User:Gerben49
About: myself Born in Groningen the Netherlands, 1949-march-01. Education electrotechnical engineer: Twente University, then named THT (Technische Hogeschool Twente)
From 1975 until 1977 I have done some work on thermal imaging with a pyroelectric vidicon at Twente University. This type of thermal cameras is obsolete since long, as solid state sensors, with thermally sensitive resistors, isolated from each other but cooled by a common substrate, a CCD-chip that also gathers the the thermal picture, are used in every thermal camera. These modern sensors enable construction of relative low cost camera's and thermal imaging is proliferating into new user groups. After graduation, I worked for another 9 months on the Infrared project, until to December 1977.
From January 1978 until 2014, I have worked for Nedap, Groenlo the Netherlands. I designed power electronic equipment for companies in Sweden, Germany, the US, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. In my early years I was also involved in the design of automatic test equipment, in those days based on EEPROM programming, and discrete logical circuits. That enabled us to do semi-automatic testing of switching power supplies. Working with a lot of different customers from most international companies was an interesting experience for me, as was the existence of a lot of international rules for safety and EMC, as well as a lot of standardization (e.g. Technical requirements for components). In more recent times, we switched mainly to electronic lamp-drivers for HID-lamps and Ex-certified fluorescent lamp drivers, also with integrated emergency function with a 6V NiCd-battery pack (is still in use by the Ex community, since explosion safety of NiMH-batteries is much more difficult, and has not yet been proven). I have also worked on a range (6) of induction lamp-drivers for the Philips induction lamps (see the photograph at the top of this article). These drivers operate on 2.65 MHz. More recently, these drivers were redesigned, and are now dimmable. Production of the induction lamps mover from Philips to QL-company, that also sales the lamp drivers in Europe. IN the US and Canada, Nedap directly sales the drivers, and lamps are separately ordered from QL-company.
My last project was the design of a universal lamp driver with Wattage's from 150W to 315W. The wattage must be set, but detection of lamp voltage (100V for some Philips lamps or 130/150 V for most other lamps. Lamp starting was effected by a special resonating pulse, gradually increasing in amplitude, enabling connection cables between lamp driver and lamp of up to 10 meters (normal pulse igniters may have leads of maxim 0.4 meter. Also the 400 Hz signal after start is adjusted to maintain the lamp for the first second in the high voltage glow discharge mode, that avoids blackening of the lamp bulb.
Here, the product was tested by Philips. The test revealed one weak point, that has been corrected. However, the use of HID lamps is declining as a result of upcoming white LED technology.
In the past, I have been windsurfing, but for some years I do not use the board, although all the needed stuff is still present. Since 2006, I am bicycling on a racing bike and became member of a race-cycling club. With the club we make every week in summer tours, mainly in Germany: There are a lot of hills to climb. I like the climbing, and the German countryside is very beautiful.
Since 2014 I am retired, and I have more time to do work for Wikipedia. Mainly for nl.wikipeia.org, but I very often read English articles.