Wiltshire Firm Celebrates 20 Successful Years

Cast your mind back to the turn of the millennium. Y2K was about to cause chaos, Westlife were riding high in the UK charts and a new company was about to enter the world of embedded technology.

On 4th January 2000 Sarsen Technology began life in a small office above a shop in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Unfortunately, that was before we had smart phones and digital cameras, so there is little to no evidence of the questionable fashion or hairstyles sported by the Sarsen team at the turn of the century...

Our very first order in February 2000 was from Thomson Marconi (now Thales Underwater Systems) for an Analog Devices Blacktip PCI card, and 20 years later we’re talking to some of the UK's biggest prime manufacturers about a wide range of technology; from embedded single board computers and FPGA based solutions to rugged MIL-STD-1553 hardware and high performance computing COTS technology.

It’s certainly never boring…

The portfolio of manufacturers we represent has also changed over the years. Aside from allowing us to expand our product line, our carefully selected partners have given us the opportunity to support applications in new sectors. We now successfully supply a range of solutions into markets that we had very little experience of back in 2000, including financial trading and cyber security.

Great relationships with customers, suppliers and colleagues have led to some great friendships too. Alongside the unique challenges that come with running a small business, there have been many opportunities to celebrate and share a lot of fun together over the last two decades.

We are extremely proud of our achievements over the last 20 years. Thank you to all Sarsen Technology staff, past and present, to all our loyal customers, and to the manufacturers we represent, for your highly valued support over the years.

We are really looking forward to the next exciting chapter in 2020!


Rogues Gallery **

**Not in chronological order (in case you couldn't tell)!

Get to Know Alta Data Technologies - High Performance 1553 and ARINC Solutions

Since our inception in January 2000 we have partnered with many companies to provide exceptional services and technology, and to leverage the technical expertise of industry leaders in order to help our customers bring their own products to market. Alta Data is one of the latest additions to our product line.

Founded in 2007 Alta Data Technologies is committed to providing the best possible avionics products and service in the Aerospace industry. Their rugged MIL-STD-1553 hardware and ARINC interface modules & cards, powered by the AltaCore Protocol Engine, provide the most advanced product capabilities in the industry and are available for almost every form factor, including Ethernet modules.

Alta’s 1553 Products are Notice II and IV compliant, and the ARINC product line provides a software-selectable protocol interface for ARINC-429, 717, 419, 573 and 575.

Alta Data Products

The AltaAPI, AltaView and AltaRTVal software packages have been created to reduce integration and test efforts. Both the 1553 and ARINC cards include an Advanced Signal Capture of the Bus Waveform.

All products are designed and manufactured to the highest industry standards, including management processes certified to ISO 9001:2008, IPC Class 3 and ANSI S.20.20 certified manufacturing and innovative functional and JTAG testing methods. Alta also provides free, lifetime support and an industry-leading 5 year limited warranty with all of their cards.

Alta Data offers a huge selection of unique products. For a detailed review of your application please contact one of the engineering team to discuss your requirements.

Article - The Bus Too Tough To Die!

 

MilesTek has offered complete connectivity solutions since 1981, and since then their customers have come to expect more than just top quality products. MilesTek provides answers that help customers solve their installation or project questions, as well as writing and sharing useful articles, white papers and industry news. 

The latest article from the Mil/Aero component experts at MilesTek is an in-depth look at the MIL-STD-1553 bus.

Considering how long it's been in service, the MIL-STD-1553B bus has survived remarkably well, despite other, more advanced solutions having gained wide acceptance in the last few years.

However, the fact remains that the maximum data rate of 1Mb/s is orders of magnitude too slow for today’s data-intensive systems, therefore on paper logic dictates that it will soon fade away. That may be a logical assumption, but it’s likely to prove wrong, for several reasons.

 The most obvious is that MIL-STD-1553B continues to fly on at least 30,000 aircraft, as well as on commercial and military ships, and is widely used in industrial and ……

To continue reading this article which was originally published in Aerospace & Defense Technology please click here.

1553 Tutorial - Alta Data Technologies

Alta Data Technologies LLC (Alta) is a company dedicated to providing the best possible MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC-429/717 COTS communications products and service in the Aerospace Industry.





Find out more - Alta Data

Alta has designed a full line of PCI, PCI Express (PCIe) interface cards for almost any computer backplane. They also supply their own innovative real-time Ethernet connectivity devices.

Alta is the only COTS supplier to test 1553 card designs to SAE AS4111 Protocol Validation Tests, and they manufacture their products to the highest IPC-610 Class 3 standards using processes managed by an ISO9001 quality management system. All of this is backed up by their 5 year limited warranty – one of the best in the industry. Alta is fully supported in the UK by Sarsen Technology.

MIL-STD-1553

MIL-STD-1553 has had a long, popular life – and will continue to be supported for decades to come in new and legacy applications. Alta engineers and managers have been in the avionics industry since the early 1980’s and have worked on nearly every major avionics program.

They have put together a MIL-STD-1553 tutorial, designed to complement the referenced MIL HDBK 1553A Notice II (3572 downloads) document, which provides an excellent detailed review of the 1553 standard (MIL-HDBK-1553A Section 20 provides a summary of MIL-STD-1553B Notice 2).  Commercially available chip-sets and interface cards (like Alta’s) “off load” the protocol processing (protocol engine) so the engineer’s primary concern is design/integration of application software and cabling issues.

