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Cathodic Protection

Cathodic protection is a popular maintenance prevention measures to protect the metal steel structure from corrosion from the harsh environment. This is especially in the marine industries where metal structures close to the sea water are prone to corrosion.

The cathodic protection system is very commonly used by the shipping industry in Singapore and Malaysia. They are deployed on large steel structure to prevent corrosion. Applied to the ship or yacht’s hull to protect against marine growth.

cathodic protection driver electronic circuit board

Besides cathodic protection, there are also other protection system and technology. Other methods to protect and maintenance metal steel are:

  • Maintenance painting or resist coating on the metal to isolate it from the harsh environment.
  • Apply of corrosion inhibitors to the metal.
  • Chemical dosing the pH of the environment.
  • Using a more corrosion resistant material.

The cathodic protection system is a technology that works by conducting the metal steel structure (making the metal steel structure to be protected as a cathode) and an anode with a controlled AC power. The voltage waveform is generated from a station and is conducted onto various isolated metal steel pipelines or metal structures.

Application

  • Protect metal steel pipes and storage tanks from corrosion.
  • Marine growth prevention on ship’s hull.
  • Protect equipment.
  • Underground metal pipelines protection.
  • Shielding of buried or submerged metal structure.

Products

Cathodic protection products from
Eastern Electrical Mechanical Engineers Pte. Ltd. logo Eastern Electrical Mechanical Engineers Pte. Ltd. (EEME)

cathodic protection driver electronic circuit board

Cathodic Protection Solution Service Provider

Eastern Electrical Mechanical Engineers Pte. Ltd. logo

Eastern Electrical Mechanical Engineers (EEME) is a company providing cathodic protection solution, supplies and manufacture cathodic protection products.

EEME has been delivering electrical system and cathodic protection solution to customer in South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei), India, United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil.

Contact Eastern Electrical Mechanical Engineers for your cathodic protection solution.

Related reference:

 

 

Clone Microcontroller Chip

PIC-CONTROL provides cloning of your microcontroller IC chip (MCU) for your documentation and production use.

Many of our clients do not have their project source code (firmware) for their microcontroller circuit board product. The documentation was not properly kept and are lost in the transition when their key developer left the company.

PIC-CONTROL provides PCB copying, reverse engineering of electronics design and firmware development services to help you recover and safeguard your product documentation.

Cloning Microcontroller Chip Explain

The chip cloning process is not too difficult. The idea of cloning or copying a microcontroller chip is to extract out the machine code from the original microcontroller and write the same codes to a new microcontroller chip. The machine code is also sometimes known as the hex code. It is typically loaded as a file format with an extension “*.hex”. Some detective work is expected especially if the chip’s branding and the part number is not disclosed. Having experience helps speed up the detective work.

The first step is to identify the chip’s manufacturer and the microcontroller part number. Sometimes the production batch number or the chip’s version number is important too. The machine code used for an old chip version may not work correctly when loaded onto your new chip. So it is important to take note of the version. In today’s context, this poses less of an issue.

A software and a programmer are required to extract out the machine code. Before we even use these tools, we also need to understand how more about the microcontroller that is to be cloned. The datasheet of the microcontroller can be obtained from the chip’s manufacturer. Study the chip for its pin out. Know where the power supply and programming pins are. Design and construct a circuit for the microcontroller to allow the programmer to interface it to the software on your computer.

Through the software, we can then extract and download the machine code into a *.hex file on our computer. This *.hex will be the machine code that is required for the future production of the microcontroller.

  • Check manufacturer, part number and batch version.
  • Study microcontroller datasheet.
  • Build and construct a programmer interface circuit.
  • Connect up the software and programmer for the extraction process.
  • Extracting the machine codes (hex code) by reading from the microcontroller IC chip.
  • Archive the machine code in a *.hex file.
  • Uploading of the machine code onto a new microcontroller IC chip.
  • Reading of the microcontroller EEPROM (flash memory) to verify the data.
  • Code protected microcontroller.

Common Questions

Some questions people may ask or will be concern about,

  • Is it the same?
  • Will it be reliable?
  • Will the original chip be damaged in the cloning process?

