Telecommunications Archives | DMC, Inc.

invisaWear Bluetooth-paired Personal Safety Wearables

Sam Levin — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

DMC used the client’s prototype to successfully create a personal safety wearable that can be embedded in a key fob, a piece of jewelry, and more. Users can press the hidden device discreetly, and it will connect to their phone. Based on the phone’s GPS information, it will send out an alert to emergency services.

With the client’s functional proof of concept and goal of wide deployment, DMC engineered an optimized application that is robust and capable when utilized and efficient while awaiting use or confirming reliability and availability. As each single use of the device or test of the system had an outsized impact on battery life, DMC calculated the amount of power that would remain over time – with the battery capacity decaying naturally, regular check ins with the phone, and then the trigger events (if they occur) needing to be accounted for and taking energy.

With our multidisciplinary background, DMC ensured the client used the best choice for controls with the hardware selected. Our responsiveness and locality to the client allowed for effective communication and led DMC to ultimately deliver technology with two years of battery life and extremely low power modes.

In addition to developing the embedded firmware, DMC supported a request the client passed on from the factory for an easy-to-use test process for use on the factory floor for manufacturing quality control. DMC came up with an extremely simplified test system that pairs, simulate an alarm, and checks for communications with a freshly-built system before returning it to an un-paired system ready for the end user to set up for themselves.

Stay tuned from new developments in personal safety from the invisaWear team!

Learn more about DMC’s Embedded Development and Embedded Programming expertise and contact us today for your next project.

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Multiplexing: Reduce Cost and Complexity

Sam Levin — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

DMC was asked by a client to provide a system that could analyze voltage, current, and resistance across any of 40 signal lines. Having a digital multi-meter (DMM) attached to each signal line to record measurements would have been a costly solution. Instead, a muxing wiring design was implemented. This design used inexpensive relays to switch between connecting the DMM to any of the 40 channels. This effectively converged 40 input channels into a single measurement line wired directly to the DMM. Any channel could be analyzed using this system, resulting in large cost savings for the customer and increased scalability for their application, should they want to add more channels in the future.

The figure on the left shows channel monitoring without multiplexing. Notice that a DMM is used for every channel. To enable sharing of that expensive resource, a multiplexing wiring scheme is used, as shown on the right.

DMC also did another project with a client who wanted to test electric vehicle batteries using a high voltage power supply. The power supply was able to connect to two battery packs and cycle them through various testing requirements. To improve testing throughput/bandwidth while reducing test setup times, the client requested that DMC provide a solution to test six battery packs on one test station instead of just two. DMC leveraged its experience with multiplexing to provide a demuxing solution. The final product, a turnkey solution referred to as the MUX Box, takes the two power cables from the power supply and splits them each into three channels. This is accomplished by using high power Kilovac contactors to switch the electrical pathway from the power supply to the different battery packs according to an input signal from the main software application.

So why do you need to use multiplexers? Well, you don’t, but depending on your application, you could achieve cost and scalability benefits from doing so. The primary purpose of using multiplexers is to reduce necessary hardware resources by allowing all channels to share a single device. It is often the case that the cost of adding separate data acquisition (DAQ) or output devices for each individual channel is greater than the cost of implementing a multiplexing strategy.

Click Here for more information on DMCs latest generation of Battery Production Test systems.

Multiplexing and Demultiplexing Diagram

Telecommunications Network Relies on Multiplexing

MUX Box Turnkey Solution

HV Contactors Conduct Muxing Operation

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Siemens PLC Communication via GPRS GSM Cellular Modem

Sam Levin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

DMC utilized the Siemens Simatic S7-1200 PLC and Siemens Sinaut MD720 GPRS GSM cellular modem. The system is able to send data from the PLC (through the cellular network) to the Siemens Sinaut Micro SC OPC server, and view the data on multiple OPC clients such as a WinCC Flexible HMI. The system is also able to send data back to the PLC using the same connection. This permits operator control of remote systems via a cellular network which can save significant amounts of time and money for certain systems that are not easily accessible.

Sinaut Micro SC OPC

Test Setup Screen

WinCC Flex Data from Sinaut OPC

Learn more about DMC’s Siemens S7 PLC programming expertise.

