Christian P. - Hardware and software development, general electronics, microcontrollers

Go to Website

Düsseldorf, Germany

Experience

Jul 2025 - Present

4 months

Development of a control unit for locomotive windshield wipers

Freelance Electrical Engineer

Circuit design for 24 V and 110 V drives
Selection of components (controllers, power supplies, interfaces, etc.) in coordination with the client
PCB layout design
Close collaboration with the software development team
Documentation

Development environment and tools:

Schematic and layout: Altium
MS Office and LibreOffice

Mar 2025 - Present

8 months

Development of an interface circuit for vending machines II

Freelance Electrical Engineer

Circuit design, including MDB protocol (RS232 interfaces)
Selection of components (controllers, power supplies, interfaces, etc.) in coordination with the client
PCB layout design
Close collaboration with the software development team
Documentation

Development environment and tools:

Schematic and layout: Altium
MS Office and LibreOffice
GitLab

Jan 2023 - Present

2 years 10 months

Development of a control unit for the automotive industry

Freelance Electrical Engineer

Circuit design
Concept and consulting for PCB layout creation (layout review)
Close collaboration with the software development team
Documentation

Development environment and tools:

Pulsonix and Zuken
MS Office
PTC Integrity

Mar 2022 - Apr 2023

1 year 2 months

Adapting a SIM card into an existing device

Freelance Electrical Engineer

Development of two PCBs with a cable connection to move a SIM card slot to an accessible part of the device
Close collaboration with the design department

Development environment and tools:

Altium

Oct 2021 - Jul 2023

1 year 10 months

Development of an interface between a PC and a test bench for aircraft engines

Freelance Electrical Engineer

LAN connection to a PC
Protocol conversion from TCP/IP to aviation-standard protocols
Multi-controller system with TI controllers
Close collaboration with the hardware development team for circuit design
Documentation

Development environment and tools:

Code Composer Studio (TI), Segger debugging tools
Microsoft Visual Studio 2019, C# and .NET
Version control and backup: SVN

Jul 2019 - Jul 2021

2 years 1 month

Development of Interface Module II for Charging Stations

Freelance engineer (Electrical Engineering)

LAN connection to a microcontroller (STM32 series)
Implemented a LAN switch to connect individual system modules
Mapped to UART outputs RS232 and RS485
Component selection, including certification requirements
Circuit calculations as needed
Designed the PCB layout (4 layers)
Commissioned and tested prototypes
Prepared EMC testing and supported CE certification
Supported the start of production

Development environment and tools:

Solid Works PCB (Altium derivative)
Versioning and backup: SVN
Documentation on Confluence and Jira

Jun 2019 - Feb 2021

1 year 9 months

Development of LED Modules

Freelance engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Circuit and layout development
Integration with bus systems (SPI / UART)
Developed PC software for testing purposes
Commissioned prototypes
Supported start of production

Apr 2016 - Mar 2019

3 years

New development / redesign of a stove monitoring system

Freelance engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Developed software for the three system components (temperature and motion detection, smoke sensor, power switching unit)
Implemented a wireless protocol (868 MHz band)
Developed and documented tests
Developed a programming and monitoring device for wireless communication

Development environment and tools:

Microchip MPLab

Mar 2016 - Feb 2020

4 years

Test development / support for the series launch of a household appliance

Freelance engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Controller analysis and optimization
Built a model in LabView
Developed and documented tests
Collected and processed measurement data
Code refactoring
Commissioned an automated tester
Analyzed device behavior using the automated tester with series measurements

Development environment and tools:

Microchip MPLab
NI-LabView
NI-TestStand

Jun 2015 - May 2016

1 year

Development of a Bluetooth-based interface for transferring a measurement data stream

Freelance engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Transferred a measurement data stream from a battery-powered handheld device to a PC
Processor: MSP430 series
Used a Bluetooth-UART module
Designed the software architecture
Implemented in C
Developed the receiver software on the PC using C# (DLL)
Integrated the DLL into an existing LabView program for data evaluation
Created documentation
Project management

