Business Profile

 

Weeder Technologies was founded in 1989 by Terry J. Weeder who at the time, was working an 8-year stretch at General Electric's Aircraft Engines plant in Cincinnati Ohio. Deciding to venture outward and start an electronics development business on the side, Terry set up a small shop and went to work designing a line of diversified electronic kits for the hobbyist. As the business (and shop) grew, Terry eventually left General Electric Company to devote his full time and resources to the task.

When the PIC family of microcontrollers from Microchip Technologies Inc. began gaining popularity in the early 1990s, Terry jumped at the chance to use this micro to add embedded computing power to the Weeder Technologies' product core. Over the next five years, Terry wrote dozens of articles published in electronic hobbyist magazines including "Popular Electronics," "Radio Electronics," "Electronics Now," "Nuts & Volts," and others, which depicted the many uses of the PIC microcontroller, and demonstrated ways to design it into compact electronic circuits.

From the results of these efforts, by the mid 1990s, custom design contracts and microcontroller firmware development accounted for the bulk of Weeder Technologies' labors, and helped pave the course to come. In 1997, Terry moved the business down to the Gulf coast of Florida and concentrated on the design/development of the Stackable DAQ Modules as seen on the web site today. This family of DAQ modules was envisioned to serve as a quick, economical, snap-together, Data Acquisition & Control platform, which could easily be connected to standard off-the-shelf PCs and laptops without accessing internal card cages. The new product line entered full production in January of 2000 and very quickly gained popularity due to its ease of use, reliability, and straight forward command set. Among other things, these products are currently being used in the Auto Industry, Wastewater and Power Plants, Oil Rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, Maritime applications, and National Defense including efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Homeland Security.

In 2002, following two years of development, Weeder Technologies released the first version of ModCom, an HMI software package developed specifically for the stackable modules and written for the Windows™ operating system. Eliminating the need for the end-users having to write their own software to communicate with the modules, ModCom has proven to be a valuable tool when setting up applications for time-constrained and budget-critical missions in the industrial and OEM fields. ModCom has evolved over the years since its debut in 2002 gaining more and more functions and will continue to do so long into the future. Watch for new releases.

In 2017, design and development began on the WTX4 series of DAQ modules which are an advanced version of our original DAQ cards. In addition to having added features and functionality, these units have full electrical isolation from the power supply and communications bus allowing for the connection of sensors mounted to machinery with completely different ground potentials, which is very common in the industrial environment. The WTX4 is stackable just as the original DAQ cards and uses the same communications protocol and command set style so that software written for the original DAQ cards can easily be ported over to the WTX4. A simple update of the header/address character in the command strings is all that's required in most cases, and both the old and new DAQ series can be stacked together if desired. Full production of the WTX4 began in February of 2018 and has since proven to be a valuable addition to our product line.

Send comments to:   Terry Weeder

Weeder Technologies
90-A Beal Pkwy NW
Fort Walton Beach FL 32548
850-863-5723