The Evolution of GPS Technology

Originally conceived for the military in the 1970s, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is now a ubiquitous technology that is used in a variety of consumer applications such as car navigations systems, sports devices, freight tracking, child tracking and mobile map applications. The technology hinges on data transmitted from a number of satellites which, when combined, work together to pinpoint your location on a device.  There are a total of 29 satellites that circle the earth twice a day, but a GPS only needs information from 3 to recognize where you are. Each of these 3 satellites calculates the distance between itself and your receiver, allowing the receiver to narrow down the area of your location until it is finally able to determine your exact position.

GPS was first used to help military personnel and transportation units, and it wasn't until 2000 that its popularity boomed commercially. That year, the U.S. military ended the practice of deliberately degrading satellite signals to prevent potential enemies from taking advantage of the technology.

As the accuracy of GPS improved, so did its applications as a civilian tool. Most of us have used a GPS navigator in a car to map the best route to our destination.  Today, GPS navigation systems even come pre-installed in new car models.  If you don’t have a GPS in your car, you most likely have one in your smartphone. The same technology allows you to take advantage of mobile mapping applications that help you find your way.

Beyond navigators, GPS technology has even expanded into the world of sport. Athletes and amateurs alike use GPS devices to help them quantify their successes. Runners use them to calculate miles run; cyclists use them to map routes; golfers use them to gauge the number of yards to the next hole; and hunters use them to discover entire forests.

GPS technology also helps us track people in emergencies. In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission required cell phone companies to include a way to track people when they make 911 calls. A number of companies have even developed GPS child trackers, such as the Spark Nano, which can be slipped into a child’s pocket or backpack to give parents real-time updates on their activities.  GPS technology also gives people a greater degree of control in the shipping process, whether their packages are traveling by land, air or sea. Thanks to GPS, businesses can monitor the location of their valuable freight, as well as its condition and security. Customers can easily track parcels with the click of a mouse, and even get accurate estimates of delivery.

As a specialist in the design, development and manufacture of advanced electronic controls, Etratech has years of experience with the components of GPS technology, especially circuit boards. Through the years, we’ve become experts in the field and have demonstrated a proven ability to optimize existing components, make process improvements and provide our customers with tangible benefits.  For more information about how our engineers can help you design and build a circuit board for your specific GPS application, please contact us today.

In-House Control Design at Etratech

Manufacturing electronic controls is only the start of our service offering here at Etratech. In our minds, true value lies not in the manufacture of a control or board, but in the design of the perfect board for you. Most electronic control companies offer build-to-print services: you, or someone you hire, does the hard work of designing the board, and they simply follow the instructions (or diagram). There’s no ingenuity, analysis, or care for the customer involved.  At Etratech, we specialize in Design-For-Manufacture. That means that not only we will help you design your board and build it for you from the ground up – we’ll also make sure that it’s designed in the most efficient way possible.

Services like manufacturability analysis, prototyping, and full design assistance come in especially handy when working with clients from industries that don’t normally require electronic controls. Not coincidentally, these are some of our most valued customers – they help us develop as designers and innovators. Since it’s rare that such companies will have any type of engineer on staff, our design specialists play a crucial role in bringing often groundbreaking concepts from the idea stage, through a detailed design and testing process, and on to reality. As one more way in which Etratech keeps your needs as a top priority, in-house design-for-manufacture is an underpinning of our mission.

A Higher Quality Standard in Electronic Control Manufacturing: TS 16949

Everyone wants to work with an ISO-certified supplier, and with good reason: it’s not an easy standard to achieve, it signals a dedicated commitment to quality, and many times, it may be a requirement in sourcing. In most industries, there is another less commonly sought-out standard, if only because of its scarcity: TS 16949, which is based on ISO. TS 16949 and is comprised of a set of even higher, more stringent quality standards, and you’ll notice earlier that we referred to most industries. There is one industry that’s nearly always looking for TS 16949 controls: the automotive industry.

TS 16949 does have benefits to manufacturers across many sectors, however.  After all, how can greater quality possibly be worse? It can’t. One of the primary qualities necessary for TS 16949 is the ability to produce electronics, controls, and other components with a greater life expectancy than normal. This is so that they will rarely, if ever, have to be replaced over the life of the end product, the automobile. The fact that our entire facility is certified to TS 16949 means that you get that same higher quality standard, that same longer life, and that same satisfaction from your customer and the end user, regardless of what you’re manufacturing. Quality is a way of life here at Etratech, and our continued maintenance of the TS 16949 standard is just one testament to that fact.

Smart Appliance Market Poised for Spectacular Growth

The future envisioned in the old television show The Jetsons, in which home appliances automatically perform household chores, may be closer than we think. As embedded controls find their way into increasingly more domestic devices, economies of scale are encouraging appliance manufacturers to add smarter features to their offerings. And the tipping point for the smart appliance market to take off looks like it could well be right around the corner. 

A recent report from Navigant Research states that the annual value of the smart appliance market will grow from $613 million in 2012 to $35 billion by the end of the decade. 

The Navigant report examines the current state of the global smart appliance market, including an analysis of barriers and drivers, enabling technologies, regulatory factors, and key industry players.  The study features detailed market forecasts of smart appliance unit shipments, revenues, and penetration rates, segmented by appliance product category and key world regions, through 2020. 

