TitleMy name is Art, and I am an amateur engineer/businessman (heavy on the engineer and light on the businessman - I keep on working on the business side, but the engineering side comes more naturally.) Currently I am preparing to start back to school to (finally) work on my Bachellor's degree in Business Administration, I chose that degree to assist me in building up my business.When I was born, I was my mother's first experience with caring for a boy. She asked herself what boys are supposed to play with. Both of her brothers were electrical engineers, and so her answer to herself was that boys are supposed to play with electronics. By the time that I graduated from eighth grade, I had been working in electronics, repairing televisions and radios for friends and family members. Because both of my mother's brothers were electrical engineers, and she was very interested in early-childhood education; she actually had me wiring up batteries, lamps and switches before I turned 2! Mom told me that she had been told to get kids real tools so that they would have them all their life (whoever that was didn't know much about the destructive power of kids), and so she bought me a real tool set for my second birthday - I immediately went and took the outlets out of the wall to see where the electricity came from. I also have ADD; my Guardian Angel applies for overtime each and every week. So, I have been working in electronics for, literally, pretty much my entire life. My first experience with computers (at least real ones - I made a tic-tac-toe "computer" out of Christmas lights and switches, when a kid) was in 1975, when a buddy took me to the high school (I was days away from 8th grade graduation) and sat me down in front of a typewriter (ASR-33 Teletype). He picked up a telephone near the typewriter, dialed a number and placed the handset into a little box next to the typewriter (an acoustic modem.) Then he typed something on the typewriter and the typewriter typed back, ALL... BY... ITSELF...!!! I was amazed, and, from that point on, my career switched from just electronics to computers. I joined the U.S. Air Force after High School and went into Computer Repair (one of the few computer techs, I know, who has actually trouble-shot and repaired AND gates, OR gates and flip-flops.) While at my first duty assignment, one piece of gear was a HeathKit H-8 computer - I actually started wiring up an 8080 computer. One of the more experienced techs there suggested that I look into the Zilog Z-80 - Wow, single voltage power, single phase clock, LOTS more commands, including bit manipulation. I was hooked. After that, it was a series of Tandy, Sinclair (and Timex/Sinclair,) and finally PCs.
About the late 1990's or early 2000's, I saw an article on the BASIC Stamp, and how to build Scott Edward's Counterfeit Stamp clone. From there, I played around with several (many) Atmel microcontrollers, some TI chips, the Parallax Propeller, and several other chips. I have several different dev kits (including some of my own design - you can find a write up with one here: [https://www.instructables.com/id/Learn-About-Microcontrollers/] and am constantly thinking about and Currently, my company produces kits and packs for budding engineers. Most of my target market is (supposed to be) high-school, college and young adult students who are interested in, or are working on EE (electronic engineering.) My secondary market (or at least it should be secondary - but mostly this is my primary market, at least until I get going enough to market to schools and school groups) is electronics/robotics hobbyists and non-electronics engineers who want to learn more about the electronics discipline. I have a few more text books that are in the works. Once these are done, they will be offered with appropriate kits which will cover the lab work for the course. My ideal here is to get to be like the old Heathkit courses (on a more modern point, Andy Lindsay, from Parallax, does a pretty darned good job of writing, and I try to emulate him, with my own slant/point of view, somewhat.) I have been teaching, professionally, on and off since 1989, and have written a lot of my own course/quiz/exam material, so that is what I am using for my textbooks. In addition, I have written my first non-technical book. I spent ten years in the United States Air Force, and have also spent many years studying the Bible. My latest book is entitled: A Veteran Looks at the Full Armor of God. It's currently available in print and Kindle format on Amazon. While, someday (hopefully soon) I will begin making enough from the book and the electronics projects from GranzTronix, LLC to live on, I really like to do things like eat, go to electronics/omputer expos and pay my bills, which require money. Unfortunately, I was laid off from my previous job, where I was a Network Operations Analyst for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield carrier for this area. What that means, is that I monitored our long-distance lines (voice and data), and the local servers, etc. and when anything occurred with a circuit, switch, router or server on the network, I either tried to get it up and running, or called the right person/group to get the issue resolved (of course, if we lost an entire city, and the National Weather Service reported storms in that area... Well, there's just some repair work that God reserves for Himself. ) Since then, I have had a few smaller jobs, and am trying to build up my business. In addition, I have been working in the electronics/computer field for over 45 years. If any of you know of any positions available, please let me know. I am married (to the most beautiful girl in the world - sorry guys), with a bunch of kids - all of whom have left home - the "empty nest" is a wonderful thing. For anyone who is still raising their kids, I offer this hope: the light at the end of the tunnel really is there. Hold on, and one day the kids will actually grow up and move out (preferably not coming back home, though that does happen here and there.) I am also active in a new church plant Vintage Church Pittsburgh- ushering, praying, serving in the community and other miscellaneous work. For an engineer's look at God and faith, check out my faith page at faith.granzeier.com (shameless plug!)
Return to the Granzeier Page This page was last updated by Art G. Granzeier III on Thursday 30 April 2020 |