Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Interests
Courses completed
Timeline
Generic

Gerrie Heath

Electronic Engineer
Durbanville

Summary

I completed my postgraduate studies at the end of 1996. During my studies, I was involved in numerous part time works ranging from PCB design and manufacturing to small software projects. Through this, I gained a lot of practical experience while I was studying, and it enabled me to pay for my studies in conjunction with a student loan. Since then, I have worked on various projects across multiple industries. These include Military, mining, telecommunication, IT, industrialisation, and space industry. My responsibilities included embedded and Windows software development, digital and analogue hardware design, motor controllers and automation, PCB design, FPGA VHDL design, system engineering and technical management.

Overview

29
29
years of professional experience
2
2
Languages

Work History

Senior Systems Engineer

Reutech Mining
02.2022 - Current
  • Focus on development action inside the company.
  • Lead and grow technology inside the company.
  • Systems focus on all designs. This also includes continues improvement on current products.
  • Develop new trailer and power system for our mining radar platform. This is a full hybrid design including batteries, variable speed DC generator and system controller/PLC and solar. Only OEM components used. To my knowledge we were the first company in South Africa to build a variable speed DC generator based mobile power platform. This enabled us to incorporate the DC charging algorithm into the generator controller thereby eliminating a separate large battery charger and increasing system efficiency.
  • Victron systems integrated.
  • Assist radar fault finding and diagnostic. This usually includes MATLAB analysis of the data.
  • Moved internally to senior systems engineer.

Technical Development Manager

Reutech Mining
10.2020 - 01.2022
  • Manage all development action within the company. This includes hardware, software, and mechanical design.
  • Appoint people and grow the development team.
  • Manage continues improvement on current projects.
  • Interface to operational, production and mechanical engineering group.
  • Manage training, product, and operational manual development.
  • Manage testing, calibration, and deployment of our products.
  • Oversee quality of our products and deployment setup. Assist with complex issues in the field.
  • Interface to the local mining community to maintain a good relationship to facilitate testing on mining sites. On occasion, this requires some Matlab analysis of the radar data.
  • Continues improvement of products.
  • Appointed as technical development manager.

Senior Software Engineer

Omnipless
01.2016 - 09.2020
  • Linux and embedded Linux driver development.
  • Linux development for Xilinx Zynq.
  • General software development and debugging.
  • Misra software compliancy implementation. This includes definition and implementation of best practice for highly reliable C code development.
  • Appointed as Senior Software Engineer.

Systems Engineer and team leader for Software group

Space advisory Company
05.2013 - 12.2015
  • Manage software team.
  • Linux and embedded Linux software development.
  • Xilinx Zynq FPGA VHDL design. FPGA VHDL design, and implementation, for low orbit satellite camera.
  • Linux porting and driver development for Xilinx Zynq.
  • Software Systems engineer.
  • Establish processes for software division.
  • QNX embedded operating system support.
  • Regular travel abroad to assist client at their premises.
  • Appointed as Systems Engineer and team leader for Software group.

Senior Systems Engineer

Traffic Management Technologies
04.2011 - 04.2013
  • Linux kernel driver & daemon development.
  • Embedded Linux kernel changes.
  • Secure encrypted Boot loader development.
  • Embedded hardware analysis and design.
  • System specification and integration. Bringing together all the different hardware and software components. Identifying short falls and redundancies.
  • FCC, EMI and EMC certifications.
  • Encryption development for embedded platform and encryption development for key generation and management.
  • Designing EMC/EMI compliancy into current hardware set. EMC/EMI testing and certification. Setup in-house lab for pre compliancy testing. Constructed test environment, probes and antennas to conduct tests. Constructed OATS for radiated testing. Test at local test house. All in-house testing done according to CISPR. Our product certifications include UL, NEMA, FCC and CISPR.
  • Systems engineer and hardware designer for the SafeTeam speed camera project.
  • Appointed as Senior Systems Engineer.

