About Me
Even as a child, electronic design was one of my greatest interests along with flying. However, it wasn’t until later in life that I realized I could combine the two into a new product idea. After starting two successful small businesses, I developed a wide variety of electronic devices for general aviation. One business, Zaon Flight Systems, would go on to generate worldwide interest. I enjoyed developing avionics systems, including aircraft awareness, collision avoidance systems, and multi-functional displays. This invaluable opportunity allowed me to learn the full scope of product development, from an initial concept through post-production support. While I designed the systems to be autonomous, I also worked with several companies, including Garmin, L3 Technologies, Honeywell, and many others, to integrate our data with their display systems. This cooperative teamwork was not only mutually beneficial, it also enabled me to work with other engineers who shared the same passion in design excellence.
Additionally, I enjoy working with technology which is life improving or life saving. This has led me to industries like Aviation and the Medical Industry, for which I am very grateful to have the opportunity to work in. Both industries are process oriented, are quality-driven, and involve a planning process which allow me as an embedded software engineer to focus more on innovations and work with high confidence in the testing phase as each phase reaches completion.
Career Start
Like many other professional and engineers I worked with at the start of my career, the bridge between software and hardware was a short one, especially in the embedded world. Having a firm understanding of both the software and hardware was critical to developing new technology with safety and at a pace which allowed steady progress. In 2001 my career led to designing avionics, but by 2006, the popularity of these products were growing at such a rate that a new company was formed to focus entirely on avionics.
My design experience includes RF, analog, power supplies, 802.11 wireless communications, and high speed digital design. I have implemented projects on a diverse collection of processor platforms including low-cost microcontrollers, FPGAs, and ARM processors. Additionally, my software capabilities grew from assembly and C/C++ environments to Python, Java, and expanded into integrated app development, custom-designed RTOS systems, and implementing full operating systems such as embedded Linux.
Today, my interest and experience encompass both the hardware and software design. Whether it’s analog, digital, or the development of application drivers and firmware, I enjoy the unique challenges faced by today’s embedded systems.
To highlight some of my past experience, I have created this website to show examples of discontinued projects that I owned and can thus share some of technical details. I have broken my experience into three main categories:
Media and Industry Recognition
The PCAS XRX project was one of the most successful projects I have undertaken. As a 5th generation product series, it was highly anticipated and sought after. The mission of the XRX project was fairly simple - a portable and low-cost aircraft collision avoidance system, with directional information, at a fraction of the cost of the existing technologies at the time. The nearest competitor had an directional accuracy of only 1 degree, but with a price tag of over $30,000. During our market research, we discovered that pilots were willing to trade a large amount of that accuracy for a much lower cost as they were already used to air traffic controllers giving them general directions (typically in general clock positions) to nearby aircraft. With this in mind, I created the XRX to provide pilots with that same service, or "general direction to look" in 22.5 degrees of resolution. As time passed, I continued to improve the system, increasing the degree of accuracy and increasing the range to the rear of the host aircraft.
Prior to even the first trade show weeks after the XRX was released, the most brutally honest and trusted independent review organization, Aviation Consumer, had secretly purchased an XRX to conduct a review. The review caused a tidal wave of customer demand and can be found still online, although it requires a membership to read the actual article.
In 2012, Flying Magazine also did an independent review of the XRX. It too is still available on line.
In 2010, a new TV series, titled The Aviators, was launched with a regular lineup on PBS. On episode #168, a demonstration of the XRX and MRX was conducted. While I can not show the full episode, this is the preview which was released to the public. In addition to the episode, we were also a sponsor of the show. A video to one of our advertisements, which ran as a sponsor, can be also still be found online
Other magazines and avionics companies also wrote reviews and provided media coverage. While the vast majority no longer exist, there are a couple that still remain as valid links:
Medical Devices
Having gained an enormous amount of experience in both software and hardware design in the avionics industry, my real passion was software engineering. Working in the medical device industry allowed me to focus entirely on software development and in a much larger market!
Designing medical devices includes many of the same benefits. life-saving technology, quality-centered design, and process-driven development. I enjoy working within the well structured environment and I have had the fortunate opportunity to work on many different projects. Some of these projects have included infusion pumps, precision imaging guidance, main processor portions of large complex designs, and organ transplant systems, technical upgrades, and others.
