Multi-Camera Automotive AI System

Multi-Camera automotive AI system based on NVIDIA Jetson modules (either Jetson Xavier NX or Jetson Nano) allowed connection of up to six serial Power over Coax (PoC) cameras and one LCD Unit (also using single coaxial cable link for its power and data).

The Main board included automotive grade power supply with external LiFePO4 backup battery and allow connection to a vehicle battery and up to two CAN buses. Connectors for external GPS unit, audio headset debug console and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antennas were provided. A provision for an external HDMI monitor connection instead of the LCD Unit was made. Connectors for the communication interfaces available on the Jetson modules (USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet) and a SD Card were also provided. Two on-board M.2 interfaces were included for a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module and an SSD drive.

The Camera Input board provided six FAKRA connectors and three dual FPD-Link III de-serialisers as well as the camera power switches and filters. The camera data was provided to the Jetson module on the Main board through six MIPI CSI-2 interfaces using high-speed on-board connectors.

Contracted to design the six board assemblies: Main Unit, Camera Input, LCD Unit and three PoC camera boards (two Image Senor and one Camera Serialiser).

Automotive Rear-View Mirror

The rear-view electronic mirror development was an attempt to improve rear visibility for a race car driver. Contracted to design the electronic hardware.

The prototype unit was based on NVIDIA Jetson Nano module and accepted video streams from up to three USB 2.0 cameras (initially one camera was used). The output video was displayed on the unit LCD together with overlayed additional information obtained from the vehicle CAN bus and an external GPS unit (the car speed, acceleration and location on the race track). Audio input for an internal microphone was provided.

The video produced by the Jetson module together with the audio could be recorded on a microSD Card or a USB 3.0 thumb drive.

Internal M.2 connector was provided for a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. A HDMI output allowed external monitor connection instead of the unit LCD for debugging purpose (hardware build option). The Jetson module Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 client interfaces were also available on the mirror external connectors.

The unit on-board automotive grade power supply accepted the car battery supply voltage and was backed up by an external LiFePO4 battery.

Rear View Mirror LCD side

 

Rear View Mirror board assembly side

 

Rear View Mirror prototype boards

 

Rear View Mirror prototype unit LCD screen

 

Test car

PC3 Series Controllers

Designed a number of board assemblies for OEM Technology Solutions Pty Ltd during work there on three different occasions between the years 2015 to 2019. Initially, working as a contractor and then as a permanent employee.

Most recent design there (year 2019) was a 4G communications board for their flagship product - PC3 Series programmable controller.

PC3 Series Controller 4G Communications Module with GPS

The modular construction of the PC3 Series controller (processor module plus I/O and communications modules) allowed custom builds of the product (number and types of inputs/outputs and communication interfaces) for different customers.

Starting in March 2015, worked on the design of a new processor module for the PC3 Series programmable controller.

During second contract for OEM in 2016 designed eight channel analogue input module for RTD devices connection and a sixteen-channel digital (0-24V) input module for this controller.

PC2 Series Controllers

PC2 Series controllers were a single board units with a number of inputs/outputs and communication interfaces.

During first contract at OEM in 2015 designed board assembly for PC2400 controller and during year 2018 worked on the design of board assembly for PC2600 Series controllers (PC2610, PC2611 and PC2620)

The PC2600 Series controllers were first in the company history product with software configurable inputs and outputs. The controller board hardware allowed individual configuration of its inputs and outputs through the unit application software.

The digital (0-24V) inputs could be configured in two banks of eight inputs as either sourcing or sinking type.

Each of the six analogue inputs could be individually configured as one of three types (0-10V, 0-20mA or resistance - thermistor).

The unit three universal inputs could be individually configured as one of the three analogue or the two digital types.

The two universal outputs could be individually configured as analogue (0-10V or 0-20mA) or digital (sinking) outputs.

The sixteen digital (0-24V) outputs were not configurable, all of sinking type with short-circuit protection.

The controller 2-wire RS485 interface could have biasing and terminating resistors enabled or disabled as required also under software control.

There were more than 2300 individual electronic components on the board (components on both sides).

Multi-Channel Audio Power Amplifier Input Board

Employed as a permanent employee designed a Multi-channel Input Board implementing four audio inputs and control interfaces.

The board was based on SigmaDSP chip and a STM32 microcontroller and was used in the company HSxxxxP series of audio power amplifiers.

HS4250P Audio Power Amplifier Product Webpage - External link (opens new tab)

 

HS4250P audio power amplifier front view

 

HS4250P audio power amplifier rear view (audio inputs and controls implemented by the Multi-channel Input board are marked by the green frame)

 

Screenshot of the audio board DSP control interface developed by a software engineer

COM Express Baseboard and other board assemblies

Sub-contracted to Visionflex through Allied Data Systems worked on the hardware design for the initial version of the tele-health system called ProEX. This version was based on Altera Arria V FPGA and COM Express module.

The produced schematics for the system baseboard and other board assemblies implemented a number of video inputs and outputs of various standards (DVI, HDMI, SDI and USB 2.0) and the COM Express module communication wired (Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, USB 3.0) and wireless (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and 3G/4G through M.2 modules) interfaces.

After the schematics completion the product requirements kept changing and after a few more iterations time assigned to the project run out. This version was never realised in hardware, but many of the developed schematics were later re-used in another simpler version of the product actually manufactured.

