MicroTools was founded in 1988 by two Aerospace Engineers; Joseph Lehman and Bob Japenga. Prior to starting MicroTools, Joseph and Bob had over 25 years experience in a wide variety of hardware and software disciplines. Their primary area of emphasis has been in embedded and low level control applications (TSR's, device drivers, machine controls, flight controls, temperature controls, etc). Because of our commitment to controlled growth and careful selection and training of new employees, we currently have seven software engineers and three software testers.

From 2008 - present, MicroTools has modified an embedded Linux system for a heavy industry equipment manufacturer. MicroTools modified the Linux kernel, added a watchdog timer, modified the Linux drivers and modified the application that controlled several remote controllers.

From 2005 - present, MicroTools has created an embedded Linux system for a time and attendance equipment manufacturer. MicroTools modified the Linux kernel, wrote the Linux drivers and wrote the application that that actually performed the time and attendance functionality. This system had 4 different graphics screens (one touch screen); USB ports; RS232 ports; Ethernet ports; EEPROM interface; smart card, magnetic, optical, finger print and RFID readers on board. This device included a small footprint webserver and supported telnet, ssh, scp, sftp and ftp

In 2005, MicroTools created a Linux design to replace a PLC for a sonic welding company. The system included an off-the-shelf PC104 SBC with a touch screen interfacing to a proprietary I/O board.

From 2005 - present, MicroTools helped a local company solve problems with a DC servo motor control. MicroTools aided them by improving their PID algorithm (we added a limiter to their Integral control) and helped them tune the loop. In addition, we helped them perform real time analysis on their control loop. In addition we wrote all of the software for a new welding system utilizing Rabbit core processors in conjunction with a Windows CE user interface.

In 2004, MicroTools re-designed an existing product for a company to utilize a USB rather than an outdated PC interface. This design provided state-of-the-art self test provisions to make the board easier to build and test.

In 2004, MicroTools retro-fit (hardware and software) several existing products (8051 based) for a company to utilize a TCP/IP ethernet interface instead of RS-232.

In 2004, MicroTools replaced a customer's existing single axis motion controller with a more sophisticated dual axis high speed motion controller

In 2004, MicroTools re-designed an existing product (hardware and software) utilizing the latest technology (including surface mounted parts and a more robust software design)

In 2004, MicroTools performed FAA DO-178B compliant module testing on several hundred flight critical software modules.

In 2003, MicroTools developed a multi-axis AC 3-phase brushless servo motor control as part of a major R&D effort for a local manufacturer.

In 2003, MicroTools modified an existing Java J2SE platform to greatly enhance the user interface of an existing product.

In 2003, MicroTools helped a company re-port several of their existing 8051 products to utilize a more up-to-date compiler. This system communicated with a number of RF Links for command and control of a building automation system. We included an interface to an RF Modem in the new product thereby minimizing cost and reducing dependency upon proprietary technologies. (See our complete history with 8051 based designs)

From 1990 - present, we implemented a series of servo controls for a machine manufacturer to provide better motion control of their machines. These controls interfaced with both DC servo motors and three phase AC brushless servo motors. These controls broke new ground for our customer in supplying low cost and highly reliable motion control. Over 15 such mechanisms have been implemented and delivered. All were developed using either Microsoft C++ or Borland C++ for x86 platforms and Archimedes/Keil for 8051 platforms. Various platforms are used ranging from OS/2, ROM-DOS, smx and VxWorks. Approximately 85% of the code is re-used in each control.

From 1990 - present, existing Z80 based and QNX hosted real-time control systems were maintained by us for this customer.

From 1995 - present, a series of Windows applications were designed to aid in integrating factory based Servo controllers which greatly enhanced our customer's productivity. These applications were all written in C++ using Borland's OWL interface

In 2002, we developed a Java based interface for displaying real time data from these servo controls

In 1991, MicroTools designed several embedded PC servo controllers networked using a NetWare server and a supervisory PC written in C++ and assembler. These servos were required to perform a complex closed loop algorithm every 2 milliseconds running under a multi-tasking version of DOS. These servos are still in use today.

In 1990, MicroTools completed a motion profile controller design which provides variable downloadable motion profiles for a variety of servo controls (hydraulic, pneumatic, and electric). This design uses an 8051 and interfaces to the STD Bus and was written in C and in assembler.

In 1990, MicroTools designed and developed a servo pneumatic machine control using an 8051 based processor. This design did what others said could not be done and controlled a pneumatic device (with a compressible fluid - air) as one would control a hydraulic device. This control utilized advanced adaptive closed loop servo control techniques to maintain highly repeatable motion control. This consisted of approximately 1700 lines of 8051 assembler code and 700 lines of Archimedes C. It became the prototype for a commercial product still being sold today.

