Sean Lanigan

IoT Power Meter

This was the largest project I worked on at Extel — the brief was to design an IoT power monitor and controller for an electric utility client. Over about 16 months the project went from prototype to small-run production.

My role on this project was to develop embedded C code for the two MSP430 processors, used for power measurement; as well as Python code and various Linux shell script and configuration files for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, used for communications. I also helped to develop two test jigs, for hardware testing and calibration of the units coming off the production line.

X-Ray Scanner

This is one of the most interesting projects I've worked on — the client was undertaking research into a new kind of x-ray scanning for baggage security checks, and the brief for Extel was to further develop this prototype. The system uses an array of detector cards with FPGAs, which perform initial processing, before sending the data for collation and presentation by an application on a Linux PC.

My role on this project was to develop C++ code for a Qt-based desktop Linux application, which received the data from the detector cards over a TCP stream and assemebled it into an image to be displayed on the monitor.

WiLED

 gitlab.com/WiLED-Project

WiLED is one of my personal projects. Initially aiming to build a simple dimmable LED lamp, I've subsequently expanded my plans to include Wi-Fi and BLE connections. In its current state, the WiLED design retrofits onto an IKEA Hektar lamp stand, transforming a relatively cheap and simple lamp into a smart IoT device.

On this project I have covered a broad range of disciplines, including schematic and PCB design and assembly, 3D CAD modelling and 3D printing, as well as MicroPython firmware development.

Markdown Doc Gen

 gitlab.com/md2x

Markdown DocGen is another of my personal projects, striving to devise a better way of writing corporate documents. After becoming increasingly frustrated trying to collaborate on Word and Writer documents at work, ending up with slightly different formatting depending on who last edited the file, or overwriting other peoples' work on the shared drive, I set out to find a better alternative — one that integrates neatly with proper version control, and produces consistent PDFs no matter who the authors are. My solution was to compose documents in a plain-text Markdown format, and use Pandoc and LaTeX to produce exactingly typeset PDF outputs. The project consists of a desktop client application, which connects to a central server application — the server stores the configuration and styles, and produces consistent output from any connecting client.

On this project I'm working with various separate utilities — the server-side uses a Python program to combine and manage inputs and outputs from Pandoc and LaTeX, running inside a Linux chroot environment from within a Snap package. The client is pure Python, and uses HTTP to communicate with the server. This is very much still a work in progress, but is already usable, and I am continuing to improve it over time.