Jeff wrote: > I am trying to find a contract electronics design company who can help > me design a product (the product will run embedded Linux so it's not > entirely OT). I've talked with a couple of different local companies > (VPI, Neonics) and based on the discussions I had with them I've > discovered that what I'm after is apparently a bit more cutting edge > than I had thought. Because it's apparently so cutting edge, it's going > to take a company or individual who's expertise is in the specific field > of eletronics I'm after (measuring distances using the "time of flight" > of an RF signal). Also they need to be someone who is up to date not > just on what's on the market but what is just barely hitting the market > and what is about to come out of the labs and onto the market in the > next year to 2 years.
Would GPS signals be sufficient? Sparkfun has a wide variety of GPS circuits, and they're finally coming down in price. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=4 Potential problems with GPS include precision, the initialization period (up to 40 seconds, I've heard), and satellite visibility. The GPS advantage is a fairly low price due to commoditization. There's also AGPS, which improves the precision but increases the price a lot. > Does anyone know of any company, individual, or guru like that? (They > don't have to be local to Utah though it would be great if they are). > I've tried google - but the problem is every custom electronics design > company claims to be great in their marketing materials and I've > realized I'm probably only going to be able to weed through them based > on references. Sparkfun could be the right place to ask. They've designed a lot of circuits and they probably know a lot of good designers. I should say that I've also wanted to build a pair of circuits that measure distances using RF signals. With triangulation, and if the measurements happen often enough, you could make outdoor video games. It would be better than a Wii! Shane /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
