Design and Prototype Support Services

Andy Gayne has many years experience of electronic product and embedded software design gained within the industrial sector and distribution. As an Atmel-certified FAE, Andy provided product training and engineering support to companies throughout the UK, with regular training and product updates from Atmel engineering teams, linked with priviledged access to Atmel microcontroller design and support personnel.

This combination of experience and in-depth product knowledge means that Andy is in a unique position to provide a specialised design service for Atmel AVR, C51 and ARM embedded processors, as well as being able to apply the same professional skills and experience to any microcontroller device from the wide range of alternative manufacturers.

A broad range of product design skills are available which can be utilised independently to support your existing design resource, or as a complete package to provide end-to-end design of your new product.

Extensive experience in the design of industrial electronics means that Andy is able to create efficient, reliable and robust circuits involving digital and analogue elements. All design work is produced using CAD schematic capture which results in clear and logically arranged drawings of your new circuit, ready for transfer to the PCB design process. For customers with a pre-existing circuit design the generation of schematics allows for peer review of the circuit, which can often trap errors and highlight design-for-manufacture and design-for-test issues.

PCB layout is 100% hand-routed, and can be single-layer, dual-layer or multilayer as required. Avoiding the use of autorouters means that signal integrity can be more carefully managed, resulting in designs that have a better chance of performing well, both functionally and for issues such as EMC. Also, it can be a considerable advantage to have a PCB designed by an engineer who is also experienced in electronic circuit design - expect plenty of feedback as the design progresses.

Andy's software skills can been utilised in a variety of ways, ranging from resolving specific software problems to full turnkey projects. Alongside complete blank-canvas designs there are numerous examples of partial projects that have been implemented, such as:

• Porting an obsolete micro's assembler code to an Atmel alternative.
• Constructing base projects of hardware drivers, allowing later addition of the final application by the end customer.
• Rescuing partially completed third-party code that was malfunctioning.
• Adapting Atmel USB reference code to alternative USB classes.
• Building a multi-processor framework and communications protocol.

Key software design skills include:

• Software design in C and assembler.
• USB device and host functionality.
• Capacitive touch integration.
• Serial communications, data storage and peripheral drivers.
• Graphic and character display integration.
• Sensor interface and data collection.
• Extensively documented code for ease of future maintenance.

Beyond the core areas of hardware and software design, there are many practical activities that can be carried out to help get your product designed, tested and manufactured. Andy has extensive experience in many areas and can provide a professional service for many support activities, for example:

• Prototype assembly of surface mount and through-hole PCBs.
• Testing and diagnostic fault-finding of early protoypes.
• Small-batch board modifications, functional testing and flash programming.
• Customer demonstation models.

Whatever your requirements, for an initial informal discussion about the support your project needs, please contact Andy by email or phone using the details provided on the Contact page.

To see what previous clients have to say about CHIPenable, please browse through the Testimonials page.