EDA and Product Design Ideas

Some Ideas of mine that were put in delabs Tweeter, related to EDA and Product Design

Product Design Optimization

Make Practical (it works), Affordable, Usable (ergonomics), Safe, Reliable (robust), Durable/Consistent & Maintainable (Servicing) Products.

Dust and Contamination in Connectors

Once i opened a RF Millivolt Meter of Marconi Instruments. It did not have a spec of dust inside, not even one micron size of dust particle.

Connectors exposed to Environment should not only be Corrosion resistant but also Dust, Grime & Insect Proof! Dummy Covers on exposed units.

Air Vents, Fans & Unused Slots in Modular Instruments. Missing Fasteners in cabinets, gaps in panel components collect Dust & Insects inside

Dust + Moisture + Smoke + Pollutants = Conductive Grime Deposits on PCB, Parts & in-between the IC pins. Can Simulation include this aspect.

Virtual Environmental Testing a part of simulation and EDA, just like Mechanical Modelling and Studying Thermal Gradients on PCB.

Multi Zone Temperature Controller

This was one unique custom design i made for a Mining Company for Ore Processing. It was Multi Zone Scanner controller.

It might have been for a rotary kiln of a large size. Four temperature sensors were connected to the system with brushes just like in a motor. Even the supply to the trasmitters was on the brushes.

The Instrument had a Analog Multiplexer with a Synchronous Sample and hold, as the analog value was coming via the brushes. It had four relays that would turn off or on every scan cycle, depending on the input values. The kiln system was slow it had inertia, so it did not require a fast acquisition for 'Real time' as you may find necessary in small Thermal Systems.

This was built with analog and digital chips, no uC in this design. This was because it was a front end controller, there was a risk of a uC system getting stuck. These days, that problem may not be so worrisome, but i am not so sure.

What if the watchdog goes for a short nap?

You can find part of the designs here - Industrial Process Control Circuits

Multi Zone Process Monitor

Here is an ancestor of the product in the earlier post. It is a Process Scanner and Indicator. There was no control, but there were individual alarms for each channel.

This is a original design of mine, obsolete now due to size and technology. The inspiration of the product concept was from a Omega Catalog Item. Even today i use the Omega catalog for inspiration, but i do not design complete products, only circuit sections.

The Omega catalog was introduced to me by the MD of a firm i worked in as a R&D Engineer in my young engineer like days. He used to call me and show a catalog product and ask me if i could build something like that. I would then design it working both at home and office, sometimes even in the night, it was just the enthusiasm or creating something new.

I even built the first Pneumatic Tyre Inflater with the help of the CNC director for that firm, this product won a national award in the nineties. I left the firm on a trivial issue which i never disclosed. It was Exhibition time, many new products were not complete, they asked me to make Mockup Dummy Instruments for demonstration only, overnight. I ran away.

Read more about Control Instruments at my pages here

• Industrial Process Control Applications
• Process Control Instrumentation

PTC – Mathcad Electrical Engineering Library

Ideas, Design, Simulation, Emulation and Testing. The fundamentals are governed by Math. The parameters, the metrics, the limits, the specifications. All have to be taken into account, none overlooked.

More Meticulous and exhaustive the pre-processing is, the less errors and shocks we get at the end of the product design cycle.

I have had my share of jolts, the only reason being, i did not anticipate that jack in the design engineers design box. Remember Murphy is always looking.

Plan-Simulate-Proto-Pilot-Execute

Here is a tool Mathcad and a module for EE. That helps us in our design goals. Standard calculation procedures, formulae and reference tables used by electrical engineers.

Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Hicks' Adapted from the Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations (edited by Tyler G. Hicks).

PTC - Mathcad - Engineering Calculations Software

You will need to Login to Get to the EE Library of MathCAD

Materials and Inventory Management

The Inventory of a Firm should be Open within an Organization. Searching with a browser, Integrateable with departmental webware/intranet. With a very easy readable non-programmer friendly API.

The Search must be based on Multiple Keywords, Filters or Tags. Dormant Inventory and Parts/Equipment/Furniture not on any live project anymore, Excess Inventory and Obsoleted Parts due to Tech Advancement; should be flagged. This enables other departments to use it, consume it for Maintenance or Research projects or integrate into new designs if not-obsolete.

If found to be valueless, damaged or worn-out by all departments and responsible engineers, then inventory should be sold or given away. The Employees can be the first customers for an inhouse Corporate Garage Sale. An un-organized, complexly-computerized and non-transparent/blocked Stores will end up in a Flea Market.

Vendor Development and Component Sourcing must be impartial and based on quality, supply consistency and price. Commitment and Collaboration with vendor is good, but only if quality is maintained. Quantities purchased should be little over the needs. Both Overstocking and Understocking can trouble Firms Capabilities.

The R&D should maintain its own Inventory. Similarly the Administrative Sections too should have its own Materials Store. This way cost measurements and material maintenance are more effective and simple.

delabs.co - Tech Engineering Framework

delabs now has a central home, almost like a Online HQ. delabs.co came online on the 28th of July, in the year 2010.

Its Historical if you see it through my eyes. At least i am dreaming Seriously. Things may not be the same anymore, things never are. I have to get back to my Arduino Practice. These days i can't even hold the soldering iron steady.

delabs.co - Tech Engineering Framework

Connect Collaborate Create

Interface with delabs and dapj - About delabs.co

dd-buzz - dd-tube - dd-news - dd-album - dd-maps

Anwheel Methods - Mechanical and Mechatronics

Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics. Manufacturing Technologies and Engineering Materials.

Anwheel Methods - Mechanical and Mechatronics

At last a found the right way to use my Anwheel.com domain. It started as a home for tuned search, then news. Now it comes into the Engineering Domain. Revolving around Electronics Technologies.

This now will be a permanent home for Mechanical related resources as seen by an Electronics Engineer who has Mechanical Shop experience. I do not use any machines or special tools anymore.