Tekmos Talks
A Newsletter for the Semiconductor Industry
 June 2015
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Welcome to the June edition of Tekmos Talks 2015. Tekmos has moved to a new and larger location in Austin at 7901 E. Riverside Dr. Bldg.2, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78744 . We will talk about Tekmos recent move, share a 4th in a series on Internet of Things, introduce a new Tekmos product, and share about trade show tricks.
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From the Desk of the President
| A Moving Experience
Tekmos has doubled in size for the past two years. Space was definitely a problem, and with our lease up last April, we started to look for new space in October. In hindsight, we started off with two mistakes. The first was that we should have allocated 9 months for the search instead of 6. The second error was that had we checked our lease, we would have noticed that it ended in March and not in April. So we were down to 5 months, and didn't know it. After about two weeks of searching, we found the perfect place. It was on the low end of our space requirements, but the location was nice, and the internal build out was a good match. We negotiated the lease, and signed in January. The city of Austin has different levels of reviews for zoning permits, based on the amount of work that has to be done. We were advised to scale back the modifications we had wanted in order to fit in the lowest level of reviews. A longer review meant that there would not be time to complete the work before our current lease expired. This was just another case of dreams being overturned by reality. We had made the decision to hire an interior decorator. Our contractor recommended Karen Burris of Ice Interior Design. This was easily the best thing we did during the move. She did a wonderful job of choosing colors, carpet, furniture, wall art, and arranging for subcontractors to do various tasks. Her work can be seen on our website. |
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Internet of Things by Richard Stallkamp
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In a departure from commercial aspects of the IoT (Internet of Things), this month's article is about how the IoT can help foster the creative spirit in people even before they are out of middle school. It gives an example of how a desire for something cool might move from an idea to a simple system and then with more and more enhancements. All this is aided by the building blocks that come with the IoT.
One of the problems that young people have is they want to design something but they do not have much equipment or many materials to work with. If the thing they want to put together is at all complicated, they may need to start from scratch to build all the components.
As an example, a middle schooler would like to create something cool. He gets the idea of being able to remotely monitor something in his home. The idea occurs to him: "Wouldn't it be neat to know we are running out of milk without looking in the refrigerator." In years past, a kid could come up with some crude way to determine if the weight of the milk container was less than a predetermined amount. The only output might be a light that comes on. It was very difficult to make this system be any more sophisticated than this.
With the IoT today, the building blocks to get take this idea a lot farther already exist and are readily accessible. With the computer he already has for doing his homework, he can go a lot farther without needing to develop a lot of sophisticated additional equipment. A connection could be made from the refrigerator to the computer to process the "out of milk" message and even record when it happened. The computer could be programmed to ring a bell, or even taking it farther, play a recorded message.
Read More...
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New Product Development, Richard Stallkamp
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TK68HC805P18
Tekmos now offers the TK68HC805P18 as the latest addition to our line of microcontrollers. It is designed to be a drop-in replacement for other 68HC805P18 parts that have been hard for our customers to obtain.
The TK68HC805P18 microcontroller features a 4-channel, 8-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, a 16-bit timer with output compare and input capture, a serial communications port (SIOP), a computer operating properly (COP) watchdog timer, and 21 input/output (I/O) pins (20 bidirectional, one input-only). The memory map contains 192 bytes of RAM, 8064 bytes of program Flash (for user code), 512 bytes of boot ROM. This device is available in DIP or SOIC Packages.
Tekmos continues to be the "go to" supplier when there are problems finding obsolete parts or when additional parts are needed after the date for EOL (End of Life) purchase has passed. Tekmos makes a variety of microcontrollers, microprocessors, and other miscellaneous standard products to satisfy these needs. Tekmos also continues to make custom ASIC replacement parts. Customers are aware that buying from Tekmos ensures pin for pin, drop-in replacements that can be counted on to work in their applications, without worry about the quality of parts purchased on the grey market.
To Learn More...
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Tricks of the Trade Show
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Planning for a tradeshow/conference can take a good year preparation depending on the extent of your organization's involvement in the event from exhibiting, presentations, level of event sponsorship, and the marketing "giveaways" the company will use at the event. Marketing gimmicks can include a raffle for an item or a trip, giveaways such as pens, flash drives, reusable bags or stress balls, all with the logo of the company. Then there are the high dollar gimmicks which can make an event very interesting.
A recent conference attended had a noteworthy number of attendees of company executives and service operators from various branches of the oil and gas industry. Getting noticed by attendees is key to whether your participation in that conference is worthwhile. An exhibitor's job is to get seen and to draw in attendees to market their product or service. Some exhibitors will do just about anything for that "lead".
At this particular conference it was noticed distinctive promoting at one booth a full bar with bartender to serve any attendee between the hours of 10:30AM to 4:30 PM during the main day of the conference. At every network break there was a guarantee for a long line which also benefited nearby exhibitors. Another booth right next to that one had a magician doing tricks complete with microphone that drew in crowds. While yet another exhibitor had a putting green contest and the winner was added to a raffle for a very expensive putter.
Taking "Murphy's Law" into the mix is critical to an effective conference and to ones state of mind; if you plan for everything that could go wrong, you are ahead of the game and ready to have a successful event. Make sure you also have a unique attention grabber for your booth and staff it with knowledgeable people that can answer attendee's questions. Expect tired feet and minds by the end, and be sure to create a written report of the conference time line so that all leads, picked up knowledge, and any unexpected events are studied and learned from for future events. Follow up is key-without it the time and money has been wasted. Follow up should be systematic-no one knows which lead may turn out to be a breakthrough account. Instinct goes only so far in evaluating a lead.
For information on any Tekmos product please contact us at sales@tekmos.com or use our contact form. |
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Please share any comments, compliments and or requests by taking part in our Customer Survey provided here for your convenience. Tekmos is "Igniting the Industry" with continued innovation.
Sincerely,
Lynn Reed, President
 7901 E. Riverside Dr. Bldg.2, Suite 150Austin, TX 78744Phone: (512) 342-9871Fax: (512) 342-9873
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