Portfolio

Portfolio
John A. Masse

PULSAFEEDER, INC. Rochester, NY

Pulsafeeder manufactured various chemical metering and fluid transfer pumps. They had two divisions, one in Florida that manufactured the PULSATROL series of small electronic pumps, the PULSATRON series of cooling tower controllers, boiler controllers, etc. and related products. The other division in Rochester, NY manufactured the larger industrial metering pumps like the PULSA series and the newer microprocessor controlled PULSAR series. I had sole responsibility for all electronic engineering for the Rochester plant.

At Pulsafeeder, I took over design responsibility for their newly released DLC electronic control. I improved and industrialized the design, solved several design flaws, and led the product submittal process for all Domestic (UL and cUL) and International (CE) Agency Approvals. I also designed the addition of MOTOR SPEED CONTROL to the basic DLC stroke length controller to create the improved DLCM control. The above controllers were based on an 80C551 microcontroller.

I am particularly proud of my design of the ECA control. I conceived the product, not in response to a specific design assignment, but on my own initiative to address several different "marketing wish lists" that I had seen floating around in several memos and meetings. I wrote a preliminary specification, did an initial circuit concept and circuit board layout using a low cost PIC16F876 RISC microprocessor and surface mount technology, demonstrating that I could fit the design into an existing explosion-proof enclosure that already had UL and CE approvals for hazardous locations. I presented the proposal to management, showing that the use of the existing enclosure would greatly accelerate the agency approval process. After management approved the product, I completed the design, circuit board layout, all software, and obtained agency approval in only three months.

AMERICAN PRECISION INDUSTRIES Buffalo, NY

My position at American Precision - Controls Division also deserves some clarification. The Controls division was essentially a start-up operation, started by a local mini-conglomerate. They had purchased a company called Rapidson in California that made stepper motors. They also had a division in Buffalo called Deltran that made electro-magnetic clutches and brakes. The concept was that the Controls Division would make electronic controls for both divisions. When I first joined them, they had just introduced a few basic stepper drives. I replaced the previous engineer, who returned to his old position at Kodak. The entire Division was just being separated from the parent division and consisted of only five full time people and one part time sales assistant. I was initially the only engineer, supervising several technicians and was responsible for both production and new product engineering. I completed the introduction of many new products, growing the division from $300K in sales to over $7 million in sales.

High_perf_micro_sys.pdf describes the P315/P315X series of high-performance drive / indexer systems which I designed for American Precision. The P315 was a high power pulse width modulated bi-polar stepper drive. The P315X was a drive / indexer (controller) tightly integrated with the P315 drive. I specified and supervised the design of the drive portion, although much of the initial detail design was done by an outside contract house. I completely designed the indexer/controller portion, which was also used as a stand alone product called the SAC-560, which was based on a Motorola 6809 microprocessor.

P261_series.pdf describes a reduced size, reduced cost version of the above, with somewhat less power capability. I achieved the reduced cost and size using improved surface mount and FPGA technologies.

I also designed a custom velocity follower indexer for locked shaft electronic gearing using a Motorola MC68332 microcontroller, with custom TPU (Time Processing Unit) microcode, “C”, and assembly language as a contract for an OEM labeling machine builder.

When I left I was beginning to evaluate and learn various DSP processors including the Motorola DSP5600 series and the TI TMS320 series for the preliminary design of a Servo Drive system.

STRIPPIT, INC. Akron, NY

The specific controls and machines, that I worked on there are no longer on their web site, http://www.strippit.com/ , so I can't point you to specifics, but at least you can see the kinds of machine control systems that I designed.

I am equally at home with software and hardware design, and with both digital and analog design. I have programmed many different processors, using assembly language, C and other languages. I have continued to keep my knowledge and skills up to date by attending several design seminars.