Guess I need to re-introduce myself, on this forum. Those of you who came from Savage///Circuits will recognize much of this, but...
My name is Art, and I am an engineer/businessman (heavy on the engineer and light on the businessman - I keep on working on the business side, but the engineering side comes more naturally.) Both of my mother's brothers were electrical engineers, and she was very interested in early-childhood education; she actually had me wiring up batteries, lamps and switches before I turned 2! Mom told me that she had been told to get kids real tools so that they would have them all their life (whoever that was didn't know much about the destructive power of kids), and so she bought me a real tool set for my second birthday - I immediately went and took the outlets out of the wall to see where the electricity came from. I also have ADD; my Guardian Angel applies for overtime each and every week. So, I have been working in electronics for, literally, pretty much my entire life.
My first experience with computers (at least real ones - I made a tic-tac-toe "computer" out of Christmas lights and switches, when a kid) was in 1975, when a buddy took me to the high school (I was days away from 8th grade graduation) and sat me down in front of a typewriter (ASR-33). He picked up a telephone near the typewriter, dialed a number and placed the handset into a little box next to the typewriter. Then he typed something on the typewriter and the typewriter typed back, ALL BY ITSELF! I was amazed, and, from that point on, my career switched from just electronics to computers.
I joined the U.S. Air Force after High School and went into Computer Repair (one of the few computer techs, I know, who has actually trouble-shot and repaired AND gates, OR gates and flip-flops.) While at my first duty assignment, one piece of gear was a HeathKit H-8 computer - I actually started wiring up an 8080 computer. One of the more experienced techs there suggested that I look into the Zilog Z-80 - Wow, single voltage power, single phase clock, LOTS more commands, including bit manipulation. I was hooked. After that, it was a series of Tandy, Sinclair (and TImex/Sinclair,) and finally PCs. About the late 1990's or early 2000's, I saw an article on the BASIC Stamp, and how to build Scott Edward's Counterfeit Stamp clone. From there, I played around with several (many) Atmel microcontrollers, some TI chips, the Propeller, and several other chips. I have several different dev kits (including some of my own design [
http://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=103 ] and am constantly thinking about and
playing with err, designing new microcontroller-based stuff.
Currently, my company produces kits and packs for budding engineers. Most of my target market is (supposed to be) high-school, college and young adult students who are interested in, or are working on EE (electronic engineering.) My secondary market (or at least it should be secondary - but mostly this is my primary market, at least until I get going enough to market to schools and school groups) is electronics/robotics hobbyists and non-electronics engineers who want to learn more about the electronics discipline. I have a few text books that are nearly done, and a few more that are on their way. Once these are done, they will be offered with appropriate kits which will cover the lab work for the course. My ideal here is to get to be like the old Heathkit courses (on a more modern point, Andy Lindsay, from Parallax, does a pretty darned good job of writing, and I try to emulate him, with my own slant/point of view, somewhat.) I have been teaching, professionally, on and off since 1989, and have written a lot of my own course/quiz/exam material, so that is what I am using for my textbooks.
In addition, I have just completed my first non-technical book. I spent ten years in the United States Air Force, and have also spent many years studying the Bible. My latest book is entitled: A Veteran Looks at the Full Armor of God. It's currently available in Kindle format on
http://www.amazon.com/Veteran-Looks-Full-Armor-God-ebook/dp/B00XPQUY3O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431698786&sr=8-1&keywords=a+veteran+looks+at+the+full+armor+of+god, but I am working on getting a print version out.
While, someday (hopefully soon) I will begin making enough from the book and the electronics projects from Granzeier Consulting to live on, I really like to do things like eat, go to Propeller expos and pay my bills, which require money. Unfortunately, I was laid off from my previous job, where I was a Network Operations Analyst for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield carrier for this area. What that means, is that I monitored our long-distance lines (voice and data), and the local servers, etc. and when anything occurred with a circuit, switch, router or server on the network, I either tried to get it up and running, or called the right person/group to get the issue resolved (of course, if we lost an entire city, and the National Weather Service reported storms in that area... Well, there's just some repair work that God reserves for Himself. ) In addition, I have been working in the electronics/computer field for over 35 years. If any of you know of any positions available, please let me know.
I am married (to the most beautiful girl in the world - sorry guys ), with a bunch of kids - only three are left at home. For anyone who is still raising their kids, I offer this hope: the light at the end of the tunnel really is there. Hold on, and one day the kids will actually grow up and move out (preferably not coming back home, though that does happen here and there. ) I am also active in a new church plant
http://thewellpgh.org/- running the A/V booth preparing the slides for Sunday service, serving in the community and other miscellaneous work. For an engineer's look at God and faith, check out my faith page at
http://faith.granzeier.com (shameless plug!)
As I have mentioned before, I really like to help people learn (check out my tag line below.) So, hopefully we can learn together on this board.