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Allen Bradley PLC Programming

Sam Levin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Successful Execution. Time and again, DMC has proven that we complete projects successfully, no matter what the odds. Our unrivaled team of expert engineers and consultants have one priority: getting your project done.
Top Caliber Results. When you trust your project to DMC, you know that the best minds in Manufacturing Automation and Intelligence are building your solution. Our experienced engineers have seen almost every manufacturing scenario and bring you experience-based best practices and expert analysis.
Freedom From Lock-In. At DMC, we believe you should continue to work with us because you want to, not because you have to. To that end, we build very flexible systems that deliver full source code and that don’t require programmers to adjust, and we train your staff on system modification procedures.

Learn more about DMC’s Allen Bradley PLC programming services.

PanelView Plus

Ultra 5000

PowerFlex 4

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Mobile Radiation Detection System

Sam Levin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

DMC worked with the client to modify their existing server side software, which is responsible for collecting, processing, storing, and reporting the radiation readings and GPS locations of their mobile detectors. Specifically, DMC modified and upgraded their LabVIEW-based server software to include:

Full integration of interactive maps using the Google Maps API.
XML based file exchange, compliant with newly developed ANSI standards for homeland security data exchange.
Collection and reporting of Gamma spectrometer data in the new XML format.

Learn more about DMC’s LabVIEW programming and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

System Overview

Website Street Map

Website Satellite Map

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LabVIEW Programming

Sam Levin — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

We have developed LabVIEW solutions for hundreds of projects for dozens of customers, including Argonne National Laboratories, Underwriters Laboratories, and Bombardier Recreational Products, to name a few.

DMC has successfully employed LabVIEW in many industries, including product development, R&D, high-tech manufacturing, and test engineering. Following are a few relevant examples:

Laboratory Automation

Manufacturing Automation

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Burn-in Test System for Fiber-Optic Devices

Sam Levin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

DMC collaborated with the client’s engineering staff to design, develop, and implement the improved advanced burn-in test fixture for active optical devices. The end system was smaller, easier to use, and cheaper. The cost benefit has been realized as the customer has built identical test systems to further increase capacity.

Burn-in testing is performed on finished components and involves performing full operational testing over temperature limits to screen out latent failures. The improved system is based on National Instruments’ PXI platform. DMC programmed a custom LabVIEW application to control all functions of the test station including querying part-number specific information from a database, configuring each device channel based on part number, controlling the ambient temperature of the test fixtures, actively operating each device using a feedback-loop control routine, recording all device operating parameters to an XML file, performing pass/fail analysis on parts at test completion, and logging all final test results to an Oracle database. System specifications include the ability to actively test up to 32 devices in parallel, setup and run devices in groups of 8, achieve a 75% reduction of setup time by loading devices without unspooling of optical fiber, a novel optical system to eliminate spurious power fluctuations, and reduced station cost of 50% through leveraging COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) test system components.

Burn-in Fixture

Control Panel

Test Report

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Fiber-Optic Data Transmission Test System

Sam Levin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The customer’s previous system consisted of two separate test stations, each requiring manual setup and operation. Test results were manually entered into the database. DMC collaborated with the client’s engineering staff to define hardware and software specifications for the new system. The new system uses one fully automated 12.5 Gb/s digital optical transmission test set to perform the functions of the two previous stations. The new system is completely integrated with the database and includes historical reporting capabilities.

DMC’s solution is based on National Instruments’ LabVIEW software, NI DAQ hardware, and commercial optical test equipment. The custom LabVIEW application controls all functions of the test station including: querying part-number specific information from a database, configuring device and instrument settings based on part number, actively optimizing and testing each device, performing pass/fail analysis on parts at test completion, recording all device operating parameters to an Oracle database, and generating HTML engineering reports.

System Diagram

Chirp Measurement

HTML Report

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Process Control System for Film Deposition Tool

Sam Levin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

DMC designed and developed a custom process control and monitoring system upgrade for a Perkin Elmer film deposition tool used for reactive RF sputtering of oxide thin films for optical device applications. Prior to this effort, the tool was used in a completely manual mode, relying on the operator to manually setup, start, monitor, and stop all processing equipment. Using National Instruments LabVIEW software with NI Fieldpoint hardware, DMC was able to fully automate the most labor intensive functions of the system.

The software system starts and controls the RF plasma generator, balancing electronics, mass flow controllers, and chamber pressure controller. As a result, configuration of the system involves only loading of a substrate and selection of the required deposition recipe, as opposed to setting multiple configuration settings. During deposition, the software continually monitors the process, logs measured parameters, and checks process variables for alarm conditions. The application also can automatically shut down the system after an alarm or at the specified process time.

Process Control Software

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