DornerWorks Case Studies

Tire pressure is balance based on a number of variables including weather, driver ability, temperature, and road conditions. A dynamic tire pressure alert system was needed to meet consumer safety objectives.

To design a system which used radio frequency (RF) technology to deliver pressure information to a central receiver located in the vehicle’s overhead console through sensors mounted in each tire.

DornerWorks Engineers designed an RF based tire pressure monitoring system, including the antenna design using a Schrader/Bridgeport pressure sensor. This solution was a 433 MHz based RF system using a Schrader/Bridgeport pressure sensor, and was deployed in a variety of Chrysler vehicles. This design demonstrates DornerWorks ability to integrate devices into small robust packages for use in harsh environments.

Eliminate driver error when determining high beam usage in a consumer vehicle.

Design software architecture to correctly function with a camera image data, while handling all the other tasks in real time.

Our engineers designed J1939 Bus Communication, OSEK RTOS , BSP for hardware, boot loader, low level control of Rear View Camera, backlight control and instruments diagnostics. We developed algorithms that accounted for an array of road conditions. This project yielded a product that not only automatically turned vehicle high beams on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions, but substantially improving a driver’s forward vision thereby improving safety.

To develop a hands free phone system utilizing Bluetooth technology to enhance driver focus and increase safety.

Integrate Bluetooth technology, speech recognition, and audible cueing to initiate cell phone calls, keep record of phonebook favorites, and offer internet connectivity to the vehicle. This module controlled and integrated into several other systems in the vehicle including the stereo system, automotive body electronics, and user interface controls.

This system, for use in Honda and Chrysler models, utilized an XScale ARM 9 Processor, IBM Voice Recognition Software, Broadcom Bluetooth Radio, Bluetooth Stack, Flash File System, J1939 CAN Bus Communication, and QNX RTOS Multi Process/multi-threaded system with inter-process communication. The end product successfully provided a smooth customer interface to electronics systems (Stereo, MP3 players, door locks, and access vehicle diagnostics). Through this design, our engineers were able to reduce the overall cost of a hands-free system to our customer!

Integrate Viewpoint Mobility’s rear-entry, lowered floor Vision™ automated wheelchair access system for the Toyota Sienna minivan.

Provide the customer with a complete working design that a competitor had failed to deliver to our client. Tight delivery dates and the customer’s reputation were the number one priority for DornerWorks.

Our solution included utilizing a Microchip PIC microcontroller for the motor control and a Microchip PIC microcontroller to interface to the Toyota vehicle for detection when the vehicle was in park as well as to interface to other aspects of the vehicle. In less than 4 weeks, we delivered to Viewpoint Mobility a production ready system that met all of their design goals, stringent industry standards, as well as some additional features that were recommended and decided to be added. At the press of a button, the rear hatch opens, the ramp unfolds and the van lowers to the ground making the van accessible to people in a wheelchair.

“We changed over to DornerWorks after several issues with our previous Hardware and Software design firm. We found DornerWorks to be a full service electronics & controls development firm. They provided me with technical expertise as well as great communication and program management. The combination of these attributes has lead to a successful, on-time, and on-budget project.”

Image used with permission from Viewpoint Mobility, Inc.

—Engineering Manager, Viewpoint Mobility

Thousands of dollars in wasted energy running industrial fans when plants were empty. Customers needed an efficient and “greener” alternative to manage energy costs during shift fluctuations.

Design a system that could accurately transmit long term on/off data (up to a year) into a hand held remote and to synchronize the programming from the computer into the handheld device.

In this industrial project, we worked to design the control system hardware for this wireless application. In this case, we designed the complete system,including the an infrared communication protocol, PC support software, low power infrared transmitter, and low power infrared receiver that allowed communication at about 70 feet. Designing a small ~70mA transformer -with less AC -> 5V power supply.

Allow crawling text for dynamic corporate presentations on large format video screens.

System needed to be controlled through an embedded web server interface as well as an automated phone interface on very limited resources. To have an entire web server, (that is, HTTP GET, and POST request handling), a complete configurable automated phone answering system, complete RS-422 network stack, and the video overlay management system running on a processor at 60 MHz with 32k of RAM without an operating system.

We developed a text-over-composite-video overlay device with web browser and phone interface. Decoded the NTSC video stream at 30 frames per second, added graphical content to each frame, and encoded it back into NTSC. The device supports multiple lines of crawling text and video logos with transparency. In addition, the device supports bitmaps screen (optionally sourced from the onboard frame capture feature), audio overlays, and a private network for synchronization and information sharing (including program updates.) DornerWorks helped to refine the initial specifications from the customer and then designed the circuit card, processor firmware, and programmable logic for the FPGA. Prototypes were delivered and assistance was given to support UL certification and large volume manufacturing.

Rail systems need constant maintenance and extensive daily monitoring of rail safety and integrity, critical to passenger and cargo safety. An accurate and technologically advanced method of checking rail safety was needed in the marketplace.

Provide an interactive system that would work in a rail safety vehicle to accurately measure fluctuations in track wear and provide consistent reports for maintenance personnel.

DornerWorks developed custom software, embedded XP, and integrated Commercial-Off-The-Shelf components to create a system that accurately measures the gauge and levelness of railroad tracks. This system utilized lasers to measure the gage of the rails, incorporated a sensor that measured distance traveled and a second sensor that measured the incline, and also used GPS as a location measurement input.

This is a breakthrough product in its market, and DornerWorks took a proof of concept version to a final production version, improving the measurement performance by over 500%.

“The work you did … solved a real problem for us and provided our customer with a useable solution to the software issue on a very marketable product. As we move forward with our other projects we will most certainly be using DornerWorks for the market ready operator interfaces and software requirements. DornerWorks offers a unique approach to operator interfaces which fits very well with our requirements for user friendly but sophisticated software.”

—President, large industrial metrology company