Development environment and tools:

Code Composer Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Jan 2013 - Dec 2014

2 years

Controller for controlling a hydraulic drive

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Two-processor system (ARM9 + Cortex M3)
System analysis
Programming both processors in C
Using the RTX operating system (Keil/NXP)
Implementing a control algorithm
Creating documentation
Developing tests
Revising hardware (circuit design, component selection)
Project management

Development environment and tools:

Keil compiler for ARM, Team Foundation Server

May 2011 - Aug 2011

4 months

Programming a user interface for a complex gas measurement device

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Implementing a menu structure for a touch panel
Processing and displaying incoming measurement data
Providing the entered parameters on the device interface

Development environment and tools:

GCC compiler for TMS470 series on Eclipse, WinCvs

Nov 2010 - Mar 2011

5 months

Handling issues and returns of tuner circuits

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Developing test boards for component verification
Analyzing the typical characteristics of tuner circuits and their application circuits based on returned units and production samples
Qualifying new developments and refining test methods based on the analysis results
Developing and implementing hardware and software solutions for the lab
Integrating these solutions into existing and new test setups

Development environment and tools:

LabVIEW, Agilent VEE
Altium Designer, Orcad

Aug 2010 - Jan 2011

6 months

Development of simulators for CAN bus devices for integration into a test environment (IPFit)

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Implementing simulators for peripheral devices that communicate with a central control unit via CAN bus (CANopen)
Testing the simulators

Development environment and tools:

C# with MS Visual Studio 5, NUnit for tests, Doxygen for source code documentation

Nov 2006 - Jul 2007

9 months

Microcontroller-based measurement devices for force measurement on rollers in the paper industry

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Designing analog front ends for signal acquisition, amplification, and transfer to the ADC
Controlling the ADC via software and displaying the measurements on an LCD
Implementing a programmable threshold monitoring with opto-isolated control signal output
Implementing functions for setting calibration factors and zeroing
Developing the analog section in collaboration with hardware engineers

Development environment and tools:

C
ICC, NoICE

Oct 2006 - Dec 2006

3 months

Development of database modules for measurement data

Freelance Engineer (Electrical Engineering)

Conversion and preparation of measurement data from an acquisition routine
Storing the data in an Access (Jet) database
Developing software to read the database with filter and sort functions
Creating reports and analyses

Development environment and tools:

LabView, C#
Windows XP

Apr 1999 - Sep 2006

7 years 6 months

Software development for laboratory equipment

Company not specified

Developing software for controlling, data acquisition, and analysis of laboratory equipment in the areas of friction measurement, abrasion measurement, general tensile force measurement
Supporting and assisting hardware development for laboratory equipment
Conducting customer training in theory and practice for the use of laboratory equipment and their software

Development environment and tools:

LabView, C#, C++
Visual Studio .NET

Apr 1992 - Mar 1999

7 years

Development engineer for measurement, control, and regulation technology

Engineering office

Consulting, implementation, support, system and product development in the field of measurement, control, and regulation technology

Jul 1987 - Mar 1992

4 years 9 months

Developer for product development, metrology, and quality assurance

Industrial company

Nov 1985 - May 1987

1 year 7 months

Scientific assistant

Technical University of Hanover

Setting up a measurement system for a production plant
Commissioning the measurement system

Summary

I have extensive experience in both hardware and software development, working on projects from automotive control systems and LED modules to measurement devices and laboratory instrumentation. My work has spanned various industries, from transportation to aerospace and process control. I developed circuits, interfaces, and control units while collaborating closely with software teams to ensure complete and robust system solutions.

I excel in designing reliable circuit layouts, evaluating components, and integrating systems to meet stringent technical and regulatory requirements. My hands-on approach, backed by over 20 years of experience and a solid background in electronics and microcontrollers, helps me deliver efficient, well-documented solutions that enhance product performance and quality.