Michael Thaler
E24750 Tech Dr., Augusta, WI. 54722
Phone:
(715) 286-5727 Landline
(715) 513-6240 Google Voice
E-mail
Education:
• Polytechnic Institute of New York, BSEE, June 1974
• Brooklyn Technical High School, June 1970
Experience
I am a new products engineer, developing products from concept to production using:
• MICROPROCESSORS – 8080,8085, Z-80, X86 (IBM PC) hardware and software
• COMPLEX EMBEDDED CONTROL SYSTEMS – Z-80 & X86 based
• COMMUNICATIONS – bus structures, modems, computer interfaces
• LOGIC – digital design: TTL, CMOS, memory, artificial intelligence
• ANALOG – circuit / system design - power supplies (linear, switching, SCR, servo), op-amps, discrete component design
• OPTICS – designing CCD scanners, phototransistor scanners, lasers scanners, encoders, fiber optic systems, lenses, illumination
• MECHANISMS – motor design, motor control, print head design, printer/scanner design, pneumatics, gear box design and CNC machining
• CONTROL SYSTEMS – large “learning” machine control systems to one chip micro-controllers
• MOTOR CONTROLLERS – for stepping motors, PMDC motors up to 25 amps at 24VDC and 3 phase brushless DC motors
• MANAGEMENT – 3-man teams to 18-man company and million dollar projects
• R&D – products developed from concept to completion.
• 6 US PATENTS – linear motor, print head, multifunction copier- printer – scanner- fax, dynamic RAM refresh, and 2 covering circuitry for artificial intelligence.
Positions Held:
TRS ROBOTICS: AUGUSTA, WI
Jan 1992 to Present
Please see my web site for more information on my consulting capabilities.
In FEB 2009 I converted TRS ROBOTICS from developing MY OWN product into a consultancy designing products for customers. (Including working at ID-OLOGY).
I am an electrical engineer with 41 years of continuous working experience. I own my own development laboratory with a fully equipped machine shop & electronics lab; I have a huge inventory of parts, test equipment & tools with which I can develop your project.
This IS MY BUSINESS – developing technology based products for customers.
Mechatronics, Robotics, & automation are my strong suit.
I always sign a NONDISCLOSURE / CONFIDENTIALITY agreement with my clients to protect their ideas.
I can design & build your PRODUCT FOR YOU in my lab.
I do BOTH electronics & mechanical engineering.
If you are in a PATENT FIGHT – I can help – by finding PRIOR ART – to invalidate your opponent’s patent.
ID-OLOGY: EAU CLAIRE, WI
Feb 2009 to Nov 2010
Engineer designing RF ID SYSTEMS - these systems read the 134.2 KHz ear tags on cows and the weight of the food the cow has eaten and report the information to a PC computer which then computes the "feed efficiency" of the cow – that is the weight gained by the cow vs. the feed consumed. This project involved component level electronic circuit design and computer interfacing. The other project I am working on is a LASER HEIGHT MEASURING SYSTEM on this project I did all design work including the mechanical scanning mechanism ß a 2 axis stepper motor driven structure; all electronics – down to the component level and the software (programming) which runs on a PC computer. Due to the rugged outdoor environment on the farms where this equipment is used it is necessary to use "INDUSTRIAL CONTROL" style design / packaging ß that is water & dirt proof as well as working in -40 deg to +85 deg C temperatures, with >99% up-time & no human intervention.