Senior Manager for R&D and smartcard divisions

Prism Technologies / NET-1
11.2004 - 04.2011
  • Manage the development teams (R&D and smartcard).
  • Development R&D consist of the following: embedded hardware and software, Windows development and DOS and Linux development. All software development was done in C and C++.
  • Take technical leadership.
  • Project management.
  • Give regular feedback to directors in Johannesburg.
  • Draw up the division budget and mange it.
  • Visit our clients in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Ghana and the US.
  • Manage the industrialisation phase of our products. Tooling for injection moulding, mechanical design and electronic manufacturing.
  • This includes visits to our manufacturer in Malaysia and visits to the US for product certification and compliancy (UL labs).
  • Take responsibility for some of the embedded and Windows software development work.
  • Do team member’s performance assessment.
  • Get Windows CE BSP working on our own ARM (MX21) hardware platform.
  • Port existing terminal applications to Windows and Windows CE platform.
  • Documentation. User requirement statement, System specification and test procedures.
  • Embedded hardware design using PCAD2004.
  • Atmel AVR32UC3A/B hardware design. Software development for AVR32 under FreeRTOS.
  • ARM Cortex M3 development (Atmel SAM7).
  • Appointed as Senior Manager for R&D and smartcard divisions.

Managing partner

ITLOGIC
10.1999 - 10.2004
  • SMS Gateway: This project was done as a joint venture with Info-Bahn Information Systems. Develop a SMS gateway connecting to multiple service providers via the SMPP protocol. This gateway acts as a bridge between the GSM service providers and business applications (services). Each business case was encapsulated in a standalone service interfacing to the SMS gateway. The service development was also within the scope of this project.
  • Outlook Plug-in: This project was done as a joint venture with Info-Bahn Information Systems and was used in conjunction with the SMS Gateway. Develop an Outlook plug-in to enable Outlook to send and receive SMS messages via the SMS Gateway.
  • Integration of digital communication system for helicopter: This project was done for Grintech Aviation. The ADM phase of the project was completed and all driver code and CPLD designs had to be tested and debugged on the new EDM hardware.
  • Industrial coil-winding machine controller: This project was done for CJM Choke & Ballast. Implement a closed loop control for an industrial coil-winding machine used for mass production of coils. This machine has various motors controlling the indexing (Kelvin K90FV asynchronous squirrel cage motor), carriage rotation (155W Mavilor MO80 DC servo motor) and spindle rotation (2.4hp (1491W) shunt wound DC motor). The operator must be able to program the machine from a programmer’s panel. There after the operation must be automatic.
  • GSM based vending machine: This project was a joint venture with JRD Electronics. Develop a Vending machine that can be managed through the GSM network. This machine also serves as a multimedia-advertising kiosk. The unit has a card dispenser, note and coin reader and can give change. The GUI is displayed via a 15” LCD panel.
  • Display Unit: This project was done for African Defence Systems (ADS). The display unit function as an interactive terminal with protocol routing capabilities, graphics capabilities and English/Arabic text display. The unit is set-up from a master unit and a chain of graphics and text screens are downloaded to it. It is used on the G5 canon and as part of a system upgrade on canons for some of the Arabic countries.
  • Printer controller: This project was done for African Defence Systems (ADS). This controller will take control of a printer remotely. This will enable remote form feed, line feed and pause. It is used in military applications where the printer is in a rack mount.
  • Rugged All-purpose Computer (RAC): This project was done for African Defence Systems (ADS). The purpose of this project was to develop software for Dos and Windows to perform tests on the industrial grade computer. All capabilities were tested during environmental and live tests.
  • Mine shaft safety system: This project was done as a joint venture with Grintech Electronics and was marketed at the mining industry. The system is responsible for monitoring the tension in the cable connected to the cage in a mineshaft and to reproduce digital I/O and analogue voltages on both sides. The top system and the system on the cage are linked via a full duplex RF link (we developed the modem). The whole system is plug-and-play; any card can be added to the system without powering it down. Cards that can be added: 1)Digital and analogue input 2) Digital and analogue output 3)Monitor card with display to indicate various data 4)Audio card to enable speech communication between surface and cage. The RF link is driven by and CML FFSK modem IC @ 2400 baud. The surface and cage system has a local I2C bus. A PC can be connected to the top to download firmware to the top and bottom network.
  • Harness tester: This project was done for Bell Equipment. Develop a generic harness tester. Any harness can be configured on the PC and downloaded to the hardware to test a harness. This is used in a factory to test a harness fast and efficiently.
  • Smart card reader: This was developed as a standalone product or integrated into Error! Reference source not found.. Develop an OEM industrial quality smart card reader/writer.
  • GSM communication module (Wireless payphone): This product development was a joint venture with Mantswe Solutions. Develop a remote standalone system that can send and receive data, SMS messages and analogue speech (telephone). The unit has access control via a smart card reader. The design can be used in a semi-industrial environment. The system has a parallel port for printer applications and can send a transaction log to a host server.
  • Communication gateway for Hypercom credit card terminals: This project was done with Anderson Consulting for Mantswe Solutions at the CSIR. Develop a communication gateway that will handle concurrent connections from Hypercom terminals via X.25 network (ISO 8583 protocol) and convert the data to TCP/IP (protocol translation). A transaction server uses the data.
  • Communication gateway for Ingenico credit card terminals: This project was done for Mantswe Solutions at the CSIR. Develop Windows server software that interface directly to a dual port X.25 PCI card. The card connects to two Telkom NTU (64Kb) digital lines. Twenty terminals can simultaneously dial into the server per port. The data are processed and passed on to the database server through a socket connection. The communication server handles all communication, security and error checking responsibilities.
  • Communication gateway for Ingenico credit card terminals GSM based: This project was done for Mantswe Solutions at the CSIR. Develop Windows server software that interface to up to 32 GSM modems connected to a serial hub. This is to enable multiple Ingenico terminals to connect to the communication gateway server. The data, from the terminals, are processed and passed on to the database server through a socket connection. The communication server handles all communication, security and error checking responsibilities.
  • Remote site down loader for Dion credit card terminals: This project was done for Computer Software Consultants (CSC). It was used to manage and enable the downloading of new firmware to a network (X25) of credit card terminals. The remote site loader was responsible for keeping track of the terminals, updating their software if necessary and showing any errors that occurred on the terminals.
  • Local software down loader for Dion credit card terminals: This project was done for Computer Software Consultants (CSC). It was used to download new firmware to the terminal.
  • NT Service for file distribution management: This project was done for Risk Flow. It was developed for a network server to keep files synchronised across multiple machines. Configuration and file selection is done through a graphical user interface.
  • Make changes to Risk Management software: This project was done for Risk Flow. The main purpose was to bring the intellectual property from an American based company to South Africa. Further changes to the product were also required for the South African market.
  • Micro controller for scale model of recycle plant: This project was done for Collect a Can and was used to visually illustrate the process used at their recycle plant. The system controlled a scaled model of the factory and was mainly used to educate the public at shows.
  • Environment controller: This was a possible product for the salt-water fish tank industry. It was used to control the complex environment of salt water reef system in captivity thereby extending the life of the animals and improving the successfully breeding of animals in captivity.
  • Managing partner. iTlogic focused on product development and consultation.

