[ScoopLV]

I always figured you for a Unimog guy.

[lvoc]

Built my first crystal receiver at 9 or 10. First amateur short wave set at 12. Got a 20 meter beam on a 60 foot crank up in my back yard though I do not know if it well ever rotate again.

Own a number of patents on xerography and even the use of a processor to control a printing engine. All expired by now..though I have thought of a couple of variants I might go after. Actually worked out the first of the practical optical mice...I did not invent it but did do the work to figure out how to do one that would be practically manufacturable. The problem was that there was no way to make any money off it. Had to leave it to the boys from Logitech.

The best damn idea I ever had and went out of my way to patent...dealt with document formats and what today lis known as pdfs...went down the tubes in a way that Dilbert would absolutely understood. I turned it in to the patent dept on three or four sheets of a quadrel pad. Had a good Phd electronic-er go through it to make sure it was cogent and sign it as a witness. Patent secretary called up and said it had to be on a specified form. I told her I did not do patent forms get one of the attorney's to do it. She promptly circle filed it. It became an issue a couple of years later and I said we were great shape I had done it already. Worse than it being gone the patent boys had picked up a useless version from the research end and had pursued it completely unaware they had discarded the good one.

We also blew a few. Had perhaps the worlds best lsi design system early on. Obvious stuff...but what we did was use a big mainframe as a desktop. That gave enough memory to actually lay masks out in sufficient detail. and we could move them around and find tune. Turns out it was obvious but not done for some years. I also believe our little team was one of the first to realize that you could run signals both ways through a semiconductor pad. Actually we thought it so obvious that patenting it never was thought of.

[lvoc]

One more fun story...Dilbert sort. Couple of the engineers in my LSI shop did the world's first hacked design. They decided early on in the LSI process that a calculator chip would be easy and they were working similar devices. So on thier own time they laid one out. So now they have the plates to make such a device. So it gets slid in to a test position on wafers from a major semiconductor manufacturer. And processed.

Eventually they got good working devices.

Then the Dilbert effect. They have a few dozen good devices and all the necessary tooling to make a lot more. What do you do with that?

Think about it. It did not turn out well. All Dilberts need a mildly corrupt business man to succeed...even though they hate it. Of that crew I was the only one with the contacts to have pulled off such a sale...but they would not ask me for fear they would all be fired. Tjhe sad part is at that point in time they might have been right.

[lvoc]

And to McG OP. Ever use thermocouples? For What you want they are indestructible and cheap aside from the electronics.

[macgeek]

LVOC - Yup used to fix home heating equipment for a living.

Jonathan

[SportyandMisty]

There are so-called ruggedized Cat6 cables for use in extreme environments. They are not run-of-the-mill cables -- think temperature extremes, humidity, moisture, dust, mud, oil and solvents, and the potentially corrosive effects of chemicals, grit, sludge, salt, lime, corrosive gases such as methane, hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, vibration, torque, EMI, lightning strikes.

These tend to be used in industries such as mining, offshore deep water drilling, waste water treatment, even wind power industries.

[SportyandMisty]

I'm named inventor or co-inventor on several patents as well (before going on to manage patent licensing); the decision to pursue a patent is only partially about the idea and potential revenue; in many cases, a company's most valuable patents are those in an area where the company has no products nor any intention of ever making a product. Remember: owning a patent does not give you the right to practice the patent (that is, when you own a patent on a widget, that patent does not give you the right to make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, or import the invention, as doing so might very well infringe on someone else's patent.) Just ask Nathan Myhrvold and several of my former colleagues who now work at Intellectual Ventures.

Here's my favorite patent -- and one I used when teaching scientists & engineers about the patent game (and no, I'm not an inventor on this patent):

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by macgeek

LVOC - Yup used to fix home heating equipment for a living.

Jonathan

Similar but the science type was simply a pair of wires of a suitable pair of material. Cut the length you wanted off a spool and form the junction by welding the two together against a graphite block using line current. Can be quite long as no current actually flows. Normal stuff was good to a couple of thousand degrees.

[mojavedxer]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

There are so-called ruggedized Cat6 cables for use in extreme environments. They are not run-of-the-mill cables -- think temperature extremes, humidity, moisture, dust, mud, oil and solvents, and the potentially corrosive effects of chemicals, grit, sludge, salt, lime, corrosive gases such as methane, hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, vibration, torque, EMI, lightning strikes.

These tend to be used in industries such as mining, offshore deep water drilling, waste water treatment, even wind power industries.

Yea running CAT5E/6 rated for indoor installs is a recipe for disaster having it laying over a roof during the summer monsoons and static electricity. Macgeek I am sure you have heard of Ubiquiti. Its amazing what you can get from them at such low costs to meet your wireless needs.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I'm named inventor or co-inventor on several patents as well (before going on to manage patent licensing); the decision to pursue a patent is only partially about the idea and potential revenue; in many cases, a company's most valuable patents are those in an area where the company has no products nor any intention of ever making a product. Remember: owning a patent does not give you the right to practice the patent (that is, when you own a patent on a widget, that patent does not give you the right to make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, or import the invention, as doing so might very well infringe on someone else's patent.) Just ask Nathan Myhrvold and several of my former colleagues who now work at Intellectual Ventures.

Here's my favorite patent -- and one I used when teaching scientists & engineers about the patent game (and no, I'm not an inventor on this patent):

I have a few dozen. My favorite patent is one of the early patents of Milan Bier...who was my first mentor in science. In one of his 1950s patents he actually did a good job of patenting a basic physical principle...which we know is not allowed but can be done. i will see if I can find it. Have to go to the books I think as the patent system is difficult prior to 1970. I think I still have his book on Electrophoresis and it should be mentioned in there.

I did some high voltage power supply work in the 60s that actually went into product. Basically regulating by the use of a shunt photoconductor using leds to drive it. That actually led some years later to a breakerless ignition system that would likely have worked. I don't even know if it ended up patented but if it did I was not on it. The rub was it was too far a field and not clear there was any money in it. It worked on paper but when you start messing with high voltage and surge currents and the semiconductors involved it gets messy and expensive real quick.