JRM Consultants has assembled a team of highly experienced consultants, with diverse talents applicable to the design and implementation of advanced hardware, firmware and software. If you are looking for help with an embedded project, or just have overloaded engineers, see below for the many ways our specialists can help you. Security clearances available upon request.

Jon Miller has been designing and implementing computer solutions for over 30 years. He started in the era of the ARPANET at UC Santa Barbara in the late 60’s developing pre-UNIX operating systems and voice-related signal processing. He has extensive experience in the design and implementation of computer peripherals, especially Winchester technology disk drives and interfaces and factory test systems. He has implemented numerous control systems utilizing embedded processors for a variety of applications such as laser interferometer positioning and telemetry spectral analysis. He has created network interface circuitry using various processors of 8/16/32-bits with various real-time OS’s including TargetOS, ThreadX, and Linux for high speed communications. During the course of these projects he has utilized various FPGA families with frequencies approaching 1GHz. He completed the BSEE and MSEE degrees at UC Santa Barbara and holds one patent for serial-controlled SCSI test networks.

Jerry Vaughn has been producing high-quality board layouts for over 30 years. At last count, he has produced over 7,000 CAD designs. He can handle all types of designs, from basic single and double layer designs to advanced multilayer boards involving layout challenges such as high-speed digital devices, complex analog devices, power supplies, flex circuit boards, or rigid-flex circuit boards. Jerry has designed printed circuit boards used in many different fields, including Aerospace, Automation, Automotive, Aviation, Communication, Consumer Electronics, Entertainment, Industrial, Medical, Military, and Robotics. He owns state-of-the-art autorouters, but typically opts to perform manual routing in order to produce a superior product with quick turn-around.

As a holder of three US Patents, Donald Carter has relevant engineering experience in electro-mechanical packaging, mechanical analysis, machine design, mechanism design, product design from concept to manufacturing, and prototype development using rapid prototype techniques. Mr. Carter has approximately 15,000 hours using Pro Engineer CAD software coupled with experience in Pro Mechanica FEA software, MathCAD, Excel, Access, and Word. His knowledge is driven by many different areas of experience–from being a hands on auto mechanic to an engineering leader at a high volume manufacturing facility to designing and analyzing mechanisms for the harsh environments of launch and space flight.

John Radford’s experience spans over twenty-five years in the technology sector, specializing in many of the pioneering areas of digital technology and the adaptation of these technologies and concepts to development of products, applications, and system solutions as applied to computing machinery, automation, collaborative computing, networking and telecommunications for voice and video telephony, to include digital transports and switching. Over the years John Radford contributed to many hardware and software development projects ranging from pioneering LSI circuits to operating systems, utilities, including, but not limited to, scientific and business applications. As a senior scientist John Radford has contributed to companies such as Control Data Corporation, General Motors, The Micro Computer Consortium in Austin Texas and start up ventures such as Data Point, Objective Systems Integrators, GTE, NYNEX, Telica, to mention a few. John Radford holds advanced degrees in Applied Physics from the University of Cambridge and postgraduate work in the areas of Solid State Electronics at Case Western Reserve.

Noel Lockwood is a senior software engineer with over 30 years experience in a wide variety of languages, platforms, and applications for numerous defense and commercial projects. He is also a skilled technical writer and editor. He has strong experience in the areas of scientific, database, and embedded application programming. He enjoys learning new languages (both human and computer), and has programmed in a large number of languages including C, C++, Java, Fortran, Cobol, Basic, Prolog, Python, Perl, Unix shell, SQL, PL/SQL, SAS, and various assembly languages. He is a long-time Linux user, and a founding member of the Santa Barbara Linux Users Group who gives presentations on topics such as perl, python, and databases with Linux support. Noel is a graduate of UCLA in mathematics.

Tom King has worked in electronics design, implementation and troubleshooting for over 30 years. He has strong analog skills, both in circuit design and hands-on in the lab or in the field, but also has worked extensively with digital technology, particularly with embedded systems. In his embedded work he has been responsible for developing software and firmware, in addition to his usual hardware duties.