Navigant addresses the key questions:  

• What is the current state of the smart appliance market?
• What is the potential for this market?
• Which regions will drive growth?
• Who are the key players in the smart appliance space, and what actions are they taking to drive market adoption?
• What issues and barriers need to be overcome in order for the smart appliance market to flourish?
• What are the primary technology issues facing makers of smart appliances?
• Which networking technologies will be prevalent in the smart appliance market?
• What are the strongest customer motivations for purchasing smart appliances?

While the report cautions that the market will likely remain soft for another couple of years, it forecasts that continuing investment in smart grid initiatives, declining unit prices, and clearer value propositions will make smart appliances much more appealing for end users in the second half of the decade. 

That’s encouraging news. 

National Engineering Month in Canada

Pretty much everything we do at Etratech involves engineering. That’s why we’re pleased to take a moment out of the day to call your attention to an educational project that promotes excellence in math among students throughout our great nation: National Engineering Month. 

Throughout the month of March, Canada's students discovered how they can change the world as professional engineers at over 500 National Engineering Month events that happened from coast to coast. Organized by the profession's 12 provincial and territorial regulatory bodies, teachers, faculties, volunteers and university students, National Engineering Month is an annual celebration of Canadian engineering excellence that promotes engineering as a career choice. 

“Professional engineers shape our world, and our future,” said Engineers Canada President Catherine Karakatsanis. “National Engineering Month is an excellent opportunity for the next generation to discover the creativity and imagination inherent within engineering, and to set them on the path to becoming members of this great profession.” 

According to its website, National Engineering Month offers over 500 conferences and events (such as design competitions, robotics demonstrations and science and engineering fairs) to teach young Canadians how they can design the future by using math, science, technology and creativity to generate things that were once thought impossible. 

National Engineering Month also gives students the opportunity to learn about the remarkable accomplishments Canada’s engineers have made over the years.

Events from each province and territory can be found on the National Engineering Month website. -- or you can follow the hashtags #NEM2013 and #NEGM13 on Twitter. 

National Engineering Month is sponsored by the Canadian Association of Consulting Engineering Companies, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students. 

It’s not too late to learn more about such a worthy project. http://www.nem-mng.ca/

Stay Connected to Your Supply Chain

Global supply chain management is no easy feat. This article details recent difficulties at overseas factories, and lays out some potential solutions for companies to better manage their suppliers and their supply chain. Each step involves additional – though certainly necessary – action on the part of the principal to protect your investments, their products, and their business. We here at Etratech would like to present an alternative to the idea of placing the burden on the customer: the Total Acquisition Management (T.A.M.) system. Rather than placing the tasks of imparting a Supplier Code of Conduct, initiating collaboration with your supplier, and simply “turning risk into opportunity” to you, we manage all steps of the supply chain for you.

What does this mean? For starters, Etratech fully owns and operates our Asia facility. This means that a “Supplier Code of Conduct” that you would expect is already in place and monitored to our exacting standards, not those of another operator. Working with Etratech, you only have one step of research to ensure that your supplier is up to your standards, taking the guesswork out of wondering at just what kind of facility your parts are being manufactured

Next, collaboration with our customers is built into our service and philosophy. We reach out to you and your engineers at every step of the process to harness our collective expertise and ensure that we’re all on the right track toward meeting goals.

Finally, turning risk into opportunity is an optimistic and worthy goal, to be sure, but in uncertain times it can be easier said than done. By locking into Etratech’s expansive network of suppliers and stable supply chain via T.A.M., you’re mitigating much, if not all, of any risk involved.

Be sure to view our YouTube introduction for more information on T.A.M. and all of our other services.

Could Space Elevators Be in Our Future?

Why take a rocket ship when you could take a space elevator?

The futuristic space transportation system, first proposed more than 100 years ago and later popularized by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, could lead to profoundly lower costs of launching anything into space, while increasing the amount of cargo capacity – both material and human – for orbital trips, estimates suggest.

A space elevator would likely involve a cable – aka a tether or ribbon – stretching from the surface of our planet into orbit. A recent BBC Future feature explained the basic concept: An anchor and Earth’s gravity at the lower end, plus a counterweight and centrifugal force at the top end, would keep the elevator’s tether taut and stationary over a fixed, ground-based station. Robotic “climbers” would then ascend the ribbon from the surface, through the stratosphere and into space, potentially powered by lasers.

Among the major challenges this massive engineering plan faces: creating long strands of an extremely strong but lightweight material to construct the cable, as well figuring out how to operate the system.

As a manufacturer dedicated to innovative design and manufacture of electronic controls, Etratech understands the need for BIG ideas. And today’s innovative thinkers, dreamers and doers are working to make this particular one a reality.

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), a consortium of organizations and individuals worldwide promoting the development, construction and operation of a space elevator, organized the 2012 Space Elevator Conference in Seattle, Wash., in August. The annual conference engages an international audience of scientists, engineers, inventors, educators, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and students in discussions of space elevator development. The theme of this year’s conference: “Space Elevator Operations and Maintenance.”