How did you get into electronics/ engineering and when did you start?

Started back when I was growing up. My father did radio and TV repair, and I had access to tubes and various components. From there I got my first crystal AM radio kit, and kept going. I ended up going into the Navy to get the basic and advanced electronics instruction.

Can you tell us about your time in the US Navy as an Aviation Technician/Maintennce Manager?

I enlisted in the late 80s, and knew I wanted to do Electronics. I also knew that I wanted to work on something other than ships, so I chose the aviation maintenance track. I went through basic and advanced electronics training. I learned all about the things I had played with as a kid growing up, and why they worked the way they did. In school we were also taught best troubleshooting practices along with various other sundries of useful information.

After graduating school I was assigned to performing maintenance on Navy helicopters for the next 18+ years. I worked on Communication, Navigation, Mission Systems, Data handling/Display systems along with weapons systems integration. Because it was in a smaller community, many jobs crossed over to areas I wasn’t trained in. This gave me valuable mechanical training in being able to work with metal, fiberglass, painting, engine maintenance and flight control maintenance. As time progressed I also progressed up the ladder and used that store of knowledge to effectively lead groups of maintenance technicians of various disciplines.

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

A good mixed signal scope, even though our current systems are lower in frequency. A good SMD workstation and a good meter. Working with a small company has reminded me how to be lean in my tool requirements. Although while in the Navy my favorite was a tossup between a Time Domain Reflectometer, and a Frequency Domain Reflectometer. With those two tools and a decent multi-meter I could find and repair almost any broken wire or coaxial cable.

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

As the design engineer. I would have to say schematic capture and layout tools. Personally I like the portability of the gEDA tools, as I work mostly with my notebook. This allows me to telecommute and also opens up the platforms I can run on it, from OSX to Linux or Windows. It depends on what I’m doing at the time.

What is the hardest/trickiest bug you have ever fixed?

That would probably be my current problem. Production came to me with an issue on the current batch of boards we received from our CM. All the boards are showing the same failure coming from the CPLD, however there isn’t a short to something that would cause it. I’m in the process of eventually desoldering and checking the via’s under the CPLD and replacing it with a known good one.

What is on your bookshelf?

A vast array of books, from my NEETS, to books from school, Electronic Design from concept to reality, Modern Electronic Communication, Digital Systems, and EMC for product design for the Hardware, and as I’m also the S/W designer in house, various user manuals and pubs for the MCU’s and CPLD, along with DSP algorithm and C references.

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

Just the basic troubleshooting steps. Look at output, look at input, if you know it’s not right cut the circuit in half and look there. Keep cutting it in half until you find where your signal is correct and move back the other direction. Keeping it simple and following signal paths is probably the best thing for finding what’s wrong.

What has been your favorite project?

Learning the ins and outs of how Pulsed Eddy Current metal detection works. I was brought in to my current employer as a maintenance technician, until they had a chance to get my feet wet. Then the fun really began.

Do you have any note-worthy engineering experiences?

Landing the job of a lifetime, as the design engineer for a niche manufacturer. I spent 20 years on the maintenance side of the house, always asking why the engineers designed something the way they did, now I get to be the one to look at it from the maintainers side and say, this doesn’t make sense.

Do you have an experiential stories you would like to share?

Numerous times of finding the “problem part” by where the blue arc let out the black magic smoke, but most memorable actually has to deal with RF energy. Being underway on a small ship, the HF communication antennas hang out the sides of the ship. Our aircraft was brought out to the flight deck and being prepared for the flight schedule. As I was walking around the aircraft, checking various panels for integrity. I ran my hand along the trailing edge of the tail section. I came across a small section that the paint had worn off, and it felt warm. I put my hands on other spots, but didn’t get the same sensation. After looking at the section and checking various ground points, I discovered a bonding wire that had broken, and wasn’t properly redirecting the energy to the ground. I used that little incident to improve my skills as a troubleshooter for the tail system, and also as a lesson to other maintainers about what to look for and what it feels like when it’s wrong.

After 20 years working in the Navy, how did you get involved with Tectron Engineering Co.?

While still on active duty I pursued my ASEE and BSEE, and was retiring in 2007. At that point I was happy just to go to work where my schedule didn’t revolve around excessive amounts of travel. I interviewed with several employers, along with Tectron, and had good prospects. With Tectron however, I wasn’t the only prior military that would be there. I had the chance to work with other retirees that understood how I work and what I did. Along with the education background, they were pleased with the prospect of bringing me onboard. I actually had to talk to a couple of other companies that I interviewed with first to give them their shot, but was definitely drawn to the environment of the small company. It most closely resembled my time in the military as a small dedicated group of multidiscipline maintainers for an aircraft detachment.

Can you tell us about the process of converting existing analog system designs to digitally enhanced MCU controlled designs?

When I was brought on, the company had already had another company take our workhorse system and design a digital version of it. However the project manager for that, didn’t do a very thorough job in managing what he wanted the system to do as far as noise susceptibility and sensitivity with respect to speed. As I moved into the engineering position I learned some of the drawbacks of the system and set about looking at ways to debug the H/W problems that existed, correct some of the software problems and also bring the system operation closer to how the older analog systems work. The company has been around for 40+ years, building analog systems of about the same age, but it is getting more difficult to locate some of the older components, and also there are limitations in what they give for responses.

Can you tell us about some of the products Tectron Engineering Co. makes?

We manufacture Tramp Metal Detectors for Industrial Applications. In a nutshell if a customer has a product that they don’t want metal in, that is where we come in. We use a method that is suited for higher belt speeds, and widths. We currently have units on belts that run up to 1500 feet/minute, and some belts that are 140 inches wide. Mostly we serve the mining and aggregate industries, but we do have some in Lumber, Recycling, Coal, Hay production, but not in the food or aviation industries. Because we are in a niche market, and have such an established footprint, we know most of our competitors and have a fairly solid grasp on the difference between the machines. Armed with this knowledge we try to work out ways to provide the customer with differing technologies that they might actually be able to benefit from.

What direction do you see your business heading in the next few years?

The market we serve is fairly stable in that there’s aren’t any major changes going on. Mostly just adaptation to the fluctuating markets. That being said, as I work on the different designs bringing them to digital form, and also adding in information to the customers that they need will help keep us in the game and help us maintain the philosophy of being the “Best little metal detector manufacturer that you’ve never heard of.”

What challenges do you foresee in our industry?

As the technology gets to be more and more digital centric, there will be fewer and fewer analog engineers. Those that can see the analog side and also translate over to the digital world will be in higher demand. I think that many people keep seeing the digital divide, and keep missing the Human Machine Interface is dependent on an Analog world. As we lose the analog engineers, the likes of Bob Pease and Jim Williams, it will be harder and harder for the younger generation to understand, just why that transistor turning on at such a speed is important.