The cloning of the microcontroller chip will be perfectly the same as your original version. It will be as reliable as your original version because the chip is from the same chip product manufacturer. If there is a problem, usually it is a manufacturer’s defect or may have cloned to a wrong chip or a different chip batch version.

The chip will be handled with care. Do let us know if the chip to be clone is the one and only piece available.

Cloning May Fail

Microcontroller cloning may fail. A microcontroller has code protection features which help prevent their competitors from stealing their intellectual property work. If the code protection feature is enabled, the codes that are extracted from the original microcontroller will not work at all.

An alternative solution to this will be to do reverse engineering and re-development work of the circuit board project.

Microchip Microcontroller OTP Chip Series

A typical microchip microcontroller comes with 2 series. One is the PICxxFxxx, and the other one is the PICxxCxxx.

The ‘F’ denotes a reprogrammable EEPROM or Flash series microcontroller which allows you to reprogrammable the chip many times.

The ‘C’ denotes an OTP (One Time Programmable, EPROM) microcontroller which only allows you to load in your firmware only once. Most of these ‘C’ series chip is going into obsolete.

PICkit3 programmer does not support for these ‘C’ series chip. The programmer requires a higher voltage and current for the programming of the chip. The good news is that there is usually an ‘F’ series chip which can be a direct replacement for the ‘C’ series chip.

Modify or Improving Microcontroller Firmware

Improving your existing microcontroller firmware will not be possible without the source code on hand. A source code is an algorithm written to operate the microcontroller chip.

Cloning of IC chip only reads out the machine codes that is stored in the chip. The codes are then written into a new chip. While it is not something impossible to edit the machine code, it will probably take up a lot of time and effort to do it. All these will translate to a higher engineering expense.

In a situation where you need to improve the microcontroller’s algorithm but you do not have the source code on hand, we will recommend to re-write your firmware. The firmware development work will involve reverse engineering of your circuit board, and coding of a new firmware which will operate similarly to your existing version. The work usually also involve copying of the PCB circuit and hacking/cracking of the design from your original circuit board.

The benefit of redevelopment work is that you will be able to recover the design documentation blueprint (schematic, PCB design file, and source code) which you will be able to use for your future production. In a situation of components obsolete, you can easily seek for alternative replacement with the project documentation on your hand.

Check out our microcontroller IC chip firmware programming services for

EEPROM Cloning and Duplication Services

PIC-CONTROL provides IC chips cloning and duplication services for Microchip and ATMEL microcontrollers.

Microchip Microcontroller Part no.

ATMEL Microcontroller Part no.

  • ATtiny44A
  • ATmega328
  • ATmega16U2
  • ATmega32U4
  • more ATMEL microcontrollers…

What You Need to Provide Us

The following is a guideline of the information that we will need for assessing your microcontroller cloning project,

  1. The microcontroller chip part number
  2. Photos of the circuit board operated by the microcontroller.
  3. A detailed description of the application driven by this microcontroller.

*** We will not be able to help if any of the above information is not sufficiently provided.

Typical cloning cost is about $300 if it is NOT protected. Most of the time the chip is protected. We will not be able to clone a protected chip. An alternative way will be to reverse engineer your electronic circuit. Depending on the complexity of your circuit, reverse engineering cost can range from $500 to more than $30K. Check out our reverse engineering page for more information on the process.

Contact PIC-CONTROL to clone and copy microcontroller IC chips today.

PIC-CONTROL also provides circuit board copying and reverse engineering services. 

Click on the relevant links for more details on how we can help you to clone your electronic circuit board.

PIC-CONTROL provides electronic engineering services to our client in Singapore.

Check out our website for more details.

PCB copy service in Singapore

Reverse engineering of electronic circuit board

Electronic Trigger RS232 Control Board

Electronic trigger output with RS232 control board

This is an RS232 electronic trigger board which is controlled via an RS232 communication cable. Any computer or controller can send a command through the RS232 line and trigger a dry contact output (or optical isolated NPN output) to control external devices like door or barrier.

Product Code [PIC-026]

The activated output allows you to trigger a signal to activate other external interfacing devices. If you need to use this output to control high power/current devices, you can interface this output via a higher current rated relay.

A quick test push button (optional) is available on the board which allows you to trigger the output manually without having to send the command via RS232.