From 1992 - 2005,MicroTools was used to develop all of the software for a series of mailing systems.

In 1992, MicroTools was given complete responsibility for designing and developing all of the software (application, BIOS, factory diagnostics) of a series of data base intensive embedded commercial products. This application involved graphic displays, printers, serial ports, load cells, and a large volume of data. The software was written in C++ (50,000 lines of code) with some 80x86 assembler. This product was completed in approximately 15 months. These products were highly successful for our customer and are still in much demand today.

MicroTools specified, designed and developed very sophisticated board level diagnostics capable of detecting failures to the chip level for this generation of products. It also specified, designed and developed a quality assurance software package for use by manufacturing to accept the final product.

In 1994, this application was ported to a PC platform utilizing a real time embedded operating system and high speed DOS graphics. This application was required to run on a wide variety of PC's with very limited memory and required a significant amount of knowledge of DOS internals. It was written in C++ and contains over 100,000 lines of code. It was completed in approximately 6 months. Using unique techniques, we were able to create a multi-tasking overlayed application using Borland standard tools set. This design has set the standard for ease of use in it's industry. This project was developed using Borland C++ and was later ported to Microsoft C++.

When the next generation of product was developed on yet a third totally different platform in 1997, MicroTools re-used about 50% of the code to quickly and efficiently bring this product to market. The project involved significant amounts of data encryption and digital signature technologies. The product includes interfaces to a thermal printer, an LCD display, a TCP/IP stack, a modem, a load-cell and a data encryption safe.

With this generation, MicroTools was responsible for a board level diagnostic capable of detecting failures to the chip level for use by board level manufacturer. It also specified, designed and developed a quality assurance software package for use by manufacturing to accept the final product.

Finally, in 1999 another new generation of mailing system was developed and MicroTools again re-used the core design enabling the customer to bring the product to market quickly.

The object oriented display engine developed in 1992 was used in 5 completely separate products:

• 1992 120 x 20 Graphics Interface
• 1992 480 x 64 Graphics Interface
• 1994 480 x 640 PC Color Graphics Interface
• 1997 2 line 20 character text interface
• 1999 240 x 240 4 color Interface

From 1999-2000, we developed an 80188 based tank measurement device used to monitor tank levels and temperatures and detect leaks

From 1990-1996, we specified, designed and developed a wind turbine control system for an experimental alternate energy project.

In 1992, an embedded HC05 temperature controller was designed for a Japanese sous vide cooker.

Because of MicroTools extensive experience with PC's and excellent communications skills, it has been called upon by a watch manufacturer to conduct training classes in PC assembler for it's engineers.

MicroTools first product was for the IBM PC. It was released in May of 1990. It is a general purpose set of utilities that is marketed under the names, BringBack and ComeBack. BringBack is a set of TSR utilities that have proven to be very robust in the jungle of PC TSR's. There are more then 12,000 copies in the field at this time. This package consists of about 15,000 lines of code in assembler and 3,000 lines of code in C for the user interface.

In September of 1992, MicroTools released two new utilities: GetBack (a full featured Disk Backup system) and SpeedBack (a disk defragmenter). With over 30,000 copies in the field, these DOS utilities were written in C++ (approximately 10,000 line of code) with a full Windows interface and have been widely accepted. In January 1994, three new utilities were released, including SpaceBak (a program that gets space back on your hard disk), a project manager, and a graphics plot program.

In October 1994, MicroTools released an 80C752 (8051 derivative) based product called Poc-it. Poc-it is a piece of test equipment that can be used to test electronic parts, circuits, boards or systems (including software) that the unit will be operational following a power-up.

In May 1996, a new product was added to augment Poc-it called PowerCycler. Containing all of the features of Poc-it, PowerCycler allowed users to vary the AC phase at which a unit under test could be turned on. Also designed around the 80C752, PowerCycler has proven exceptionally useful in testing power supplies and power sources for intermittants. One large computer manufacturer saved over a million dollars in re-work costs using Poc-it.

In August 2001, MicroTools released the first full featured MIDI player for the Palm OS. ittyMIDI is used around the world in both practice sessions and live performance settings. Developed on the Palm platform, we used our real-time expertice to control live music with MIDI.

In October 2004, MicroTools released two versions of KeyDog: a discrete to PS/2 and a discrete to USB encoder. KeyDog is used in kiosks, embedded PCs and stand-alone applications.