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Carl F Otto - Consulting: Creative Product Development and Inventor.

Certified to perform OSHA mock inspections, with innovative problem solutions.

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Changing times: NASA'€™s countdown to the future
As the Timing and Countdown (T&CD) Engineer at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for 18 years, with the ORIAN and SCCS projects, I was finally given the budget to upgrade the KSC T&CD system. Part of the incentive was that the old countdown displays could not read the newer Range (IRIG) formats. The Shuttle program used a unique Merritt Island format. I had convinced NASA to migrate to one of the newer formats so we could follow military launches. Once NASA approved funding, the project was put on a short fuse as the government is apt to do. I had to submit procurement requests within 10 days of funding approval as well as support Space Shuttle launches.

At a Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) convention, we saw that Masterclock was working on new technology to control clocks by Ethernet. So as part of the competitive procurement we invited them to bid on manufacturing the 180-some clocks. They sent their off-the-shelf equipment as a sales demo and I put it in the firing room. NASA loved them and Masterclock made every change we requested. They even re-engineered their display box because the field engineer didn'€™t want to have to take down the old brackets. The first order was for only 14.

Masterclock has true clocks, not just dumb displays. Their clocks could already obtain accurate time from NTP and IRIG B, so they added the ability to read the newer countdown formats so we could use the existing cabling. I noticed that they had a serial port on their remote controller and asked if they could use that to read in the new serial text countdown. They even made their remote control unit capable of controlling and transmitting serial text countdown over the Ethernet. The FAR requires that Ethernet products have IPv6, so Masterclock added that capability. Their existing design could put many countdowns on the same Ethernet in broadcast mode, and each clock can be commanded to choose which broadcast to follow. Now with their new product there is no requirement for special distribution equipment or wiring. Another clock is just another drop. I don'€™t know if you can fathom the cost savings and usefulness of this to all kinds of control technology. Masterclock beat their competition in price and features yet still managed to make the delivery date. So now the government is starting to buy these for other areas. These improvements all came from thinking outside of the box, listening to the customer'€™s needs, listening to engineering to see if the product can do what is wanted, and trying to determine if there is enough sales potential to finance the change.

What can industry learn from this
1. Be represented at industry shows especially for industries that potentially could use your products.

2. Be capable and willing to redesign to meet the customer's€™ needs.

3. Find a niche market.

4. Be innovative to keep ahead of the industry

5. Provide products to meet government requirements.

6. Think outside of the Box.

Summary: