Amazing changes in the retail marketplace over the last 15 years has created new, different obstacles to successfully launch a new product. Marketing romantics muse glowingly about the old days when there were supposedly multiple placement opportunities in every level of retail. True, there were. But on closer inspection, there are as many options now, if not more.

People and organizations are not usually open to change. Change is hard, requires a different thought process, imagination, flexibility. In the 1980’s there was a seemingly endless array of local, regional and national store chains, including department stores, drug, discount, food, hardware and mass merchandisers. Most are now gone. They did not change.

WT Grant, Montgomery Ward, Venture, Ayr-Way, Gold Circle, Hills, Super-X, Bambergers, B. Altman, Bonwit Teller and Wannamakers are only a tiny sampling of strong store brands that no longer exist. The new big box chains that have taken their place feature massive purchasing, merchandising and logistic assets. Certainly Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Macys, Walgreen and Kroger have earned their collective perches as dominating chains in their categories.

The question for small businesses and entrepreneurs is how to successfully place product in these retail behemoths. And if they can’t be penetrated what other options are available. The difficulties of selling a short line or a single item to Wal-Mart are daunting, but can be overcome.

To successfully sell the big boys, you have to adjust, change your terms and conditions to fit theirs. The key to the modern big box success is based on huge sales volumes, lowest price available and logistics that enable ever-faster deployment of inventory and resources. Software for shipping and receiving is as important as product features and benefits. You have to have the capacity to participate in these advanced control systems.

The inter-net and electronic media have created whole new sales opportunities that did not exist a generation ago. If eBay counted all of the independent contractors they serve as employees, they would be the world’s largest employer. Over 700,000 entities now sell product through this vast, democratic, web community. Many make a full-time living from eBay sales. This is an inter-net department store with an auction format. And there are dozens of other targeted web-based sites seeking inventory to sell as well.

Home Shopping Network, ANC, Shop at Home and QVC are simply electronic department stores and each has a huge appetite for new products. Every year these cable television retailers search locally and through on-air solicitations for fresh, creative, new products that can be demonstrated in this powerful sales venue. A product that sells successfully on HSN will soon be in demand on traditional retail shelves.

Years ago late night infomercials were the frequent butt of comic skits. Today major companies such as Proctor & Gamble, General Motors and Estee Lauder utilize this sales venue. Hundreds of products are launched in short format infomercials each year, and many succeed. These spots can be produced at amazingly affordable prices and test media buys mitigate financial risk. Most big box stores feature an area featuring the “As Seen on TV” logo. It is much easier to penetrate the bureaucratic maze of a national chain with a bit of proven success in hand.

Much as TV infomercials have revolutionized product marketing, an even less expensive strategy can be undertaken utilizing print media. Main stream newspapers, magazines and print supplements increasingly sell print

Advertorials. An Advertorial is an article that reads and appears to be non-commercial, but contains a specific product message. These have been extremely powerful guerrilla marketing tools, inexpensive, easy to monitor and strong revenue generators.

There are many other potential avenues to pursue in order to create sales traction for a product. Publicity campaigns (have the advantage of being free), specialty catalogs, remittance envelopes, commission sales coverage, and a customized web-site with an online pay-per-click program are just a few.

The old days and stores are gone. We only have the new days and a whole raft of new opportunities to utilize. Maybe Lowe’s is not the place to launch your product. Successful pursuit of a guerrilla option will enable a product to develop a sales base, sales, traction and growth. This will level the negotiating field when the big box presentation is made.

More and more computer networks use wireless methods to move data from one system to another, however many networks still use some type of cabling (Copper or Fiber Optic) to connect systems. The way that cable and hardware, or wireless signals connect to one another to form a network is known as the Network Topology. Historical network topologies include Bus, Ring, and Star, while modern topologies include Hybrid, Mesh, Point-to-Multipoint, and Point-to-Point.

Historical Topologies

Bus: A bus topology uses a single bus cable that connects all of the computers in a line, and data goes out on the entire bus. To prevent data from reflecting at the ends of the cable and creating unnecessary traffic a bus topology needs terminators at each end of the cable.

