Pinecone Engineering - Projects

The following example projects provide a flavor of the types of work undertaken for our clients using the following disciplines: prototype development, electronic design, PCB layout, software engineering, LabView development, Test fixtures & ATE design, mechanical design, custom manufacture, obsolescence engineering and through life support.

RMCU

Remote Monitoring and Control UnitA Remote Monitoring and Control Unit (RMCU) provides a means of monitoring in real time the position, status and behavior of oceanographic and navigational buoys. The system can be configured to report status information at preset times via GSM and/or Orbcomm communicator. Received data is transmitted to a web-server providing a cost effective means for monitoring a large number of buoys.-more-

GPDA & Control Unit

Data Acquisition & Control UnitThe Data Acquisition & Control Unit (DACU) is a handheld general purpose, re-configurable monitoring and/or control device. The unit incorporates both analogue and digital I/O and has a 2x20 character LCD display. The unit is ideal for repetitive monitoring and control operations which cannot be performed by commercially off the shelf instrumentation. -more-

VME Test Board

VME Test BoardA double euro card conforming to the VME 64x standard provides a software programmable loads for testing the thermal characteristics of VME crates. Each TTB has the capability of providing 70 watts of controlled power. Each card requires two 160 way backplane connectors (P1 and P2) in order to provide sufficient power supply connections. -more-

Wireless Access Point PSU

wireless access PSUThis 12v to 48vdc battery backed DC to DC converter power supply has been developed for powering wireless access points and other types of wireless technology requiring a 48volt supply. The unit enables 8hrs of operation from 1 full charge and is intended to be used where there is no immediate access to mains electricity. The unit is ideal for undertaking wireless surveys within buildings or warehouses and can even being used as an emergency backup facility.

Data Acquisition PCA

SpringboardSpringboard is a low cost data acquisition PCA for domestic or industrial monitoring and control applications. Springboard has its own PIC / stamp processor and can be provided in a number of configurations.Each configuration can be powered externally or from a 9v PP3 battery making it ideal for remote monitoring or for educational instruction.

ATE Support

ATE SupportPinecone undertook to support a strategic item of automated test equipment (ATE) designed and developed by another company. The ATE was developed using National Instruments LabView graphical programming language and PXI hardware.

Bed of Nails Test Fixture

Developed from outline source information and brief from our client, a 3D visualisation was 1st produced showing how the “unit under test PCA” interfaced with the bed of nails.

Obsolete Relay Unit

A sealed 4pole change over relay with screw terminals formed part of an electronic control cabinet. Spares of the relay were no longer available and Pinecone was asked to design a unit which was form, fit and functional compatible with the old unit. The replacement unit used an equivalent military relay housed on a custom pcb with screw terminals. Development time approximately 8 weeks.

Break-in Test Boxes

Break in boxDetail design, manufacture and supply of a series of break-in test boxes fitted with various high density CINCH micro Dtype connectors.

Custom Cableform Manufacture

Manufacture of custom cableform using source information and kit provided by client. The cableform was 5meters in length with a single high density ZIF connector one end and several connectors and PCA at the other.

DC-DC Converter

The PA-DC/DC-10A-1 is small form factor DC-DC converter providing 1.8V or 2.5V for Xilinx Virtex series FPGAs.


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