The board feature a controller which the algorithm can be customised to any of your special requirements.

Application

  • trigger open for vehicle barrier control
  • vending machine
  • coin acceptor trigger emulator
  • open motorised sliding door
  • release security EM lock (electromagnetic lock) or door strike for the office door
  • trigger other external controllers
  • via an external relay switch to power on high power appliances like lighting, motor, etc…

RS232 control trigger output

Features

  • 1x dry contact relay output trigger. (for up to 24V 0.5A signal)
  • Power up from a wide voltage range 7V, 9V, 12V-24V (0.5A).
  • Convenient test button.
  • On-board adjustable output pulse timing (20mSec to 1000mSec).
    (new model only) Adjustable POT for configuring pulse timing from 10msec to 1sec
  • Precise pulse timing can be adjusted through RS232 commands.
  • Selectable output trigger, NO (normally open) or NC (normally close).
  • Small board size measuring 71 x 28mm, light in weight.
  • RS232 communication (Can use normal RS232 (DB9) cable or cross cable).
  • Default RS232 settings: 9600bps, 8bit data, 1 stop bit, no parity.

Optional Features

  • Learning mode to clone pulse timing from an external device (e.g a coin or notes acceptor).
  • Can become a sensor to detect pulse width from an external device.
  • Opto-isolated npn transistor output trigger. (or solid state output)

Please specify your requirements or application if you require these optional features.

Dimension

RS232 electronic trigger control board (layout & dimension)

Custom RS232 Electronic Trigger Control Solution

*** Check out more RS232 Pulse Switch OUTPUT Trigger device information here. ***

Contact PIC-CONTROL for your customised electronic trigger control solution.

You can also check out our website for other electronic engineering services and electronic products.

Test Jig Tray Testing IC Chips Electronic

Easy to pick up IC chip from reflow tray

Reflow Tray for IC Chip Testing

Reflow tray for testing of IC chip through a PCB board reflow soldering machine. Test jig holding tray for IC chip testing.

Available reflow tray design

  • RT-000 (base plate to protect the bottom of the board)
  • RT-001 (middle plate to support the IC chip)
  • RT-002 (top plate to hold the chip in position)

RT-002 Reflow Tray for testing IC chip

PCB board milling for different layers creating a 3D test tray for holding IC chip in position.

RT-002 Reflow Tray, fixture jig for IC chip testing

Specification

  • Board thickness 3.2mm.
  • Green soldering mask on PCB board. (also available in Black color mask)
  • Text printing using white silk screen.
  • Designed to hold 20pcs of BGA IC chips.
  • IC chip holder space tolerence ±0.2mm
  • Reflow tray size (100 x 100mm)
  • 12x alignment holes (⌀3mm)
  • Secure by 4x Button cap screw M3x6, a spring washer and a nut

Dimension

RT-002 Reflow Tray Dimension

Use Instruction

  1. Place the IC Chips (test subject) on the reflow tray.
  2. Position the tray with the IC chips on a reflow soldering oven or the reflow soldering conveyor belt.
  3. Reflow soldering takes about 5mins, with a temperature reaching a peak of about 250°C.
  4. Allows the tray to be cool, and pick up from the reflow machinery.
  5. Allow the tray to cool down before using it for the next round of reflow testing.

Reflow Tray for IC chip testing

The PCB will turn dark green under normal usage after using it for a number of times.

Warning: If the tray is being over heated, the green mask can start to be decolourised. Burned mark with brown black color can be observed.

Typical Reflow Soldering Profile

  1. Preheat (to 150°C in 60 sec)
  2. Soak (from 150°C to 165°C in 120 sec)
  3. Reflow (reaching peak temperature of 225°C to 235°C, holding it for about 20 sec)
  4. Cooling (-4°C/s or free-air cooling)

 

Water Dispenser Kiosk

Workflow Procedure for Water Dispenser Kiosk

  1. A customer inserts their wireless card (Ezlink or NETS FlashPay card) to the water dispenser kiosk. The system holds the card.
  2. The system checks the remaining balance on the card, and estimate the max amount of water it can release base on the card balance.
  3. The user dispenses out the amount of water he needs. There is a real-time display to present to the user the amount dispensed and the cost incurred so far. The user cannot dispense more than the estimated maximum amount water (determined by the remaining balance amount on the card).
  4. Once the user finishes dispensing, the user will hook back the dispenser or eject the card. It is also an acknowledge from the user to proceed with the payment.
  5. The water dispenser kiosk will deduct from the card base on the amount of water dispensed.