Screenshot of the ProEX Product Webpage - External link (opens new tab)

Medical Device Baseboard for Compulab CM-FX6 module

Sub-contracted to Invetech through Allied Data Systems (Compulab's distributor in Australia) designed a baseboard for the CM-FX6 Computer on Module and an LCD driver board for use in their medical laboratory device.

E-Band Transceiver Control & Monitoring System

Contracted by CSIRO ICT Centre to design hardware and write firmware and GUI software for three microcontroller boards for control and monitoring of their E-Band (71-76GHz and 81-86GHz) radio transceivers for point-to-point links.

The millimeter-wave links were to be installed on sections of Spread Networks' dark fibre link between Chicago and New York stock exchanges in order to further reduce the link overall latency (important for high-frequency trading application).

Screenshot of CSIRO blog webpage - External link (opens new tab)

The final product was developed in co-operation with EMClarity and its sister company EM Solutions from Queensland.

NWL-10 Vodafone MachineLink 3G M2M Router

Working as a permanent employee designed hardware for the NWL-10 M2M 3G wireless router. The product was designed for Vodafone Enterprise Global in a very short timeframe gaining all required compliance certifications for worldwide use.

The developed board assembly was also used in NWL-11, version of this product re-branded for Verizon Communications Inc.

NTC-1100 3G Smart Meter Communications Hub

After being recruited by the company completed partially started (incomplete schematics) hardware design for a 3G Smart Meter Communications Hub NTC-1100.

The product was developed for AusNet Services' state wide electricity network in Victoria based on Grid Net Inc's smart meter ecosystem.

Ngara 10Gbps Wireless Backhaul

Employed as a permanent employee at the beginning of 2010 to work on two large projects: Ngara wireless access and Ngara 10Gbps wireless backhaul.

As a member of the backhaul team was tasked with the design of the digital hardware for the system Outdoor Unit (ODU).

The ODU digital part consisted on a number of board assemblies housed in a standard 19" 3RU sub-rack.

The ODU RF part included three board assemblies with microcontrollers for their performance control and monitoring.

Ngara 10Gbps Wireless Backhaul Board Assemblies

Designed two FPGA based boards and one ODU controller board based on a microcontroller.

Wrote the ODU controller board and RF boards microcontrollers' firmware and control software (GUI).

Designed three microcontroller boards for the RF section sub-systems (down-converters, up-converters and power amplifiers) control and monitoring. Wrote the boards microcontrollers firmware and control GUI software.

Ngara 10Gbps Wireless Backhaul Outdoor Unit (ODU) Sub-rack

Designed the ODU digital sub-rack backplane board.

GSM/GPRS/GPS Tracking Device

The GSM/GPRS/GPS tracking device was a credit card sized device based on a phone module from Telit and an 8-bit microcontroller designed for Allied Data Systems' external customer (now non-existent).

The main application for the device was wireless tracking of road and railway vehicles or maritime vessels through the company website (the system was named GPSRoute).

The device provided eight digital (0-30V) inputs and one relay output. Audio input and output allowed headset for voice communication connection. The device could be powered externally as well as by its internal LiPo battery.

The on-board microcontroller monitored operation of the phone module as well as implemented the Lithium Polymer battery management system functions (battery charging, short circuit protection and charge status monitoring).

PC/104 Reference Oscillator Card SB-3635

The Reference Oscillator Card was designed for use in PC/104 systems with synchro/resolver converters (angle sensing transducers) for Data Device Corporation (DDC) represented in Australia by Allied Data Systems.

The amplitude (2V to 123V) and the frequency (400Hz to 8kHz) of the produced sinusoidal reference was controlled by the on-board microcontroller through the card PC/104 ISA bus or a serial port. The oscillator output was protected against short circuits by the card microcontroller.

AVISTA-100 Smart Network Camera

Initially, contracted to implement video motion detection in an open source hardware network camera from Elphel Inc. based on Xilinx FPGA.

After completion of the FPGA code work was asked to re-do the camera boards (Image Sensor and CPU) schematics and PCB layout in Altium Designer based on provided documents in pdf format.

SiPass Building Access Control System

Working as a permanent employee (2002-2005) designed three board assemblies for the company SiPass building access control system developed for worldwide use.

The SiPass access control systems are used all-over the world and are still available. Now, owned and sold by Vanderbuilt Industries.

QikDATA Solid State Storage System

Employed as a permanent employee to work on the system debugging and the FPGA controller board development.

QikDATA was a storage system based on a number of DRAM modules with a hard-disk backup housed in a standard 19" 1RU unit.

The product meant to solve long access time of hard-disk only based storage (tens of ms as opposed to tens of us for DRAM based storage) for website applications with large databases requiring frequent and fast access to the data.

The most accessed data was held in the DRAMs and in the background copied to the unit hard-disk with battery backup. The unit main board was based on Altera FPGA with NIOS soft-core processor. For redundancy there could be two identical storage systems in one enclosure.

The storage system was connected to the server using two (one for transmit and one for receive direction) proprietary LVDS links and a PCI card. There could be a number of such systems in a ring configuration connected to one server.

RBN GigaWave DWDM Switching Multiplexer

The company was developing optical networking equipment for US market.

Employed as a fourth company employee to design board assemblies for an optical Dense-Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) switching multiplexer (after one and a half year the company had over 100 employees).

Worked on the design of controller card for line input cards sub-rack as well as design of its backplane.