TRS ROBOTICS: AUGUSTA, WI
Jan 1992 to Feb 2009
President, founder, and engineer – This was a 1 man R&D lab which means that my job function was primarily that of a senior project engineer. Although there were no employees here, I still had to directly manage a team of subcontractors and consultants who worked on software and systems testing as well as sheet-metal and other fabrication technologies. Using these outside resources was more cost effective then hiring direct employees. The concept and technology were mine. TRS Robotics Inc. was an entrepreneurial start up in high tech, much of the design work as well as the market (retail stores) was “outside the box” because it was unique and all new. TRS Robotics was developing an autonomous mobile robot to serve as an after hours store clerk in retail stores. This work involved much mechanical design of structures to bear the weight and resist the torques while being both modular (the entire robot must snap apart and back together in minutes without tools) and mobile (the robot rides on rubber wheels). I have developed pneumatic connectors, modular coupling systems, fluidic (pneumatic) actuators and sensors, and many mechanisms, including gear boxes and encoders. At TRS Robotics, I have also developed an optical scanner (CCD camera) for navigation, high power and low cost servo amplifiers, analog and digital circuits, embedded controls, RF and IR data links, a battery charger, and electronics and software for this huge, unique, and complex system. This is mechatronics in a large system - the total integration of mechanical electrical and software engineering. This was totally my work in that I designed drafted, machined, and wired the parts and then assembled and tested, with the assistance of subcontractors & consultants on some portions of the project. In addition to engineering, I did market research and business planning.
I designed motor controllers for both stepper and PMDC servo motors ranging from 1 amp at 12 volts to 25 amps at 24 volts.
This position involved extensive market research to study the potential market for a totally new type of product, this included establishing the company’s web site and attending trade shows for the video store industry which was the initial target market.
I preformed extensive drafting of mechanical parts and assemblies as well as color sketches of the product to show to potential customers.
Material selection and specification for all functional and aesthetic components of this robot was a major function of mine.
Business planning and business plan writing were part of this position.
SERVO CORPORATION OF AMERICA: HICKSVILLE, NY
Apr 1988 to Nov 1991
Senior project engineer, new product department, R & D. Developing new products and business opportunities: robotics for fast food restaurants, hot bearing detectors for Amtrak, and new approaches to existing railroad hot bearing detector product line. Project manager for acoustic bearing defect detection system which listens to railroad bearings on a passing train and finds faults by their sounds.
Meeting with customers and writing proposals and bids for jobs was also part of my job along with drafting and attending trade shows. Business planning and business plan writing were also part of this job.
CHEMCO TECHNOLOGIES INC.: GLEN COVE, NY (Chemco was sold and is phasing out engineering)
Jan 1987 to Apr 1988
Senior electrical engineer/electronics group leader developing all electronics for the Spectrum X-2, a high resolution large format laser facsimile machine used to transmit newspaper pages up to 18 by 24 inches at resolutions up to 2400 dots/inch. I was both a designer engineer and manager of an engineering group with two engineers and three technicians.
ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT INC.: NEW MILFORD, CT (Company sold to a larger organization, OCT 1986)
Jan 1986 to Jan 1987
President, founder, and engineer. Two man Electronics Company developing, manufacturing, and marketing test equipment. We designed and manufactured digitally controlled pulse generators and designed an arbitrary waveform/word generator. The arbitrary wave form generator incorporated a pressure sensitive digitizing tablet to allow the user to simply draw with a pencil any waveform. Our equipment is also computer controllable via an RS232 bus allowing up to 128 instruments to share one standard RS232 port. My work here was product design and development using TTL (LS, S, & F) logic, analog design including high speed pulse driver circuitry and power supplies, and of course micro computer programming. I, along with my salesman, did the marketing and selling of these pulse generators.
I developed all marketing materials including print ads, printed product fliers, press releases, and trade show booth and materials. This was done in conjunction with my salesman and an outside ad agency.
IMAGE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. : NEW MILFORD, CT (Company sold to venture capital company that was funding it since its inception)
Sep 1981 to Dec 1985
President and founder of an 18 employee electronics / electromechanical company developing a low cost facsimile machine. The first digital multifunction fax, copier, scanner, printer ever made and extremely low cost. After securing venture capital to set up the company, my technician and I spent two years developing a working breadboard of the fax machine. This machine included a linear motor (a form of stepper motor which directly converts electricity into straight line motion as opposed to rotary motion), a modem, an optical scanner, a print head and a Z-80 computer along with much digital logic and analog circuitry. The print head and the linear motor are unique inventions for which I was granted patent numbers 4,476,496 4,631,432 and 4,609,946. Due to the low selling price of this fax machine, it was necessary to develop all major components and subsystems ourselves to minimize production cost. As the company grew from 2 to 18 employees, my responsibilities expanded greatly, and we completed the design, development, prototyping, and tooling (for 10,000 per month) as well as FCC and UL testing and market introduction.