Ring: A ring topology is similar to a bus topology except that it connects all computers with a central ring cable, so there are no ends to the bus and it does not require termination. The data flows in a circle from one computer to the next in the same direction.

*If a cable is broken at any point in a bus or ring topology the entire network stops working. The broken ends in a bus topology creates reflection of data between the still connected computers because the termination point is no longer connected to the network. A broken cable in a ring topology breaks the circuit and stops the flow of data.

Star: A star topology uses a central connection point for all computers on a network, which offers fault tolerance not available with bus or ring topologies. If any one connection is broken in a star topology the other systems on the network are not affected and are still able to send and receive data.

Modern Topologies

Hybrid: A hybrid topology combines the features of the bus and ring topologies with the star topology by shrinking the actual bus or ring into a small box called a hub which serves the purpose of the central connection point or star. Star-bus and star-ring topologies physically look like star topologies however the actual electronic schematics act like a bus or ring. Any topology that combines a physical topology with an electronic signalling topology is known as a Hybrid Topology.

Mesh: A mesh topology connects every system to every other system in a network via two or more routes, sometimes requiring particular routes to traverse through another system in the mesh network. A partially meshed topology includes at least two systems with redundant connections, and every computer does not need to connect to every other computer. In a fully meshed topology every computer connects directly to every other computer. A meshed topology is very robust and if a single connection is broken the systems are not affected, however because of the complexity of connecting cables to and from every computer in a network the mesh topology is not practical for cabled networks and will usually only be seen in wireless networks.

Point-to-Multipoint: A point-to-multipoint topology includes a single computer system that is used a common source through which all of the other systems on the network converse. Similar to the star topology in that there is a central point, the difference is in the device that exists in the center of the network. The center of the star topology is little more than a path for the data to travel to the various systems, whereas the center of a point-to-multipoint topology includes an actual hub, router, or switch which controls the data flow to the various other systems in the network. The point-to-multipoint topology is sometimes referred to as a Tree Topology and is known as an Infrastructure Network.

Point-to-Point: A point-to-point topology includes two computers directly connected together with no need for a central hub, router, or switch. Point-to-point topologies are found in both wired and wireless networks. They are known as Ad-hoc or Peer to Peer networks.

History

Putting isolation transformers into a UPS system is not new. In fact, some technologies relied on the transformer to create the power waveform (ferro-resonance). In most cases the need for the transformer was due to it’s ability to step up an AC voltage. This allowed an inverter to output a low AC voltage due to limitations on the voltage capacity on the power electronic components. More recently advances in power electronics have enabled the transformer to be removed and the inverter output connected directly to the load. This is called a high frequency design and is the basis for modern online double conversion UPS.

The 1/2V 10V Myth

Some UPS manufacturers include an isolation transformer to allow the Neutral to be bonded to the earth thereby creating a new N-E bond and eliminating any Neutral to Earth Voltage. Claims have been made that common mode voltage (and that means a voltage referenced to a common source – in this case the ground or earth conductor) of over V or normal mode (between live and neutral) of over 10V can cause equipment malfunction.

However, Neutral to Earth voltage does not cause malfunction with modern electrical equipment. This can be easily demonstrated by going to Germany and plugging something into the wall socket. You can then unplug it, turn the Schuko lead around by 180 degrees and plug it in again. Hey presto, what was once live is now neutral and vice versa and guess what – the electrical equipment works just the same without any problems at all, despite the neutral to earth voltage being 230V. Or you could simply rewire your mains lead to demonstrate.

In the UK, the neutral and earth are bonded at the consumer unit in any case, and any significant N-E voltage is an infra-structure issue that would require addressing by an electrician. Now perhaps such claims were meant for higher frequencies and so the use of the isolation transformer is to eliminate noise, after all I’ve heard such claims that the isolation transformer “removes noise from the earth, and since many electronic devices use earth as a logic reference any noise of over V here can cause logic errors“. Noise on the earth is a misleading phrase. Electrical Noise is simply a high frequency voltage which is measured between two points. You cannot have noise on the earth in isolation, it must be between earth and some other point and in this case the claim is between Neutral and Earth.

