Electrical & Wire Harness Design Blog

Who’s the safest of them all?

Posted Feb 8, 2012, by John Day

Which vehicle offers the greatest number of safety features? By that I mean systems like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, or lane keeping. Safe to say it’s one that’s well beyond the reach of the average car buyer. But features like these are moving down-market rather quickly, so what moderately priced vehicle has the greatest number of safety features? One candidate – and we’ll have … Read More

Tags: MyFord Touch, adaptive cruise control, auto start/stop, active park assist, Ford Mondeo, lane keeping system, blind spot detection, Ford Fusion

Capital for Choppers

Posted Jan 31, 2012, by J VanDomelen

This geek is an all-around mil/aero enthusiast. Aircraft, spacecraft, ships, ground combat vehicles, unmanned vehicles, missiles—you name a mil/aero platform, and this geek’s interest is piqued. It’s not often that helicopters turn heads; however, Bell Helicopter has been successful in doing so over the past few months. This geek previously discussed the Middle Eastern debut of the Bell Boeing V-22 … Read More

Tags: Embedded Systems, Electric, Engineer, Aviation, Mentor.com, Bell 429, Mil-Aero, Milaero, Aerospace, Military, Geek, Design Automation, Hardware, EDA, Mentor, Bell Helicopter, Mentor Graphics, Design

New packaging for power electronics

Posted Jan 30, 2012, by John Day

Infineon Technologies notes that higher performance power electronics components contribute to the primary automotive industry goals of better fuel efficiency and lower emissions. The firm suggests that power MOSFETs with current capability above 200A and R DS(on) below 1mΩ are needed to reduce conduction losses and improve overall efficiency, but it says that MOSFETs to fulfill these needs have not … Read More

Tags: electric power steering, Infineon Technologies, D2PAK (TO-263), start/stop systems, Strategy Analytics, JEDEC standard H-PSOF, power MOSFETs

Double duty

Posted Jan 30, 2012, by J VanDomelen

Engineers from Bell Helicopter, a Textron Company, and The Boeing Company have unleashed a unique aircraft that has been turning heads at recent air shows, and for good reason. The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was designed from the ground up (a rarity in a downturned economy, it seems) to meet the needs of multiple armed services. In doing so, it combines the capabilities of a helicopter with those of fixed-wing … Read More

Tags: Geek, Embedded Systems, Hardware, Warfighters, V-22, Aviation, Milaero, Bell Helicopter, Military, Software, Aerospace, Textron, Mentor, Electric, Mentor Graphics, Electronic, Mentor.com, Boeing, Mil-Aero, Design

Truly interoperable

Posted Jan 29, 2012, by J VanDomelen

System interoperability is a major issue and continual challenge in military and aerospace (mil/aero) applications. Electronic components and solutions from various vendors must all work together. The same is true of legacy versus modern systems. Many industry pundits in the mil/aero community have long compared the challenge to trying to have a 50-year-old communicate effectively with a newborn—they … Read More

Tags: electrical, Electric, Electronic, SystemVision, Software, Aviation, Mentor Graphics, Computer, Mentor.com, Mil-Aero, Aerospace, Milaero, Engineer, Design Automation, Geek, EDA, Hardware, COTS, Mentor, Design

Dauntingly disparate

Posted Jan 28, 2012, by J VanDomelen

Systems integration is no small feat. Ensuring disparate parts and systems—standalone solutions from multiple vendors—talk and work together seamlessly and reliably is a challenge. In fact, the systems integrator, not to mention the MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) specialist charged with keeping systems in good working order over decades of deployment, has been given many nicknames reflective … Read More

Tags: systems whisperer, Military, Mentor Graphics, Design, Design Automation, Mentor.com, Mil-Aero, Milaero, COTS, electrical, hardware wrangler, HDMI, Electronic, High-Definition Multimedia Interface, EDA, Mentor, Electric, Geek, Embedded Systems, Hardware, Technology

Autonomous vehicles – so near and yet so far

Posted Jan 27, 2012, by John Day

Considering the number of traffic accidents involving driver error, it seems obvious that many lives would be saved if cars could drive themselves. Additional benefits of autonomous vehicles include less traffic congestion and better fuel economy/lower emissions. The enabling technology is close at hand. Google’s fleet of driverless cars has traveled nearly 200,000 miles, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research … Read More

Tags: automotive electronics applications, autonomous vehicles, parallel park assist, Center for Automotive Research, Google Driverless Car, DARPA, lane keeping assist, Santa Clara Law Review, New York Times, Stanford University, DARPA Grand Challenge

Challenging conglomerate

Posted Jan 27, 2012, by J VanDomelen

Gone, in large part, are the days of military and aerospace (mil/aero) organizations buying a complete, comprehensive, end-to-end turnkey system from a single, solitary vendor. Rather, a vast majority of today’s mil/aero systems combine the technologies, components, and capabilities of myriad technology vendors. Integrating parts from various vendors in a single system, like most things, has its pros … Read More

Tags: Sony, Software, Mentor.com, Computer, Design, Mil-Aero, Milaero, Military, Aerospace, Electric, Hardware, HDMI, electrical, Mentor, Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, EDA, Embedded Systems, Electronic, Geek, Yamaha

People who plan, prepare and perform.

Posted Jan 25, 2012, by Paul Johnston

Here’s something new in this blog – a post I’ve mostly not written. Below is a response from Russell Forsyth on the subject of the how to get that “time to value” in an implementation which I addressed last time. He’s a Senior Consultant with Mentor Consulting Division Americas. We’ll try and keep this under 20,000 words by not going through Russ’ successes and accolades.   Russ has the view competent … Read More

Tags: Outsourced Integrated Electrical Systems Software, methods, pilot projects, Capital, CHS Tips and Tricks, Best Practice, Process Model, jumpstart engagements, Mentor Consulting, Training, Deployment, Implementation Projects

Focusing drivers' attention on driving

Posted Jan 16, 2012, by John Day

 It was a big deal less than two years ago for Delphi Automotive to show how a driver could bring a cell phone into a vehicle and interact with the phone’s apps on the car’s display screen – all of them when the vehicle was parked and only the appropriate ones when the car was moving. Since then the effort to enable the use of smartphones in cars without distracting drivers has expanded to incorporate … Read More

Tags: workload assessment, Smartphones, Delphi automotive, Delphi's Electronics & Safety Division, 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Kathy Winter, MyFi Connecting with Safety vehicle, distracting drivers, driver state monitoring