Awarded software engineering contract

Cumulus
04.1999 - 09.1999
  • Simbologie card for helmet sights: The purpose of this project was to display data and simbologie on the helmet visor through which the pilot looks. This system is used commercially and in military applications.
  • Platform controller: Used by missile controller to communicate with giro.
  • Awarded software engineering contract

Consulting engineer

Tolplan
08.1998 - 03.1999
  • Project management.
  • Advisory and site engineer.
  • Oversee the deployment of all electronic systems at toll plazas.
  • Manage the development and implementation of software and hardware for electronic toll classification and logging. This was done for the South African National Road Agency (the client).
  • Computer network administrator.
  • Appointed as consulting engineer.

Junior Engineer

Ansys Integrated Systems
11.1996 - 07.1998
  • Launcher controller: This project focused on the EDM hardware and software design on the rocket launcher for the Rooivalk helicopter.
  • Grip Multiplexer Unit for Rooivalk helicopter: The purpose of this project was to upgrade the multiplexer, used to multiplex all the wires coming out of the Rooivalk helicopter grip. The multiplexer makes the electrical harness less complicated. All control signals are multiplexed. The multiplexed signals are reported via a dual redundant 485 serial communication channels to the navigation computer.
  • Appointed as junior engineer working on embedded hardware and software design.