This would mean that for any malfunction to occur with as little as 0.5V of N-E noise, the Neutral conductor must, in some way be used within the logic of the electronic apparatus. Now many years ago this could have been the case, but nothing manufactured over around the last 20 years would have this drawback. Electrical safety standards require that the Live & Neutral conductor are separated from the earth with a high degree of isolation (tested at up to 3000 Volts). To do this they use internal isolation. All computer devices use DC power derived in the main from a device known as a switched mode power supply (SMPS). This contains an isolation transformer which operates at a high frequency which allows it to be substantially smaller than a mains frequency equivalent. The output DC logic levels of the SMPS are completely isolated from the input AC Live and Neutral conductors. Devices that do not utilise SMPS often use rectifiers from a low level AC source, derived from a step down isolation transformer.

This internal isolation negates the need for an external isolation transformer as Neutral to Earth Noise on the input cannot propagate to the DC levels used by the computer logic except in extreme cases.

This is not to say that noise on the AC power line can not cause problems, but there are other ways of addressing this such as simple filtering or improved earthing. The isolation transformer also requires additional filtering to deal with noise and is effective only as a filter in this scenario. The EMC directive has also required equipment to be more robust to the effects of electrical noise.

The Schuko Lead. Proof that N-E Voltage isn’t an issue.

Voltage Regulation

An issue with transformers is that they have an output voltage that is dependent upon the loading on the transformer. This is called Regulation. The output voltage of an isolation transformer under no-load is higher than the output voltage under full load.

This causes the terminal voltage to vary with changing loads. It also means that there is the potential to have dangerously high or too low voltages on the output. The input and output voltages of a transformer are dictated by the ratio of the number of windings on the primary side to the number of windings on the secondary side. In order to overcome the regulation issue with transformers operating at close to their capacity is to slightly step up the voltage. This is so as the transformer becomes loaded, the output voltage falls. So for a 230V input at 0% load, the output may be a few % higher than a nominal, and at 100% load the output would be a few % lower. How big this % is depends upon how good the design of the transformer is. The problem is, if your input voltage is on the high side (the specification for the UK is 230V10%, so that could be 253V) adding a few % more makes the output voltage dangerously high and may cause equipment damage. Equally if your mains voltage is on the low side (207V) then a few % lower may cause your equipment to stop operating.

Some UPS overcome this with buck and boost circuits, however I have known for the output voltage from a transformer based UPS, even with a buck function to be at 260V.

RCDs Don’t Trip

It is perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects that many people installing a power protection device containing an isolation transformer are unaware that any residual current device that was put into the infrastructure to provide fast disconnection in the event of a fault will not operate. Of course, large fault currents as created during short circuits will cause other protection measures to operate, but small fault currents that RCDs are designed to protect against will not cause the RCD to trip.

This is because an RCD operates by detecting an imbalance between the Live and Neutral conductors. Since the isolation transformer isolates the secondary side from the primary, any fault current to earth -no matter how large- causes no deviation from the incoming Live and Neutral current balance as the fault current loop (secondary Live to earth) is contained entirely within the secondary side of the transformer.

This is, in fact, why isolation transformers are used for safety, and are also used in critical power applications such as operating theatres, intensive care wards and chemical plants etc., where an earth fault should not cause disconnection of the supply, and ensures that personnel are safe from electric shock even with a fault. However, this is only true if the output conductors are floating with respect to earth, that is, there is no Neutral to Earth Bond.

If your infrastructure has your circuit protected with an RCD due to the risk of electric shock caused by low fault currents (as recommended where water is nearby) then you should be aware that the RCD will never operate.

This drawback is used however for other purposes – where there is a requirement to remove earth leakage and this is one of the situations where the isolation transformer comes into it’s own.

