish positioner market, and we stopped making them.  From something like 2,000 units a month to zero the next.  Ugh, that hurt!

Serve as Chair of PES Chapter of IEEE Winnipeg Section

When my involvement in the APT Division of Vansco was at its peak, I almost always went to the local Power Engineering Society meetings, which were held during lunch hour at a local hotel.  When the chair of the local chapter stepped down, Tom Molinski of Manitoba Hydro, Dave Fedirchuk of APT (seconded from Manitoba Hydro), and I, got together to discuss how to ensure the chapter’s continued success.  We decided that I would become chair, and they would assist in finding meeting topics and presenters.  This worked very well.  Later, other members stepped forward to assist as well.  I was chair of PES for 4 years.

Serve as Chair for SAE Arizona Section

I contacted SAE Arizona in February 2014, to see what was happening locally, and see if I could attend some presentations.  I was immediately asked if I could do a presentation in 2 weeks, which I did.  It was great to meet everyone, and they were very warm and inviting.  My presentation was on the Flex-Header Controller for Honey Bee, but the members present wanted to hear a lot more about all the other things that I had done in my career.  We had a really good discussion!

Shortly after that, I was asked to take the position of Secretary for the balance of the 2013/2014 Section Year, and I agreed.  A couple of months later, in May 2014, I was asked to become Vice-Chair for the 2014/2015 section year, and that seemed reasonable as well.

In July 2014, the Section Chair took relocation to Ohio, and the position of Chair fell to me.  It was very challenging – I knew very few people, and had even fewer technical contacts relevant to SAE.  So, I appealed to the membership, and they responded well – so well, that I stayed on for 2 years.

I met a lot of fantastic people, and saw lots of great presentations while connected to SAE Arizona.