Just for Fun

Sign seen in Sarasota, Florida.

(Sorry - the phone number was distorted to prevent nuisance calls.)





Must it be returned in like-new condition?

Fast Response - Part 2

Speedy - Part 2

(See August 16 for Part 1)

Part 1 announced fast-response instruments. This time we're promoting our fast response to customer needs.

Thursday afternoon: We received two urgent calls, two different customers, asking "can you do it" and "how fast"? One was for 10 pieces of a standard product; the other, 6 specials which required modest new circuit design. We were able to say "Yes" to both.

Friday morning: Received both orders.

Friday evening: Two of us (Rick & Harry) stayed late.

Saturday: Rick & Harry worked from about 8:00 until 2:45PM. Finished both orders.

Monday: Both orders shipped. (Of course, both customers paid expediting charges to cover our overtime.)

Details: The standard-product order (JH4001I RTD Transmitters) was from a Navy base. They had been using "Brand A" products but that company was not able to delivery quickly. They sent searching and found us on the web. We did not have any in stock either - so we worked the weekend!

The special requirement was for an absolute-value transmitter. (See our posting of October 3, 2009 for more detail.) We had done this before (as a special in 2001) but the detailed requirements were different on this time. Thursday evening calculations plus weekend assembly and test got the job done.

Conclusion: If you need action, call us.

(800) 808-0300 or (941) 927-0300. e-mail jhtek@jhtechnology.com

GSA????

GSA - General Services Administration

One of our government customers (with the US Bureau of Reclamation) was disappointed he could not simply order one of our products through the GSA - told us we're making things difficult for him. Since we pride ourselves on making things easy - and of course would like more government orders - we've decided to learn how to get listed.

We've been approached by consulting companies who can get us started for several thousand dollars (more to follow???) but since we're small, we decided try it on our own first. If we then need help, at least we'll know the questions to ask!

We've learned on our own before, for the Navy. (See blog dated June 8, 2009.) Conquered WAWF (Wide Area Work Flow), CCR (Central Contract Registration), SBA (Small Business Administration) etc. A few headaches along the way, but we made it. And, free help was usually available via US government toll-free numbers.

(Personal comment: despite all the criticism we hear about government employees I've found the majority of them to be courteous and helpful, limited perhaps by the bureaucratic systems they work in.)

It looks like a good amount of help is available from the GSA. We're already signed up for a free GSA web seminar in September.

Stay tuned - or better yet, if you have some helpful hints, please let us know. (E-mail jhtek@jhtechnology.com, or just comment here, or US toll free 800-808-0300).

Fast Response

Speedy!

OK - maybe you're expecting me to promote our fast response to your orders. (Sneaky how I worked that in!)
The real topic - fast-responding signal conditioners.
A few months ago a customer asked if we could provide frequency response to at least a few kilohertz for DC and load cell signals. Our standard circuitry could not. His quantity requirements were large enough that we designed a new circuit to meet his needs (3kHz minimum). We've since shipped his order. He tells it is working well in his application - heavy-duty shock testing. More recently another customer needed just three fast-response units which we now are able to easily supply.
We're working on the paperwork and documentation to turn this in to a standard catalog product line of DIN-rail mount transmitters. Look for it shortly.
Meanwhile, if you have high-frequency or fast-response requirements, please ask us. E-mail jhtek@jhtechnology.com or call (800) 808-0300 (US toll-free) or (941) 927-0300.

Link to Fast Response Process Transmitters

Extended Temperature Operation

Too Hot? --- Too Cold?

Wouldn't you know - while this job was in progress we had another customer who needed to operate at high temperatures in a solar energy monitoring application. Same exact product (JH4380W), same exact solution. The extended temperature ICs support a temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees C (-40 to +185 degrees F).

We recently took an order (almost ready to ship as this is written) for 54 rangeable transmitters (JH4380W) to operate in environments as cold as minus 40 degrees (C or F - this is the one point on the temperature scale where both are the same). Our customer tells us the end destination is Russia. No great technological challenge - we simply built a run using extended-temperature ICs.

Link to our Specials & Customs page
Home page - all Process Transmitters & Alarms

Just for fun

BLATANT NEPOTISM!

Harry again. No technology this week. Instead, I'm bragging about our older daughter's web site. Lisa is a full-time nurse but also very talented at sewing, quilting, cross-stitch etc. After a number of requests from friends she decided to turn it into a part-time, web-based business, Heatherfish Studios. Named after her daughter (our granddaughter) Heather, who swims like a fish.

Here are a few samples: a Tote Bag, a children's Crayon Roll and a set of Coasters.

Like JH Technology hers is a small business, flexible and she has fun with it. And, like JH Technology, special orders are no problem.

OK, enough nepotism. If you're interested -

www.heatherfish.com

Supporting the Navy

The US Navy, directly and indirectly, represents about 15% of our business. Here's what we do for them.

Standard Products - we sell standard products to a major servicer/supplier to Navy ships and, sometimes, direct to the ships themselves. It's fun to get e-mails and satellite calls from ships, followed by orders for intruments to be delivered to places like Hawaii and Singapore.

They mostly use our plug-in style transmitter and alarm modules because they stay in place well with ship motion and vibration. The most common styles are temperature transmitters (temperature input, DC voltage or current output) and alarm trips, frequency to DC converters and DC to freqiuency converters. We've sometimes done beefed-up specials for best possible assurance that they will survive mechanical stress.


Custom Products - Several years ago we developed a pulse conditioner to meet Navy requirements. Its function - convert a pulse train of almost any amplitude and waveshape, from millivolts to over 100 volts, square wave, sine wve or other, and convert it to a clean, isolated 5V logic pulse output. We don't know the Navy's application, but they've ordered many through contractors over the years.



Minisystems - We often take one or more of our products, sometimes together with products from other companies, and create "Minisystems" to meet customer's unique needs.

This one took our standard RTD (Temperature - Resistance Thermometer Input) transmitter, added a cable and connected it to a display board that we normally use in our Field-Mount transmitters. The US Naval Air Warfare Center, Lakehurst, NJ, needed a number of these to amplify and display temperatures as part of a system to test and certify steam cylinders used to catapult airplanes from Navy aircraft carriers.

We discussed various enclosure styles, but the Navy personnel decided they would rather just buy the "innards" from us and design them into their test system. Must have worked - they later bought a second round.

Part of our first shipment, on overnight burn-in test.

For more on our customs and specials capabilities: www.jhtechnology.com/customs. Or, of course, call (800) 808-0300, (941) 927-0300 or e-mail jhtek@jhtechnology.com