Power Conditioning

It is interesting to note that for all the recognised power quality problems as defined by the Leonardo Power Quality Initiative ( http://www.leonardo-energy.org/ ) not one of the solutions recommends the use of an isolation transformer. This despite the fact that UK Copper Development Association is one of the members and has some great guides on power quality http://www.copperinfo.co.uk/power-quality/power-quality-guide.shtml that again do not call for the use of an isolation transformer.

In fact, most power quality issues that are noise related can be addressed with improved earthing and many other problems such as harmonic content cannot be addressed with isolation transformers.

Ground Loops

A ground loop is where an earth current flows from one earthed point to another usually through some unexpected path such as data lines and causes malfunction and damage. Now an isolation transformer can stop a ground loop for one piece of attached equipment, if the earth is isolated and the output left floating. You could of course, just cut the earth wire which would have the same effect but this of course is electrically unsafe. As discussed above the isolation transformer can be used for safety purposes and this how in can be used in this context to prevent a ground loop from occurring by effectively disconnecting the earth.

However, if the isolation transformer has the earth straight through, as is the case with transformer based UPS then ground loops will not be prevented.

Transformer Hum

Transformers are known to hum and this is due to poor construction, poor AC power quality or both. Transformer hum increases inefficiency and is of course annoying.

Successful Trials

One of the methods of selling a power quality solution is to offer to trial and see the benefits. This is all well and good but is not particularly scientific. Personally I knew one large corporation who spent millions of pounds on transformer based power protection solutions due to a successful trial. However this trial was not without it’s critics, who suggested to me that the problem with the trial is that they were comparing doing nothing with fitting one type of power protection solution. Other avenues to address their power quality issues were not explored.

The key is to understand what power quality problems exist and how to eradicate them effectively.

Demonstrations

I’ve witnessed demonstrations of power quality improvements using bespoke equipment that prints out endless reams of paper, and by using an oscilloscope display attached to some sort of box connected to the mains supply. You can flick the lights on and off and wow, an endless stream of spikes appear on the oscilloscope. You then put an isolation transformer based power protection solution in the way, flick the lights on and off again and lo and behold this time no spikes.

It’s a fairly impressive demonstration but has some serious flaws. The first one is fairly obvious. If all these damaging spikes occur just by switching on the lights, then surely computers would be falling over up and down the country. There’d be outcries against manufacturers producing substandard equipment that is susceptible to a light switch.

I’m not saying these spikes are not there, but they’re not what they are made out to be. The intensity of them is extremely low, and they carry no destructive threat. The reason you can see them is because you’re viewing through a very high impedance source of over 1M?. Add any sort of load to the output and you would see these spikes disappear. They’re a bit like radio signals and don’t do anything.

Another concern is that nobody knows how this magic box works. Is it active or passive? Is it amplifying any signals that happen to be there, and if so by how much? Does 1V noise on the oscilloscope equate to 1V noise on the mains? Is it calibrated? If so, how and by who?

That said, you can clearly see the isolation transformer remove the apparent noise, showing that it is doing something. However I’ve also seen the same effect using nothing more than a transorb costing a few pence in a device created by a rival power protection firm.

Like the trials, it is an understanding of real power quality issues that is required.

International Standards on Power Quality

There are several international standards that deal with power quality problems and acceptable limits. Not one of these standards raises a concern about a half volt of electrical noise on the mains supply. Power monitoring equipment manufactured by some of the most respected test equipment manufacturers does not contain measurement tools for such levels of noise either.

It begs the question where do these limits come from? The answer goes way back to a conference in California some time in the 1980′s to do with semiconductor test equipment. It was a paper that was presented and that’s it. There has been no recognised international standard written to endorse or otherwise substantiate the claims presented in that paper.

About Me

Nitro RC car or Gas powered RC car is a radio controlled model car that runs on a special fuel — a mix of oil, nitro-methane and methyl alcohol.

The ESP of a Nitro Remote Control car is that it is far more powerful and runs longer compared to Electric RC cars. They are a little more expensive than their electric counterparts – both to own and maintain. While electric RC cars are ideal for beginners, Nitro RC cars are ideal for serious hobbyists and racers.

