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Portfolio |
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NEONICA Ltd staff have been employed in a broad spectrum of industries from broadcasting, through geotechnics, systems house and design consultancy to materials testing for over twenty-five years, and have been responsible for the design and production of many different solutions.
From simple interface boxes through to complex multi-processor control systems, we evaluate the requirements and get the job done using whatever technology is most appropriate.
The following is a brief list of some of the more interesting projects undertaken over the years.
[ For copyright, IP, confidentiality and availability reasons, many of the pictures are indications only and are not fully representative of the accompanying text.]
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PIC based units for remote control of analog signal conditioners
Microchip PIC processors and similar devices often provide a rapid and cost-effective way of implementing many custom interface solutions. NEONICA has used these devices in a variety of interesting ways, from simple water level sensors to crosspoint switch controllers. |
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NEONICA can offer design expertise and consultancy for many types of high speed embedded microprocessor systems. From 4 to 32bits with a particular specialisation in very high-speed 32bit stack machine processors, we can design complete microprocessor systems with a wide range of peripherals. |
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Complex stand-alone multi-channel high-speed control system
Using a dual-processor architecture combining real-time I/O processors with a desktop PC, this self-contained unit included an LCD based user interface, analog and digital I/O along with IEEE488 and RS232 communication links.
Designed for a research project, the system allows fatigue testing of bituminous materials (sections of roadway) in customer supplied test rigs at up to 100Hz using high frequency servo valves. |
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Portable FM cassette tape recorders for monitoring the seismic effects of explosive demolitions.
A small run of eight identical devices was produced for a specialist geophysical company, along with the necessary tri-axial sensors. |
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1-100A constant current power supply
Switching regulators combined with linear post-regulation and filtering provide a compact solution at low cost for this compact rack-mounted unit. |
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Surface mount and through-hole PCB design from one to many layers.
Our experience allows us to design for production using the most cost efficient technology. |
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Extensible Inclinometer
These custom electrolytic inclinometer cells resolve the two angles of tilt (dip and direction) and can be extended to a string of indefinite length using a common 7-wire bus. Primarily designed for borehole use, these devices are inexpensive and accurate.
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We can offer a comprehensive FPGA design service primarily using Xilinx gate arrays. Flexibility and re-configurability are the key aspects which allow rapid development and subsequent enhancement cycles. A recent design used over 90% of the resources in a Xilinx Spartan II device and was funded by a DTI SMART award. |
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Distributed Multiplexer for PLC expansion.
Using a simple shifting protocol, these devices allow effectively infinite expansion of a single PLC input using just one control output and a string of robust distributed switches. Analog or digital sensors are sequentially routed onto a common bus by sending short switching pulses to the first switch unit. An optional loopback connection can be made to ensure correct registration in difficult or sensitive environments.
Using multiple PLC control outputs, multi-dimensional arrays of sensors can be economically monitored. |
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Signal conditioning cards for AC LVDTs, DC sensors, quadrature encoders and current drive outputs.
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Programmable gain, offset and excitation combine with synchronous demodulation and on-board digital filtering to extract the highest quality information from the raw signal. |
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Touch Screen based panel with tactile feedback
Designed for an acoustically noisy environment, this user interface combines an LCD panel with a matrix of buttons integrated into a touch screen. The buttons are readily configurable, being printed onto card fixed to the rear of the panel, and tactile feedback is provided by a solenoid-operated striker which taps the panel when a button is pressed. This gives the user the illusion of a ‘press and click’ switch panel while retaining the positional flexibility of the touch screen. |
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Embedded software for traction control on full-scale experimental rapid transit system.
Closed loop computer control of large variable speed DC motors using custom-designed hardware and software. The software was designed to allow smooth acceleration to a constant speed and allows for the non-linearities and deadbands of the motor control units. |
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Flexible I/O signal routing unit
Using ‘magnetic personality’ cards to control an array of corresponding reed switches, users can select from a pre-defined range of routing options for monitoring testing devices in a laboratory environment. The cards allow for the switching of groups of machine interfaces to a central monitoring and control point corresponding to the responsibilities of the duty team.
This simple but effective hardware solution was used to eliminate the possibility of unwitting interference with another team’s test regimes in a resource-constrained laboratory. |
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Capsulation machine variable speed drive
This experimental servo system provided continuously variable injection phasing to increase production throughput in the pharmaceutical industry. |
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By breaking the mechanical link between die position and injection point and allowing continuous on-line adjustment, it was shown that real improvements in production speed could be obtained. The warm-up and settling time of the machinery had previously made such experimentation prohibitive.
The self-contained unit utilised a quadrature encoder input for die position monitoring, high-speed firmware, a small display, push-buttons to adjust the injection point and a large stepper motor driving the injectors. |
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NEONICA Ltd specialises in real-time systems design using the innovative Ignite1 processor from Patriot Scientific. |
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This 32bit chip uses a novel dual-stack architecture and provides masses of processing power in an inexpensive low power microprocessor.
http://ptsc.com for full details of this remarkable device. |
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7 Eldon Road Reading RG1 4DN UK
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)118 375 3008
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