Gold Coast 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).

Once little more than a weekend surfing and fishing retreat for Brisbanites, the Gold Coast has come quite a way since a couple of entrepreneurs sat down in the 1960s and planned a canal resort on one of the finest stretches of golden beaches in the land.

Today the Gold Coast is a vibrant city of 400,000, a surf, sun and rainforest mecca for tourists from all over the world. It conjures up different images for different people, but whether you adore it or detest it, you can’t ignore it. From its nightclubs to its beaches, from its towering apartment buildings to soaring rainforest, from its myriad golf courses to its theme parks, the Gold Coast is brash, it’s young and it’s exciting.

A major arterial road also links Broadbeach to Nerang and the rainforest rich hinterland. The entire Gold Coast-Tweed region is a haven for game, reef, beach, estuary and freshwater fishing.

Broadbeach is somewhat quieter than Surfers Paradise to the north, but boasts and excellent stretch of beach, dining and shopping options. Broadbeach Mall and Surf Parade are lined with trendy outdoor cafes and restaurants, and beachfront craft markets are held the first and third Sunday of every month. But probably the best known attraction at Broadbeach is Conrad Jupiters Casino, which thrives with gamblers 24 hours a day.