His radio work involves installing and maintaining radio, television and satellite communication stations. His work covers small signal high frequency interfaces up to large-scale uninterruptible power sources, as well high-speed packetized data links and continuous analog channels using various modulation schemes. It also involves establishing remote control through the use of embedded Linux systems at the various transmitter and receiver mountain top sites.

His embedded projects include, for example, designing and implementing an Internet kiosk for weather information, using a touch-screen interface. This system has been successfully deployed outside in marinas to provide current weather information to sailors.

Ron Lockwood-Childs has 14 years of experience in embedded development, from FPGA firmware to boot loaders to diagnostics and Linux application development -- all stages of board bring-up and testing. He is proficient with VHDL simulation test benches, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, JTAG testing tools, GDB, and other tools of the trade for debugging both hardware and software on embedded devices. He utilizes various hardware and software languages for low-level testing and analysis, such as VHDL, assembly, C, shell scripts, and Ruby. His experience spans the major 32-bit architectures: PowerPC, ARM, MIPS, XScale, and of course Intel. He has released as Open Source Software “ppcdiags”, a standalone diagnostics software package that runs without an OS on PowerPC embedded boards. At a higher level, he has worked on a team to develop Linux software, for example device drivers, CGI software, image capture, and printer support. Ron has a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UCSB.

Stephanie Lockwood-Childs has over 10 years experience in Linux OS programming for desktop machines, servers, and embedded systems. She has strong experience in kernel drivers, having written drivers for a wide variety of devices such as a touchscreen, an analog-to-digital card, a high-speed digital I/O card, an SPI bus, an embedded SCSI disk controller, an embedded serial port, an eeprom, a PCI bridge chip, and various drivers for project-specific hardware implemented in FPGAs. Stephanie also develops Linux applications in C, Perl, Python, and Unix shell, including network applications, embedded applications, and CGI web applications. She is comfortable with a variety of Linux build tools and installation methods and enjoys troubleshooting Linux system and networking problems. She also is experienced in the area of Linux security, including security hardening for Linux-based network appliances and firewalls and DoD STIG compliance for Linux workstations and servers. Stephanie has a BA in physics from Westmont College, a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UCSB, and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering with an emphasis in Imaging Systems and minor in Computer Architecture, also from UCSB.

Martin Michelson has designed software for 30 years. His specialty is C++ for stand-alone and embedded systems, including device drivers. He also has worked extensively in the production of both analog and digital hardware, where his experience includes quality assurance and trouble-shooting. He worked in disc drive development, as well as in the development of hardware and software for disc drive testing. In his QA work he was responsible for QA procedure design for military hardware, as well as the actual QA inspections and reporting to the customer. He worked on the electronic design, PCB layout and production of electronics for the Electronic Light Valve, which was manufactured by Technical Film Systems Inc. and garnered an Oscar.

Julia Galstad graduated with a MS in mathematics from Kansas State University and is working towards a PhD in mathematics at UC Santa Barbara. She enjoys applied coding theory problems as a break from her math studies. Her master’s thesis, “Self-dual L-codes,” with advisor Dr. Gerald Hoehn, was an investigation into a new type of self-dual code. Although this was a theoretical approach, the experience led to her interest in applied coding theory.

Crystal Lockwood has worked in the field of graphic art and website design for over 10 years. Her web designs are enhanced by digital photography and custom graphics. She has a keen sense of color and design, and is known for careful attention to detail. In addition to web design, Crystal participates in product development and marketing by creating icons, product logos, and product illustrations. She also produces company logos, business cards, and letterheads. Crystal’s professional attitude and responsiveness to customer input make her a pleasure to work with. Crystal has a BA in Art from Westmont College.

Donald has been a system administrator and software developer for over ten years. He is familiar with Linux, Apple, BSD and Microsoft systems. Donald is a skilled network administrator and troubleshooter. He is also well experienced in technical writing, including technical training courses. In addition to his software work, he has assembled and debugged the hardware for many computer systems. At ZYNX Networks, Donald was a network troubleshooter, as well as developing test and debug software. While in the systems administration group for a large development project at Lockheed Martin, in addition to working extensively in developing and implementing installation procedures he analyzed security requirements for Linux systems and wrote software to implement improved security. Donald is actively involved with the Open Source community and has been a FreeBSD developer since 1998.