Education

B.ing - Electronic

University of Pretoria
01.1996

M.ing - Electronic

University of Stellenbosch
03.2011

Skills

  • Software

  • Microsoft Office

  • Microsoft Project

  • LTSpice

  • KiCAD

  • Visual Studio C

  • Altium Designer Professional SE

  • C/C

  • Python

Interests

Hi-fi enthusiast, Restoring hi-fi and valve equipment Recent units include highly acclaimed Quad Valve monoblocs dating back to the early 60’s and their accompanied valve control amplifier, Rebuild, and improve, audio equipment Recent units: Rotel RB-991, Rotel RB-993, Bryston 7BST mono block set and 9BSST Most of the time this includes full Spice modelling of the design to look at the quality of design and potential improvements, Valve preamplifier design, Analog filter design, Subwoofer design, Automotive, Full metal workshop at home Lathe, milling machine AC/DC HF TIG, Devilbiss GTI pro spray gun, Rebuild and customisation of cars Some of my major achievements includes rebuild accident damaged VW golf for my son Cutout front quarter section and the rear of the card Welded in new section Painted car Rebuild engine Rebuild suspension, Rebuild written off Citroën C2 VTR, Custom build motorcycle Currently project: Honda Shadow American Classic Edition, Woodwork, Full woodwork workshop at home Making furniture, Made a large, extremely heavy, pivot door from sleeper and Jarrah wood This was a massive underrating due to the weight and hardness of the wood, Design, build and installation of a four leave stackable wooden door with glass window inlays Made from Hard Maple wood, Solar, Repurposed inverter Obtained 4 faulty Victron 5KVA Multiplus II inverters From this managed to build two working inverters This included a deeper dive into inverter design including Spice simulations and generating sample data via Matlab, Bought two 8KVA generators as scrap Hatz 12Hp engine with Mecc-Alte 3-phase alternators Rebuild engines and alternators Constructed enclosures and supporting wiring/breakers/contactors, Construct 48V 100ah Lithium battery using high cycle cells and JK BMS with active balancing, Integrated whole system, including MPPT’s & BMS, through Victron GX controller, Boat building, Boat building and refurbishment This includes fiberglass, carbon fibre and lamination work Using different core material and stack up layering to improve strength and reduce weight, Used an 63m weak, flimsy, second hand cathedral hull design as a basis for a new build Striped completely, only using hull-shell as a new mould Reinforced hull removed all wood and replaced by full composite design New extreme light weight honeycomb deck construction with under floor hatches, fuel tanks, Rebuild 2-stroke and 4-stoke engines Current rebuild: Mercury 100EFI engine

Courses completed

  • Esperan’s beginners and advanced VHDL course.
  • In 2005 I attended the Embedded Conference in Boston. For three days, I attended lectures on software design, project management, and compiler architecture and hardware design.
  • Astro Tech 5-day MBA course.
  • People Engineering for Engineering People course at University of Pretoria.
  • Coping with change course at University of Pretoria.
  • Atmel two-day hands on embedded Linux workshop.
  • Systems Engineering course from Ad Sparrius
  • EMC Fundamentals for Laboratories and Industry presented by Howard Reader (http://www.mesasolutions.co.za)

Timeline

Senior Systems Engineer

Reutech Mining
02.2022 - Current

Technical Development Manager

Reutech Mining
10.2020 - 01.2022

Senior Software Engineer

Omnipless
01.2016 - 09.2020

Systems Engineer and team leader for Software group

Space advisory Company
05.2013 - 12.2015

Senior Systems Engineer

Traffic Management Technologies
04.2011 - 04.2013

Senior Manager for R&D and smartcard divisions

Prism Technologies / NET-1
11.2004 - 04.2011

Managing partner

ITLOGIC
10.1999 - 10.2004

Awarded software engineering contract

Cumulus
04.1999 - 09.1999

Consulting engineer

Tolplan
08.1998 - 03.1999

Junior Engineer

Ansys Integrated Systems
11.1996 - 07.1998

M.ing - Electronic

University of Stellenbosch

B.ing - Electronic

University of Pretoria

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Gerrie HeathElectronic Engineer