I design electronics that move from schematic to working hardware. My work spans multilayer PCB design, embedded systems, power conversion, avionics integration, and the testing needed to make complex systems reliable.
Representative areas of hands-on engineering experience. Detailed schematics, photos, and case studies can be added where disclosure is appropriate.
Electrical design and integration for autonomous aircraft platforms, including payload interfaces, system power budgets, harnessing, and hardware validation.
Design and debugging of battery-management electronics, DC–DC conversion, high-current switching, and protection circuits.
Board-level design and troubleshooting for embedded controllers and connected peripherals, with a focus on reliable interfaces in electrically demanding systems.
Practical tools and test stations that make hardware bring-up, validation, and manufacturing workflows more repeatable.
Public-safe technical summaries covering avionics integration, power electronics, embedded communications, and automated test. Proprietary implementation details are intentionally omitted.
Integrating embedded electronics, propulsion interfaces, and payloads into autonomous aircraft platforms.
POWER ELECTRONICS · PCB DESIGNDesign and bring-up of battery monitoring, protection, switching, and DC-DC power conversion electronics.
EMBEDDED HARDWARE · DEBUGEmbedded controller hardware and communication-interface debugging for distributed electronic systems.
TEST ENGINEERING · SOFTWARETools that make electronics programming, configuration, and production acceptance more repeatable.
Technical case studies from my original Dave's Design blog. Explore the design constraints, troubleshooting process, original photographs, and lessons learned.
PCB DESIGN · 2019 archiveA compact, 1.75-inch circular printed circuit board designed in Proteus PCB.
TEST ENGINEERING · Circa 2016A custom PCB test fixture designed for repeatable production testing.
HARDWARE DEBUG · Circa 2016Tracing intermittent USB communication loss to a missing shield connection.
HARDWARE DEBUG · 2019 archiveDiagnosing a display that would not power up by tracing the microcontroller reset line.
MECHANICAL DESIGN · 2019 archivePractical mechanical design for electronics, fixtures, and custom assemblies.
TEST SOFTWARE · Circa 2018A C# utility designed to simplify device programming for production personnel.
MANUFACTURING · 2019 archiveFixture development and assembly documentation for production teams.
STUDENT PROJECT · Circa 2010A college robotics project using an 8051 microcontroller programmed in assembly language.
From component selection and layout through lab troubleshooting and system integration.
I'm an electrical engineer who enjoys solving the problems that appear between a design on paper and a dependable piece of hardware. I work across PCB design, embedded electronics, system integration, and lab testing. This site is where I share engineering projects, lessons learned, and the tools I build along the way.
Interested in my engineering work or source code? Explore my engineering résumé and public repositories, or return to the Tran Works family homepage.