#define ROLE    Embedded_Developer

void details (void)
{
    Name  = Jacques Munckhof;
    Age   = ; 
    City  = Hamilton;
    Exper = ; 
}

About Me

I am crazy about all things digital, embedded, and electronic. My passion is bringing ideas and logics into the real world, whether it be on a PCB, a computer, or online. I find fulfilment in my designs executing tasks as planned, reliably, repeatedly, and stably.

My Skills

Firmware Development

  • Programming - C
  • RTOS
  • Debugging

Electronic Design

  • Circuit Design
  • PCB Layout
  • Altium & Circuit Studio

Version Control & Project Management

  • Git
  • Confluence & Jira
  • Doxygen

Azure

  • Cloud functions (C++)
  • Resource management

Protocols

  • BLE, GSM, MQTT etc
  • Serial, i2c, SPI etc.

HTML & CSS

Just enough to make this website on a text editor.

Professional Experience

Gallagher - Embedded Software Engineer

Jan 2022 - Present
Hamilton, NZ
gallagher.com

Working in a large company that is over 85 years old, and a global leader in animal management technology, I was responsible for delivering the firmware for the new range of solar powered lithium electric fence energizers. The main focus was on battery management and implementing strategies to optimize the device's opperation in any conditions. Developing a product that had tens of thousands of sales forecast also exposed me to development for testing, adding features to allow rapid and comprehensive unit testing in-factory.

Evalan - Firmware Development Engineer

May 2018 - November 2021
Amsterdam, NL
evalan.com

Working with dynamic and multidisciplinary teams of developers and project managers, I developed firmware for a variety of Bluetooth Low-Energy and cloud connected devices. These included a number of activity tracking wearables and smart-building solutions. Working with larger teams also afforded me experience with prominent project management tools, including git, Jira and Confluence.

Avance-Tech - Development Engineer

June 2015 - April 2018
Centurion, SA
avance-tech.com

Under a team of experienced electronics development engineers, I found a wealth of experience designing a large variety of circuits and firmware, from basic power supplies and regulators to complex digital controllers. I designed a large number of PC boards using Altium software, and wrote firmware primarily in C. Many of the products I developed were for asset monitoring, logging and tracking applications, and afforded me exposure to a large array of technologies, devices, sensors and communication protocols.

Earlier Experience

Suntoy - R&D Engineer

Feb 2015 - May 2015
Johannesburg, SA
suntoy.com

The company that brought the world the “Solar Jar” was looking to develop new products and brought on a team of development engineers to work on various projects. These projects ranged from new creative lighting products, to electricity metering solutions for mobile solar stations.

STERG - Laboratory Engineer

July 2014 - Dec 2014
Stellenbosch, SA
sterg.sun.ac.za

While completing the final module for my degree, I was employed as a lab engineer for Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies. Assigned at the heliostat testing facility, I oversaw all solar experiments for the university. This included assisting final year and master students with solar projects, assuring safe practices around the facility, designing or contracting upgrades and purchasing equipment.

Triz Engineering - Junior Design Engineer

Feb 2014 - June 2014
Durbanville, SA
trizengineering.com

With only a second semester module to finish, I spent the first half of 2014 doing electrical layouts for Triz Engineering, an engineering consulting company that does drafting and layouts for American Vehicle companies.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Engineering: Mechatronic Engineering

Stellenbosch University
2009-2014
www.sun.ac.za
Degree Description

Mechatronic engineering is a synergistic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronics and computer systems. A typical mechatronic system is characterised by close integration of the mechanical components, electronic sensors, mechanical and electrical actuators and computer controllers. Mechatronic engineering is an interdisciplinary engineering field that specialises in the control of advanced hybrid systems. These systems are found in numerous industry sectors where mechanical and electronic engineering are interfaced with computer systems, such as aerospace, automotive, chemical processing, computers, communications, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing and mining.