Other Reference

 

Washing Machine Centralised Kiosk Payment System

Cashless payment kiosk for your laundromat.
from Fresh Laundry Pte. Ltd.

Payment Kiosk User Guide

Integrated Washing Machine Payment System
Washing machine from Fresh Laundry

  1. The customer put clothes into a washing machine available.
  2. Customer press a start button on the washing machine to trigger for payment.
  3. The washing machine will inform the payment kiosk to collect the payment.
  4. The customer walks to the nearest payment kiosk and flashes their cashless card (Ezlink, NETS FlashPay, PayWave, PayPass card) for payment.
  5. Payment kiosk will then instruct the washing machine to proceed with the wash after the payment is completed.

Custom Centralised Kiosk Payment System

Contact PIC-CONTROL for your customised kiosk payment system.

Integrated Washing Machine System Washing machine from Fresh Laundry

Other Reference

Alliance Laundry System (Laundromat)

Alliance Laundry System (Laundromat)

Speed Queen Washer/Dryer Wiring Connection

Central Cashless Payment Terminal
Ez-Link payment   NETS FlashPay payment   Visa PayWave payment   MasterCard Pay Pass payment   SG QR code payment

                                        Cashless Payment Terminal

 

Reference Guide

Click here for the payment system installation for Speed Queen Dryer and Washing machines.

 

Alert Alarm System | Sounder and Beacon

PIC-CONTROL customised alert alarm system. The sounder beacon provides a visual stroke light and warning siren sound to alert people of a dangerous situation ahead. A wide range of warning siren sounds to choose from with adjustable volume. Custom features like wireless remote, SMS/email messaging alert or sensor automation can be integrated to suit your application.

Sounder beacon alert signage

Sounder Beacon

  • Stroke Light (Amber or Red colour)
  • 32 siren tones to choose from. Alert, alarm or warning.
  • Adjustable volume from soft to very loud. (110dB peak at 1m, 10-50m outdoor depending on the environment)
  • Weatherproof IP65.
  • Compliance EN54 3:2001
  • For indoor and outdoor use
  • Voltage supply 17-60Vdc (50mA)

Wireless Remote Control

wireless remote control (for long distance control)

  • Remote control distance of 100-200m in open space.
  • 12Vdc (50mA)
  • Latched or momentary switch.

Sounder Beacon Control Box

sounder beacon wireless remote control boxwireless sounder beacon control box

Setting off the alert with a manual switch is available as an alternative to activated the system via remote control.

Wiring Diagram for Sounder Beacon with Wireless Remote Control

The following diagram shows an example of a complete wiring diagram of a wireless remote control sounder beacon alert system.

Wiring diagram for wireless sounder beacon system

Other Customisation

Drop us an email for your required alert system. Our sales engineer will get back to you shortly with a quote.

USB Thumbdrive Logger using VNC1L chip (VDIP1)

VDIP1 USB module is base on VNC1L from FTDI Chip.

VDIP1 module product using VNC1L chip from FTDI Chip

VDIP1 Pinout & Settings

VDIP1 Pinout and connection details

  • Set jumper to UART (J3=J4= 2+3), as shown by the Red dotted rectangular box in the picture.
  • Default UART configuration: baudrate 9600bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity
Pin 015V
Pin 06TXD (UART data output)
Pin 07Gnd
Pin 08RXD (UART data input)
Pin 09RTS (VNC1L can only accept incoming data when RTS is low)
Pin 10CTS (tie to Gnd to permanently request send data into VNC1L chip)
Pin 18Gnd
Pin 22!Reset (A reset pin)

VDIP1 schematic taken from the datasheet.

VDIP1 schematic

VNC1L chip datasheet.

VNC1L chip command.

VNC1L Logger Application Notes.

Download test script for VDIP1 module using docklight.

