A History of Success



Our programmers have a history of success with many previous projects that have worked, without fault, for many years. Here is a sample of those successful projects, the names changed to letters:

1979: We designed both the hardware and embedded firmware for the former BC Hydro (crown corporation of British Columbia Government) in their Supervisory and Telemetry Control System. Said System was designed with one of the first microcontrollers, the RCA 1802, and the code was written in assembler language. The System was commissioned in 1979 and operated without fault, and without any bug-fix firmware modifications, until it was replaced in 1999 by a new generation of computer control systems. The System is used to monitor and control a Province's power stations in their hydroelectric power system and was retired after 20-years of trouble-free operation.


1982: We designed the hardware and firmware for PMC's Type 8201 Marine Telegraph Unit. Said Unit was designed with the 8085 microcontroller and the code was written in assembler language. The System is used to provide communications between the Bridge and the Engine Room of a marine vessel in order to 'telegraph' commands such as full-ahead, half-ahead, stop, etc., thereby replacing the old-style mechanical 'telegraph' systems. The system has operated fault-free and bug-free for over 25 years and is still in use today.


1986: We designed the hardware and firmware for the C Co's Satellite Telemetry Decoder. Said system was designed with the Zilog Z80 family of microcontrollers and the code was written in assembler language. The System was commissioned in 1986 on a prototype basis with 10 units in C Co's communication network, working in parallel with their existing system. The System is used to allow C Co in Toronto and Montreal to send telemetry signals to their network, via satellite, to remotely switch the uplink and downlink equipment for their television programming. The system operated fault-free and bug-free until it was retired in 1991 with a production-version replacement system to upgrade the C Co's entire network.


1987: We designed the hardware and firmware for G Co's Model ICS Wheelchair Lift Controller. Said system was designed with the NEC 78C10 microcontroller and the code was written in assembly language. The system is used to control an electro-mechanical folding platform which allows for wheelchairs to load onto the platform, travel up or down the hand-rail in a building's stairwell, then unload off the platform at the destination. The system was commissioned in 1987 and operated fault-free and bug-free for 15 years until it was upgraded to a newer product, G Co's GSL-1 Model, in 2002.


1990: We designed the PC system configuration and software for the C Co's Uplink in Yellowknife, NWT. Said system used a PC computer with two RS-232 serial communication ports plus two RS-485 serial communication ports, to control C-Band equipment made by Varian Associates and Scientific Atlanta. The code was written in C-Language using a round-robin task scheduler. Custom modifications were made to the Serial PC Cards to allow them to work correctly with all interrupts functional, thereby overcoming the design flaw which is systemic to the PC architecture which typically causes COM port crashes. The real-time multi-tasking software was written with a round-robin scheduler and did not rely upon any unreliable PC operating system, except for some file I/O operations via MS-DOS. Custom COM drivers were written to overcome the re-entrant limitations of MS-DOS. The system was commissioned in 1990 and operated successfully for 12 years without fault, bugs, or modifications until C Co upgraded their uplink equipment to digital technology.


1991: We designed the upgraded Satellite Telemetry Decoder system, with production-quality hardware and firmware, to the CUE-SAT-91 System for CCo to replace the 10 protoypes commissioned in 1896. Said system was designed with the Z80 family of microcontrollers and the code was written in C-Language. The system was commissioned in 1991 and operated fault-free for 10 years until it was replaced by the CCo Network's upgrade to digital technology.


1993: We designed the PC system configuration and softare for the VBC Co's Control Centre. Said system used a PC computer with four serial communication ports (both RS-232 and RS-485) to control the C-Band and Ku-Band uplink equipment. In addition to the serial control devices, several parallel control and status bits were required, so a custom relay and opto-isolator interface was designed using NEC 78C10 hardware and firmware to achieve versatile I/O Rack performance. For superior performance of the control system, the PC software was written to use Kadak Product's AMX-86 real-time Kernel, thereby eliminating all the non re-entrant problems with MS-DOS. The system was commissioned in 1993 and operated successfully, without bugs or modifications, for 8 years until the VBC Co upgraded its network to digital technology.


1996: We designed the hardware and firmware for VCS's' Remote Telephone Dialer Unit. Said system uses an 80C51 microcontroller, conforms to FCC Part 15 requirements, and the code was written in C-Language with a round-robin task scheduler. The Unit is installed outside an apartment building, or similar complex, which has not been wired for front-door access control. One telephone line is connected to the Unit to allow the visitor at the front door to call the resident and communicate via the standard telephone line wired to the resident. The resident may grant or deny entry to the visitor. The system was commissioned in 1996 and is still in use today, without fault, bugs, or firmware upgrades, for over 11 years.


1999: We designed some hardware and firmware for AT's Status Monitor System for Cellular Telephone System's Battery Chargers. Said System uses an AMD 386 embedded controller and the code was written in C-Language using Kadak Products' AMX-86 Real-Time Multi-Tasking Kernel. The System is used to control battery charger electronics in order to maintain the fully-charged state of the battery system, complete with temperature compensation. The firmware was developed in conjunction with four other programmers and was commissioned in 1999. The system was upgraded and maintained by the other programmers who are employees of AT. The system is still in operation today and works very well.


2001: We designed the software for the RDI Collection Network. Said software was written in Delphi language and operates on a PC machine with NT-4 operating system. The Network allows RDI in Toronto and Montreal to gather RDI programming material using the CUE-SAT-91 system to remotely operate the uplink sites. Recently the software had to be modified to work with a hardware upgrade and Windows XP installation.


2002: We designed the hardware and firmware collectively to develop a new product for GS. Said new product is the GSL-1 Stairlift Controller system and it was designed with the Atmel ATMega128 microcontoller and the code was written in C-Language with a round-robin task scheduler. This new system was commissioned in 2002 and is the latest GS product to replace their previous ICS Wheelchair Lift Controller. The product is operating without fault and bug-free.


One of our programmers teaches Real-Time Multi-Tasking C-Language Programming, as well as an Introduction to Atmel Microcontrollers, at the BCIT Institute of Technology in the continuing education department at night school.