Basically, a Nitro RC car has an internal combustion engine of 2-stroke or 4-stroke type. Fuel is supplied from a little tank that contains its special fuel. Normal gasoline will not work in these engines. It starts either with pull start cord or starter box.

As with real cars, these engines have a carburetor, air filter and such other subsystems of the internal combustion engine. They also have the universal subsystems like, electronic radio control, servo speed control, transmission / gear system, drive train, differentials, steering system, shock absorbers, and batteries for head lights.

OK, then what makes an RC car so special and expensive? First, the complex internal combustion engine and its subsystems are costly, compared to the simple motor in the electric RC car. In addition, the battery is a simple one time investment compared to recurring fuel cost of Nitro RCs.

Also, Nitro RC cars gather more dirt and grease. More the running components in any system mean there will be more wear and tear. Both these add to the maintenance cost.

But for the sheer power and racing range, the Nitro RC cars are the leaders in RC toys. For your choice, they are available in 1/8, 1/10, 1/12, 1/20 scales as well as mini nitro RC cars. The 1/8 and 1/10 scale Nitro Nitro Remote Control cars are popular with racers and serious hobbyists. One can buy them in any hobby stores or in internet commerce sites for between $200 to $400.

This is a hefty price, indeed! But it does not cost you a fortune like the real racing cars, yet helps fulfil your racing dreams. At 60 to 100 kmph speeds, they are very fun and exciting!

Your filing cabinets may not look like trees. But they are. The typical four-drawer file cabinet holds 20,000 sheets of paper. A Coopers & Lybrand study shows that the documents in that file cabinet will be copied an average of 19 times. What does this mean? Replacing just one file cabinet with a document scanning and document management system will save the equivalent of a 70-foot tree. Replacing all of the paper documents in an office with a workflow automation system will not only help save the environment, but also:

• Save time, money and space;
• Boost efficiency; and
• Improve your business processes and workflow

The environmental cost of paper

According to the Association of Information and Image Management (AIIM), businesses use millions of tons of paper every year, with the average worker printing 10,000 pages per year, including 1,410 wasted pages.

That paper ads up: in the United States, we use enough office paper each year to build a 10-foot-high wall that’s 6,815 miles long, or the distance from New York to Beijing.

Add in the environmental costs of manufacturing, transporting and storing that paper, and the environmental costs are even more staggering. A 2007 State of The Paper Industry Report by the Environmental Paper Network estimated that cutting office paper use by just 10% would be the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road and reduce greenhouse gases by 1.6 million tons.

The benefits of document scanning and web-forms

Document scanning, web-forms and document management are excellent for the environment, and they have many other benefits as well:

• Efficiency, accessibility and security are enhanced, because scanned documents and web-forms are never lost, borrowed or unavailable for any reason, and information is protected, safe and secure. The mistakes and wasted time of manual data entry are eliminated, and audit preparation and regulatory compliance are simplified. Because critical files can be accessed remotely at any time from a computer with a web browser, information is instantly available whenever and wherever it’s needed.
• Storage needs plummet: Instead of file cabinets and boxes taking up space (and filled with paper documents that can take hours or days to find), information is at the fingertips of everyone who needs it. Documents never have to be physically retrieved, eliminating both the time and cost of finding critical information. That savings is huge: AIIM research shows that the average time per day spent looking for paper documents, document files, emails, intranet and web pages is 51 minutes, compared to the seconds it takes to find and retrieve an electronic document.
• Web-forms eliminate the need for paper completely and allow captured data to automatically flow into other applications used by your human resources and accounting departments, management team, or anyone else in your organization. No paper changes hands, no information needs to be rekeyed, and information gets where it needs to go instantly.
• Workflow automation, which can use both web-forms or scanned documents as data sources, increases the efficiency of business processes, such as cutting late payments by 50% in accounts receivable, according to the AIIM.

A document management system can be implemented quickly and easily with little or no capital outlay, and return on investment is usually realized in a short three to six months.

Be Green. Save green.

As April 22, the 41st Earth Day, approaches, companies are examining the ways they can reduce their impact on the environment. A document management system that includes scanning of existing documents, web-forms to capture data, and workflow automation can reduce your company’s impact on the planet while boosting efficiency, saving time and money, and helping your bottom line. It’s a win-win for your company, your employees and your planet.

