Project Files
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Industrial & Commercial Projects
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Bolton
Engineering, Inc. had designed the client’s first
generation Fingerprint ID System using a quad-processor
DSP. The client wanted to move to a less expensive dual-processor
DSP, increase fingerprint template capacity and add I/O.
The unit had to fit into the same case with similar power
requirements.
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Subscriber
Solutions had won a Bureau of Prisons contract to deliver
a high reliability modular PBX system and had eighteen months
in which to deliver a fully working system. Bolton Engineering
worked closely with Subscriber Solutions to create a detailed
system specification so that the many subsystems could be
designed and tested in parallel. Boards were designed to
be removed from or inserted into the system while the power
was running without losing ongoing calls ("hot swapped").
Redundant TDM (Time Division Multiplex) highways and control
busses were implemented to ensure that single-point failures
did not stop other system elements from working.
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A
wastewater treatment facility needed to detect the interface
between sludge and decanted water. The facility previously
had needed to replace their standard off-the-shelf optical
detectors every few months; the existing optical detectors
operated off of fixed density thresholds and gave false
readings as their components aged.
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The
Intelligent Automation Systems 4DI Imager is a non-contact
gauging system that creates a three-dimensional wire frame
model of an object under inspection. The system shines a
series of laser-generated lines on an object and measures
the line locations using three CCD cameras. The 4DI Imager
board detects the laser line locations in the images and
outputs a series of points. A PC-resident application package
displays a wire frame image and performs image analysis
functions.
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Bolton
Engineering had designed the client's first generation instant
ticket vending machine. Although the machine had proven
highly reliable with over two-and-a-half million total hours
of operation over three years without hardware or software
failures, it was not versatile enough to meet the needs
of the increasingly sophisticated Lottery Commissions.
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The
Precision Detectors PD2000 family of molecular characterization
detectors measures absolute values of molecular weights,
sizes, and shapes. Typical applications are polymers, proteins,
antibodies, polysacchrides and other macromolecules used
in the plastics, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and food
industries. The PD2000 series is available in single angle,
dual angle and high temperature versions with or without
dynamic light scattering (DLS) capabilities. The high performance
cell design provides exceptionally accurate measurements
for a broad range of molecules from less than 1000 daltons
up to 106 daltons for most samples, and to 107 daltons for
certain proteins and polymers.
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A
client had been manufacturing various versions of this instrument
for over 20 years. The design in production had been designed
several years before, but still incorporated manual wiring,
with critical components soldered directly to switches to
minimize parasitic electrical leakage. The client produced
two similar instruments, but the electronics for each was
unique.
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Telepharmacy
Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of e-commerce
solutions to the outpatient care market. TSI’s products
allow medication to be legally remotely dispensed to patients.
Other TSI products provide medication access control at
hospitals.
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Bolton Engineering was working on several Digital Signal
Processing (DSP) projects and needed a miniature development
board that could be used to jump-start software development.
Two of the projects needed to run Linux, and also required
significant programmable logic content. Using the
Analog Devices Blackfin Stamp board as a starting point,
Bolton Engineering designed the Blackfin Stamplet.
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Bolton Engineering had designed the
electronics for the SensAble Technologies OMNI Haptic
Device. The system was a complex mixed-signal design with
sensor interfaces, digital electronics and high power Pulse
Width Modulated (PWM) amplifiers. Bolton Engineering built a
custom test station to allow the product to functionally and
parametrically test itself
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This unique product uses a
hardware/software model to calculate a predistortion signal
to cancel out the distortion introduced by an RF power
amplifier. This unique system incorporates a high speed
TigerSHARC floating point Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
plus a client-designed Programmable Logic Device (PLD)
computational engine that work in unison to calculate a
predistortion signal to cancel out the distortion introduced
by the RF power amplifier.
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Redshift Systems had developed a radical new technology
that greatly reduced the cost of manufacturing Thermal
Imaging Cameras (TICs). TICs are used in surveillance, and
by emergency response personnel to identify people and doors
in smoke filled buildings. Bolton Engineering developed a
miniature Digital Signal Processor (DSP) board based on the
Analog Devices Blackfin that incorporated all video capture
and display electronics.
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A client was developing a software
radio for base station use. They had done all the system
calculations to determine how the signal path should
operate, and what kind of signal processing they required.
They had excellent in-house expertise for the RF design, but
did not have sufficient in-house experience to do the
digital design. Bolton Engineering designed the system
using an Analog Devices Blackfin Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
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A client was investigating the
practicality of embedding
Steganographic (i.e., hidden) signals in television
programs and advertisements. These signals would be part of
the audio stream and would trigger bonus points in a small
handheld giveaway device. The client hired Bolton
Engineering to develop a small credit card-sized battery
powered device for a limited marketing test of the concept.
In under four weeks, Bolton Engineering delivered fully
working, debugged boards and driver code.
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Consumer and Computer