Projects

1 / 8

Solar Energizers Gen3

Company: Gallagher
Year: 2022-2023
Role: Firmware Development
Press release

The third generation of Gallagher's solar powered fence energizers saw the use of Lithium batteries, and came with improved power management for year-round opperation. I developed the firmware for this new generation (SG3), starting with the S30 (0.3J) Energizer.

2 / 8

BACE GO

Company: Evalan
Year: 2020-2021
Role: Firmware Development
Product page

The BACE product line was developed as the flagship product line for Evalan, used for a huge variety of use cases and clients. I was the lead firmware developer for the BACE GO, a wearable device with BLE, LTE-m/GSM and GPS capabilities. The wearable can collect data from an array of bluetooth sensors and devices, as well as the on-board sensors, and report the data periodically to a cloud environment. This can be used by athletes, medical patients, or personnel in physically dangerous or strenuous situations, to monitor their location and condition in the field.

3 / 8

ARMOR

Company: Evalan
Year: 2018-2020
Role: Firmware Development
Blog Post

Contracted by the Dutch military, we developed a Bluetooth LE wearable device to monitor the condition of soldiers during training. The device connects to an off-the-shelf BLE heart rate device, and collects heart-rate data of the soldier. The data for the entire exercise is synchronized with a tablet or mobile device kept by the drill instructor. A proprietary algorithm is applied to the data received on the tablet to determine each soldier's physical strain index. This allows alarms to be generated for very high PSI values, and steps can be taken to avoid heat-injuries.

4 / 8

Multi-Sensor Module

Company: Evalan
Year: 2019-2020
Role: Firmware Development

BAM, a Dutch construction company, contracted the development of multi-sensor ceiling node. This node is equipped with a variety of sensors to monitor the conditions in office environments. It acts as a BLE peripheral device, to which a mobile device may connect, and view sensor data, as well as set certain room set-points. These set-points and the sensor data are made available to a MODBUS network, to which the BMS (building management system), is connected. The BMS is then able to regulate lighting and heating systems according to occupant preferences.

5 / 8

EU Project: Nexgen

Company: Evalan
Year: 2018-2019
Role: Firmware Development

The Nexgen project is an EU collaboration project, aimed at promoting international cooperation in developing new technologies. Evalan's role in Nexgen was to incorporate a multi-sensor skin patch, developed by NXP, into a BLE wearable and deliver the sensor data to a gateway, developed by Eesy-Innovation. The sensor data was communicated to the wearable via IPv6 packets, and made available to the gateway on a connection-based custom BLE service, in the standardized format.

6 / 8

Stat-Send

Company: Avance-Tech
Year: 2016-2018
Role: Firmware Development
Product Page

In partnership with Zero Medical, Avance-Tech developed a monitoring device for medical refrigerators. The device collects data from a number of sensors, including temperatures in various zones and chambers, fan speed, door status, ambient temperature and humidity, power status, and battery level. The sensor data, along with GPS data, is reported over GSM to a back-end system with a dashboard, allowing users to monitor the status and use of their medical refrigerators, especially in rural African clinics where power grids are unreliable, and conditions are unideal.

7 / 8

Shipping Container Tracker

Company: Avance-Tech
Year: 2015-2017
Role: Firmware Development

Avance-Technologies developed a battery powered telemetry device, to be attached to shipping containers. The device collects GPS data and reports it to a backend via GSM. An accelerometer was used to determine if the container is stationary or moving, and throttle the reporting frequency accordingly.

8 / 8

Money Transfer Systems

Company: Avance-Tech
Year: 2015-2017
Role: Project Management, Circuit design, PCB Layout & Firmware Development

Avance-Technologies was contracted by MTS to develop a system to control an air-tube network, to deliver canisters containing cash from store cashiers to secure money-rooms. The system includes an intelligent controller on the receiving booth, which ensures the system is sealed and controls a vacuum device. The controller had a number of LEDs and a buzzer to notify users of events. Mechanical valve controllers were also developed, which communicate via serial 485 to the controller, to open the air-way requesting to send a cannister, and close all other airways. The system was successfully deployed in dozens of stores across South Africa.