Alvin P. Schmitt Consulting
"I Will Write Your Software and Design/Build Your Electronics"
I consult as a trained Electrical Engineer with over 51 years experience and 56 years experience writing software. Some of my specialties are: Analog and Digital Electronics, Embedded Computing with analog and digital electronics and associated Software including RTOS, Compiler Writing and Automated Editors
I use Claude AI, owned by Anthropic
Willing to take on small or large projects depending on your need for a single "one-off" solution or a more a complicated solution including designing a product for manufacturing
ELECTRONICS
BS Electrical Engineering 1973 VPI&SU Blacksburg VA
Analog and Digital Circuit Design and Development
RF, Embedded and Computer Interfaces
PCB Layout and Design -- EagleCAD
Single Board Computers
Microchip,PIC,Raspberry PI as well as mini Computers DEC , TI
Patent 9063067 Moisture Sensing Devices
Electronics:
Designed and Implemented:
Electronics and software for Vapor Pressure Deficit for Plant Propagation using Cuttings
Electronics and software for capacitive soil moisture sensor with dielectric of water translated to 25 degrees C
Designed 13.56 MHz Class E Amplifier
Finite State Machine driven cardreader EBCIDIC to ASCII translator.
Capacitor and Inductor identifying Oscillator
Phase Locked Loop and VCO Capacitive electronics for capacitive sensor
Analog Signal Recorder
Designed a 40.68 MHz ISM Receiver using a Gilbert Cell
10 MHZ LC VCO
FM Slope detector to Error Voltage Device
Designed Digital Data over Cell Phone (Analog) Using Bluetooth
Developed Voltage Controlled Resistance (not using FET) Planning to Patent it
Capacitive Moisture Sensor Patent 9063067
Solar Integrator
Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor and Electronics
Analog Computer
Servo
Under Water Electric Signal Detector
Translating Card Reader Interface using a Finite State Machine
16 Channel Serial Digital Multiplexer
Soil Moisture Detection Control
TI980B CPU Utilization Meter
EAGLE PCB and Schematic Capture CAD |
Designed 915 MHZ amplifier and Detector
Designed, Printed and Fired a Capacitive Ceramic Moisture Detector
Many of the above devices used an embedded computer Microchip PIC16F1825 and PIC12F1840 Micro Computer
SOFTWARE
Started in 1968
Languages: C, C++, JAVA, FORTRAN, PL/1, FLEX, BISON, Various Assemblers, JCL
RTOS Design and implementation, Compiler Design, Automated Editors
Systems Programming and Computer Systems Engineer
CCS C for Embedded Computers
OS - Linux, OS-370, DSOS, DOS, Windows, MAC-XL, My Own RTOS, RSTS
Microchip, PIC, 8051, TI980B, IBM Mainframe, Series/1, GEPAC 30 and 4020
Mini and Micro
JAVA Object Oriented Programming grade 95%
C++ for C Programmers grade 97%
Software
Compiler Background Routines | Automatic Editor For Translating CDC Fortran to IBM Fortran | IBM SCRIPT like Automatic Editor | Disk Based Macro Processor | Operating System Routines for Serial Multiplexer | Designed and Developed a Multitasking Operating System (RTOS) | Peripheral Translator and Communications System Between TI980B and IBM Main Frame | Wrote Software to Copy 777 Files to Tape using One DD Card | Modified YALE IUP for emulating IBM 3270 on Series/1 Computer | Free Format JCL Translator | Wrote Command Processor | Developed MENU Language to ROM Programmer
GENERAL
Polymers, Ceramics, Thick Film
Skilled at Problem Solving
Wood and Plastic Working, Models, Prototypes
EXAMPLES
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Vapor Pressure Deficit controlled Misting for Cuttings in Plant Propagation by Cuttings
Over an eleven month period I developed a sensor device that would pull air from cuttings to be misted; calculate the Vapor Pressure Deficit number in Kilo Pascals; send it by a LoRa transceiver to a pump control system that would turn on a pump to apply mist to the cuttings if the VPD number was out of the range of 0.4 to 0.8 kPa depending on the amount of time since the system was initialized to day zero. Also the device could mist vegetative plants in the kPa range of 0.8 to 1.2 and flowering plants in the kPa range of 1.2 to 1.6 .
Plant waterer
There must be over 100 firms making plant waterers but they are all timer based to water a plant at a certain time whether or not the plant needed the water. My Device measures the Plant's soil moisture capacitively by a sensor and electronics currently being patented. It will be for sale to both hobbyists in catalogs sent to homes and wholesale plant nurseries. Developed because the head grower at Riverbend Nurseries in Floyd Virginia was having difficulty keeping the roots three inches down from soil top properly watered.
Translating Card Reader interface
Early in the 1970's, in college I was asked to design and build a translating card reader interface. This was before microcomputers existed. A PHD student was also doing the same thing. He was using diodes for the rom. It did not work but he received a PhD. Mine worked and I got an A for extra credit.
The way mine worked was as follows: as each column came through my device; using two 2701 256x8 eproms (the largest at the time) with each of the two bytes containing 12 bits of ebcdic characters. I designed a finite state machine using logic gates that during the time the column was being read would cycle through 256 eprom locations and when a match was obtained to the column it would read out the address of the character being the ascii translation and feed it to a 64 by 8 bit fifo to await the computer reading the character. The computer was a GEPAC 4020 process computer. I also used the 4020 to create a paper tape to program the EPROMs using assembler language. Then I took it to Poly Scientific to program them. Poly Scientific existed before MOOG bought it.
Computer Logic Equations to Wire Wrap Program
I was having a hard time in Graduate school because of a war between Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and they decided to take it out on me. So I decided to write a program using the logic equations used to define the PB440 computer to assign chips and then produce a wire wrap program. As the program read in the logic equations it would find the proper chip for those gates or devices and allocate it to a wire wrap board. The wrap list was so constructed by the program so that if the user made a mistake in wrapping the board he only had to take off one wrap rather than all the previous wraps in the chain. I wrote the program in PL/1 using pointers. I happened to mention the program in a meeting and a graduate student was assigned to use it for his master's degree. It was later used by the Trident sub by the Navy to produce a signature of logic equations so the naval officer could diagnose why the computer was failing and which circuit had failed.
TI980 Mini computer
I wrote routines to display the analog signal of a substance injected into a Gas Chromatograph on a printing GE300 terminal.
Then I developed a 16 channel byte wide serial multiplexer and the Operating System routines in assembler for the graduate students to access one of the 16 UARTs to obtain the Laboratory's instruments digitized analog signals.
Use of a mainframe to emulate a TI980B minicomputer's operating system
We ran short of operating funds and I was asked to get the object decks produced by the mainframe directly to the TI980B minicomputer by SDLC. God showed me a way to emulate the mini computer's operating system on the main frame so that the mini computer only needed to send its SVCs to the mainframe thinking it was just another minicomputer on the chain. Written in PL/1 and assembler on the mainframe. I was told it was patentable but not enforceable.
Developed a computer grading system so that A.H. Robins could determine the computer they needed.
Wrote a PL/1 and assembler program to copy 777 files to tape using just one JCL DD card. Had to modify the IBM/370 operating system's internals to perform the action repeatedly.
Five (5) minute increments
First Hour Consulting Session Free
P.O. Box 201
Newport VA 24128-0201
1-540-951-3961
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