Sydney Electronic Design

Do you need electronic product design for something that is not available on the market? Require a professional electronic circuit designer and/or printed circuit board (PCB)? Or perhaps a proof of concept? Maybe you just need some electronic experts to review your circuit schematic or PCB layout? Perhaps you need an embedded programming / coding expert? In any case, we are confident we can support your needs. We have a wealth of experience with electronic design, electronic development, electronic prototyping, electronic production advise, and firmware programming. We are proficient with various EDA tools and various OSs. We started using Protel in the 1990's, before it was rebirthed as Altium. We still use Protel/Altium if/when required, however prefer to use gEDA (and forks such as Lepton-EDA and pcb-rnd), and some times KiCAD or Eagle. We use gEDA because it is open-source and therefore can be integrated with our custom Python tools to auto create PCB footprints, auto create BOMs and price lists using the Octopart API https://octopart.com or Digikey API https://services.digikey.com. This allows automation of some of our services/skills, which requires less human hours, and therefore higher efficiency and lower development costs.

Our custom electronics experience is broad: analogue electronics, digital electronics, RF electronics, TI MSP430, ST STM32, FPGA, WiFi, Bluetooth, custom wireless protocols for long range, power management (PMIC), buck and boost converters, lithium (Li) battery charging, lithium polymer (Li-Po) battery charging, wireless induction charging, various sensor interfacing (IMU, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, image sensors, ultrasonics, IR, encoders, radar, laser range finders), various control interfacing (brushed DC motors, BLDC, servo motors, stepper motors, linear actuators, pneumatics, hydraulics). With a deep understanding of electronics, sensors and computer networking we find IoT devices straight forward. We even have a sewing machine for conductive thread and LilyPad's to embrace wearable technology.

We believe that a good electronics design will use a microcontroller (MCU) or microprocessor (MPU) that allows one to develop firmware (i.e. software for hardware), so the features/solutions are flexible and extendable. We have expensive experience with programming at all levels from embedded programming, to application programming, GUI programming, cross-platform development, and web development. We are Linux experts and confident with all programming languages (e.g. C, C++, Python to say the least) and all operating systems. Our desktop computers typically run Ubuntu/Debian and use VirtualBox to run all operating systems (OSX and Windows) at the same time.

A design wouldn't be complete without PCB assembly, prototyping, testing and debugging. We typically get our bare PCB's manufactured in China along with a stencil (about 5 days turn around time). We then use our reflow oven to do surface mount soldering, and the rest is done with a solering iron. We have tools and tricks of the trade for PCB surface mount and through hole rework. We are confident with manual soldering components down to the 0603 level.

The CTO of COLETEK (Luke Cole) originally worked for Hemisphere GPS (purchased by AgJunction) as a "Robotics Engineer" implementing auto-guidance solutions for agriculture tractors and quadbikes. Luke Cole also worked at Location Aware Technologies (433) developing indoor tracking devices. And also worked for leading research institutes such as NICTA, CSIRO and ANU Robotics System Lab (lead by Alex Zelinsky).

Lance Cole has also worked at NICTA and has a background of various hardware development, such as working for a contract company to the US millary (EOS), building the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS).

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of 4,119,190, and 151,920 in the City of Sydney, as of the 2006 census. Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales, and is the site of the first European colony in Australia, established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, leader of the First Fleet from Britain. A resident of the city is referred to as a Sydneysider.

Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast. The city is built around Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbour, leading to the city's nickname, "the Harbour City". It is Australia's largest financial centre and the economic capital, home to many national headquarters of corporations, including the Australian Stock Exchange. Sydney's leading economic sectors include property and business services, retail, manufacturing, tourism and health and community services.

Sydney is a major international tourist destination, often referred to as the international gateway of Australia, and is notable for its beaches and twin landmarks: the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and contains many bays, rivers and inlets. It has been recognised as a global city by the Loughborough University group. The city has played host to numerous international sporting events, including the 1938 British Empire Games, 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In 2008, Sydney will also host the 23rd Roman Catholic World Youth Day.

Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities in the world which reflects its role as a major destination for immigrants to Australia. According to the Mercer cost of living survey, Sydney is Australia’s most expensive city, and the 21st most expensive in the world.