Recently, when discussing EMR with a colleague, I was asked about customization of different electronic medical records systems. Some of the systems available today highlight ease of use, or perhaps that templates aren’t required. This more modular approach could be sufficient within some special practices, but overall this solution seeks simplicity at the expense of ability. Sure, it would be great to have patient records in electronic format, but it may not be any easier to derive valuable meaning from the information, or use it practically.

The field of ophthalmology requires a robust EMR system able to document both SOAP-notes and high resolution drawings and images. Several years ago we talked with an IT firm developing an ophthalmology EMR system; we ended up working with them in developing a beta test site, thinking that if the system would work in ophthalmology it could also function within other specialties. Unfortunately, the system wasn’t quite ready for prime-time then, and as a result we became immersed in growing amounts of basic programming work. Unfortunately, our previous EPM vendor didn’t have another appropriate product available for the field of ophthalmology then, although a strong competitor in the overall market.

When customizing, the consequence to consider is the need to apply more time and effort to system modifications. Many systems are ready for basic set-up out of the box; however, the true potential of these systems resides in their ability to modify overall operations to the individual needs of the physicians and practice. To move the basic EMR system into an enhanced work flow tool at the practice, some modifications are necessary. The best way to do this, we have found, is through the use of mind-mapping software.

Mind-mapping software allows members of a group to ‘think out loud’ in the visual sense. Participants can actually see the workflow diagram, from the entering of patient info, to the selection of an open examination room, to billing and check-out. By examining the overall flow of the examination process, we have been able to modify the electronic medical records to better fulfill our needs. This process has helped up find places where workflow can be improved, streamlining the process and creating a more efficient system at the practice.

When most crafters think about Makita, we generally think about really great power tools, about superior performance with no exceptions. This is no accident, of course, Makita doesn’t cut corners and the result is uncompromising power tools like the 2507 benchtop table saw.

Maktia’s 2705 is designed for total accuracy and super-smooth operation. The saw’s 15 AMP motor delivers 4,800 RPM for controlled cuts in rough stock and, thanks to a precision machined, die-cast aluminum table top (that’s truly true and totally flat right out of the box), you can rely on both a powerful motor and Makita’s super-precise design (it’s table size (LxW): 22-1/4″ x 29-5/8″ – 42″). The saw’s tool-less modular blade guard is simple to remove and reinstall and features a 3-position adjustable riving knife that, yes, adjusts surprisingly easily. This makes it simpler and safer for users to accommodate different cut-types and encourages users to reinstall the blade guard. The guard is additionally designed for better visibility ensuring users can see the blade as is contacts the cut material.

For improved versatility, the saw’s T-slot miter gauge accepts accessories with T-formed shanks. Two independent anti-kickback pawls keep you safer in kickback situations and with adjustable, dual-slide guards, Makita’s 2705 offers easier cut set-ups and simple measurements from blade to rip fence. Designed with a cam-locking rip fence with a bevel locking handle, the saw offers dead-on accuracy as well as fast and simple adjustments. A two-pole slide system additionally renders blade depth adjustments super-smooth, simple and efficient, and because the saw allows you to store the blade underneath the saw table, the machine is safer to transport.

Despite being a benchtop tool, the table saw offers an extended 25-inch ripping capacity and a large cutting capacity capable of cutting 4x material in one pass. The saw has a large on-off switch, features an easy to read scale for faster adjustments and also offers an electronic brake for improved productivity. – To keep everything you need exactly where you need it, Makita has also outfitted the 2705 with on-board storage space with the capacity to hold your most commonly used accessories (for example, you can comfortably stow a saw blade, dado blade, miter gauge, rip fence, safety guard, push stick, wrench and etc).

Though this benchtop saw doesn’t include a stand, the machine offers totally superior performance. The 2705 table saw includes a 32-tooth carbide-tipped blade, a rip fence, miter gauge, push stick, socket wrench and wrench #5 and #19.