 

Comments

every command must end with 0x0D

VDIP1 Evaluation

1) When VDIP1 is powered up, it will send out the following text
-> “<CR>Ver 03.68VDAPF On-Line:<CR>”

2) When a thumdrive is connected
-> “Device Detected P2<CR>
No Upgrade<CR>
D:\><CR>”

3) When ascii command DIR<CR> is issued.
-> <CR>
SYSTEM~1 DIR<CR>
D:\><CR>

Short command evaluation (Hex data)

1) Check for presence of a disk
(when there is no thumbdrive plugged in)
Send    -> 0D
Receive <- “No Disk<CR>”

(when there is thumbdrive plugged in)
Send    -> 0D
Receive <- “D:\><CR>”

2) Switch to short command mode.
Send    -> 10 0D
Receive <- 3E 0D (mean command accepted)

3) Repeat command checking for presence of a disk (in short command mode)
(when there is thumbdrive plugged in)
Send    -> 0D
Receive <- 3E 0D

When thumbdrive is unplugged
Receive <- 44 52 32 0D    “DR2<CR>”     (slave device removed from port 2)
Receive <- 4E 44 0D    “ND<CR>”    (no disk)

(when there is no thumbdrive plugged in)
Send    -> 0D
Receive <- 4E 44 0D    “ND<CR>”

Automated Awning Shade Wiring for Rain Sensor

Automated Awning Shade using a Rain Sensor

Automated awning will open its shade when the weather is raining, and retract the shade when the sky turns fine. A rain sensor is used to detect the rain. A switch can be wired for manual or automatic control of the motorised awning shade.

Rain sensor automated awning shade

Automated Awning Shade, Rain Sensor Wiring

An example of the automated awning rain sensor wiring for the automatic and manual control of the shade.

The cable to the outdoor rain sensor needs a minimum of 3 wires to work. A jumper wire can be wired inside the rain sensor to supply the 12V supply to the internal relay. This will enable the output (NO, normally open) to be energised when the rain sensor is activated. Hence a minimum of 3 wires is enough for the rain sensor. For a more flexible implementation, we will recommend 4-5 wires connection.

Check out the step by step rain sensor installation guide, for more details.

Rain sensor wiring diagram

Rain Sensor Automated System Integration

The automatic awning will be opened up when the rain sensor detects raining activity. The sensitivity of the rain detection can be adjusted.

If the rain activity has stopped, the awning will remain opened for about 2-3 minutes before it starts to retract the awning up. If a longer time period is needed, you can set the DIP switch no. 4 on the sensor to extend the resting time to 15 minutes.

An operator can select “Auto” mode on the switch, which allows the rain sensor to open the awning automatically when it rains. The “Manual” mode allows the operator to manually open or retract the awning with the Up/Down switch on the righthand side.

You can refer to the wiring diagram as featured in the previous section above.

You may like to check a wireless or network rain sensor notification system for a more integrated information technology system.

optical rain sensor

Check out this page for more information about this wet weather rain sensor.

Contact PIC-CONTROL for a custom automated rain sensor control system today.

Custom Test Switch Box

Custom a switch box tester to do testing or quality assurance for your production. A proper design tester box can help simplify the operating procedure, reduce human error and improve the business services and products quality.

Contact PIC-CONTROL for a customise test switch box from a standard enclosure for electronics.

Customise a test switch box from a standard enclosure casing

Quick Release Connector

Quick connect and release connector is at the back of this test switch box. These connectors are typically used as audio speakers connector. Suitable for small and high power electronics.

To connect wires, a user just holds the lever, insert the test wire and release the clip. The wire will be secured, and testing can proceed immediately. It is useful for situation where cases connection is very frequent or temporary.

 

 

Quick release spring catch speaker connector for wires quick connect and release.switch box with quick release connectors.

Wiring Connection Inside

Wiring inside the switch box enclosure

This is an example of a very simple switch box wiring.

For a more complex project which requires electronics control and interface, a PCB (printed circuit board) can be design and housed in a standard enclosure. Check out our standard custom electronic enclosure page for more examples of a custom tester box solution.

Custom Box Up Electronic Enclosure Solution

Send us more information on your box up requirement.

Check out our custom standard enclosure solution for your electronic.

Other Custom Tester Solution for your Production

Also check out our custom cable tester design for your wire harness assembly checking and the PCB Tester Fixture Jig Design for your production parts checking.