I was basically an engineer/engineering manager doing both design and managing a design/prototyping group of 18 people. I did extensive hands-on work with the Z-80 in both hardware and real time software, also stepper motor design, optics, modem development, image processing/compression hardware/software, switching regulator and linear power supplies, driver circuits, and of course, much TTL logic design.
At this company I developed the marketing materials which included printed product brochures and press releases as well as trade show booths and handouts. I did most of this my self and also used outside agencies for photography and support on ad design.
PITNEY BOWES CORP. R & D: NORWALK, CT
Apr 1979 to Aug 1981
Senior engineer responsible for the development of a laser printer and “OFFICE OF THE FUTURE” business machines. I also participated in the evaluation of products, technologies and possible markets for the office products operation. These evaluations were used by corporate planning to help guide Pitney Bowes into high technology.
In addition to research, I was also assigned to fix problems for other divisions of the corporation. I was sent to Germany to rescue a $10 million contract on which Pitney Bowes was in default due to being unable to interface to an IBM 327X style coax data line. In five days I designed and prototyped an interface, which completely satisfied the customer. I then spent the next 45 days and $250,000 building 15 production interface boxes and installing them in Germany. On this project, I was in complete charge. The project team consisted of 20 engineers and technicians whom I managed while continuing to engineer the interface.
I worked on 8085 microprocessor based systems and did evaluations of the 68000 16 bit microprocessor and 16K DRAMS. I was awarded patent # 4,328,566 for a dynamic memory refresh circuit for an 8085 microprocessor.
ECR SYSTEMS, INC.: HARTFORD, CT
Dec 1978 to Mar 1979
Consulting engineer developing a family of 40 column impact printers for use in point of sale (POS) systems. I introduced microcomputers to this company and designed a Z-80 based POS system.
SCAN OPTICS, INC.: EAST HARTFORD, CT
Sep 1976 to Nov 1978
Senior engineer designing electronic subsystems for optical character recognition equipment. I designed a special memory which reads data in 4x4 patterns instead of a word at a time as in computer memories. I have been awarded two patents: #4,120,049 for the memory design itself and #4,122,443 for a character position detector which is a subsystem of the memory unit.
I also designed and programmed a Z-80 microprocessor system to control the movement of documents in the OCR transport, and designed a charge coupled device (CCD) video imaging system (optical scanner).
Another major system I designed was a high resolution (1,000,000 pixels) gray scaled TV display which incorporated graphics and zoom with a Z-80 based intelligent terminal. Part of this display project was the design of a 10 megabit per second per channel multichannel fiber optic data link.
My work here also included optics, microfilm, packaging, stepper motor control and management of a three member engineering team.
GYROSYSTEMS, INC.: FARMINGDALE, NY
Oct 1974 to Sep 1976
Project engineer in charge of design and development of an automatic control system for the new planetarium in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. This system used over 10,000 CMOS IC’s, 600 P.C. boards (125 unique designs), and an 8080 microprocessor. I designed all hardware and software on this system.
This system is SELF LEARNING, not requiring traditional computer style programming by the operator, by using it manually once it learns how to run the planetarium show. The system “watches” the operator’s use of switches and proportional controls and memorizes the sequence and timing.
At this company, I also developed automation systems for live theaters and other planetariums. My responsibilities included dealing with clients and the management of 13 employees ranging from detailers to engineers, also coordinating subcontractors.
At this company I conducted numerous meetings with customers and produced bids and proposals.
GRUMMAN AEROSPACE CORPORATION: BETHPAGE, NY
Jun 1974 to Oct 1974
Engineer in avionic systems working on high speed interface equipment designing “black boxes”.
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF NY: BROOKLYN, NY
Jan 1974 to May 1974
During my senior year in college I had a part time job as a lecturer in electrical engineering at my college, (I was still an undergraduate) teaching a course I developed in digital electronics. I was the first student ever to have the opportunity to develop a course, and I taught this course to seniors (my own classmates).