You can download the tutorial by clicking here. If you have any questions please get in touch with the Sarsen team - info@sarsen.net

Sarsen Technology Now Representing MilesTek in the UK

About MilesTek

www.milestek.com

Since 1981 Milestek has grown to become a global distributor delivering complete connectivity solutions and custom cable assemblies to over 60,000 customers. Milestek offers quality products, in stock for short delivery timescales, and quick turnaround on your custom requirements.

Headquartered in Denton, Texas, the professional sales and technical team supports the rep network to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction to avionics designers, broadcast and DS3/telecom industries, government and military users and industrial networking companies.

Sarsen Technology supplies and supports the full range of Milestek products and solutions, including MIL-STD-1553B cables and adapters, data bus couplers, bus and stub cables, coaxial-RF cable assemblies and triaxial connectors, cables and cable assemblies.

Coaxial, Military and Industrial Networking Solutions, Telemetry Solutions
MilesTek is a global provider for a vast range of connectivity products, patch cords and panels; connectors and adapters; coaxial, twinaxial, and Triaxial cable assemblies, as well as custom cable assemblies and complete harness assemblies for industrial and Military. These products service the industrial, Military and government markets.

Military Avionics and MIL-STD-1553B Solutions
MilesTek has delivered connectivity products and solutions to the avionics industry worldwide for over twenty-five years. Our product offering, used primarily in military R&D and production applications, consists of a complete line of bus couplers, custom harnesses and assemblies, connectors and connector termination systems and a broad range of related accessories.

Military Simulator Technology from UEI

When someone says “Simulator” most people immediately think “Flight Simulator”.

However, simulators are now also used to train ‘drivers’ on fire trucks, tanks, military ground vehicles and even conventional and nuclear power plants. Military trainers in particular are basing much of their driver training on very complex and realistic simulators.

The simulator can provide a realistic experience of driving a tank, personnel carrier, or MRAP in a convoy at night while under attack. These are very real conditions that are very difficult to train for in actual vehicles. The combination of small footprint and real-time update speed make the United Electronic Industries (UEI) RACKtangle an ideal ground vehicle simulator solution.

Interestingly, UEI’s wide selection of I/O capabilities is often more critical in ground simulators than flight. In addition to the standard analog and digital I/O, most military ground simulators also require a combination of serial, CAN, ARINC-429 and/or MIL-STD-1553. UEI offer support for all these functions through their range of boards and chassis.

The UEI RACKtangle I/O chassis has been selected by FlightSafety International as the computer-based I/O hardware for future flight simulators. The UEI system provides the interface between the controlling computers and the simulator’s various systems including Avionics Instrument Control (AIC), Control Loading and Motion (CLM) and Flight Deck I/O (FDK). In PowerDNA mode the system can be almost arbitrarily large - UEI have been used on military aircraft flight simulators requiring greater than 7000 I/O points!!

For more information on how UEI can work in your simulator application, please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email with your requirements.

New and Enhanced Data Acquisition and Control Hardware from United Electronic Industries

Who needs the Argos catalogue? Write your application Christmas list using the brand new brochure from UEI!

Continuing to grow, the latest edition of the catalogue is 40 pages long and filled cover-to-cover, with information on the company's ever expanding product line as well as a number of new application stories, and an all new FAQ section. Request a brochure now from Sarsen Technology!

The UEI catalogue includes information on their growing list of I/O boards that are available for use with the company’s RACK and CUBE chassis. 

One of the major announcements in this volume is the new performance available in the UEILogger. The overall sample rate has been increased by an order of magnitude and the maximum SD card size has gone from 4 GB to 32 GB. In addition the UEILogger now provides alarm outputs, and can now log data from the MIL-STD-1553 bus.

UEI have also used Issue 12 to introduce some new boards to their customers. The DNx-AI-218/228 A/D boards offer channel to channel isolation, 24-bit A/Ds simultaneous sampling and input ranges up to ±300 VDC. The new DNx-AI-212 and DNx-AI-222 provide high performance measurements of thermocouples/RTDs respectively. 

In the avionics world, the DNx-AFDX-664 is scheduled to be released in late 2012 and will be UEI’s first product in the AFDX market place. It joins the existing line which currently includes ARINC-429/708/453 and MIL-STD-1553 interfaces. 

There are also Strain Gauge Simulator and Arbitrary Waveform Generator boards, and some great software to run on them! 

UEI now supports EPICS, the standard in the high-energy physics world. They’ve also released the UEI-RSS (Remote Serial Server) which makes the popular DNx-SL-50x boards look like standard serial ports in your PC. 

If you’re not sure that a UEI I/O system is the right fit for you application why not take advantage of the UEI 30 day evaluation plan?

All hardware manufactured by UEI is available for evaluation. In fact any order for standard product with a total value less than $10,000 is automatically covered by the 30-day evaluation policy and may be returned within 30 days of shipment without restocking fees.

Give us a call to discuss your requirements on +44 1672 511166, or email us with the details!