Yuktix Air Weather station

Yuktix Air Weather Station

Yuktix - As clear from the word yuktix define itself, its a way out for some problem. So when we are talking about Yuktix AWS (Air Weather station), we here at Yuktix try to resolve some of real time problem which people in a city like Bangalore faces quite often. Bangalore is a city which always has some short of micro-climate existing in the environment. You can have a look at Know your climate blog. Now with this type of climate you are never sure whether to go some where with a umbrella or not , or even that is right time to leave for some place as rain may cause traffic issues in a metro city like Bangalore. Its not like that it will be great asset, but anyhow, it will help people to atleast mentally prepare them when they are leaving for a place. 

So when we meet people from Know your weather climate they put up a brilliant idea of rolling out a citizen weather project. For more information on this citizen weather project, have a look at this blog. Well it was a great idea to work on. Assume, we have a network of about 100 AWS installed in various part of city, pushing their data on a cloud, from where it is being displayed on a website open for citizen. People who have subscribed for notification can get instant SMS or email with respect to the weather condition in their area. Or they can simply find out information about climate of a specific area. On the other hand any researcher who want to access the climate related data of a city can easily access the data for his/her research. Not only this, research institutes or any agriculture institutes can use this data for weather updates. Well it was always a interesting idea and has got many interesting use cases. 

So we at Yuktix started working on this project. I was a part of Yuktix at that time, but only at the suggestion level. I wasn't the one who was in action. So when we started working on this, we were in state of mind that this is a pretty easy project to work upon and we can finish it up pretty easily. But believe me, it wasn't easy and that is a thing, you love while working in a start-up. You are aware of each and every component of the project you are working on. Its unlike very big level projects where people who are working aren't aware of what is happening in real(well it's not always true). Being in a start-up, you got to deal with each and every part, starting form making a plan of execution, hiring, sourcing of parts(even bolts and nuts), electronics hardware, firmware, software, cloud etc. So coming back to our execution of AWS project. We started from very scratch. We got a proof of concept with a well know open source board arduino. Well very soon, we came to know that working with Arduino is ok till the time you are working at DIY(do it yourself) level, but when you are working on deploying a projecty which had real time applications and that is helping people even on a smaller scale, you need to build a customized pcb. Well again, i am not against arduino implementation. Although there are many projects like Ardusat in which people are talking to build a diy platform to perform experiments in space. But still, we think to build our platfrom on AVR micrcontrollers(Arduino platform is based on AVR MCU's). 

In our work to build, a customized pcb, we meet our hardware expert, a experienced hardware professional form IITK, 1975 batch and we came-up with a AVR microcontroller based unit which provide features like

Balcony Variety AWS

• A Microcontroller with sufficient processing power. 
• Sufficient ADC channels .
• I2C channels.
• Sufficient UART channels
• GPRS feature
• In-built sensors
• wireless feature like Xbee for implementing WSN like features.

So our one crucial part i.e hardware was almost done(although we never consider it done as we are further working on adding features in the next iteration). At the same time, our team was working on implementing  the  firmware part for the hardware as well as cloud software. And on the same time we were working on developing the mechanical part of the AWS that also including making our product work on the green energy that is using solar power to run our electronics. A small picture of the same is below. Well it seems to be too simple in this pic, but believe me it take a hell lot of time to develop this thing starting form finding the right guy for fabrication, keeping in mind that he supply quality product, getting tress design from CAD designer, installing in on one of the site. 

Field type/Open space type AWS

So in the end when we are done with all these i.e hardware, firmware, cloud software we are up and working with a real time Air weather station which is capable of measuring climatic factors like 

• MM/Inches of rain.
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Wind speed(in next iteration)
• Air quality including factors like CO2, Nitrous oxide and other gases concentration in a specific region. 

And with that if you have subscribed for the alerts and notification, you can easily get notifications on SMS or email. At the same time you can easily see the real time data on the Yuktix cloud as well as on the Android app that we had build specifically for AWS. With all these things working, we are trying to resolve some of the problems which people faces. So we at present have two AWS models. One which is a field unit running on solar power and the other one which people can easily install in their home in balcony.

Start-up Recruitment : getting the right guy in.

Start-up Recruitment

How you must deal with recruiting in the very start and in in-coming years.

 I am not a follower of many things, but i always keep on seeking new learning's. With a zeal in me to have have mine own start-up and working previously in 2 start-ups i.e. Thinvent Technologies and Silverline Design Inc, and consulting Yuktix technologies, i have came across a small bit of experience in start-up recruitment which i want to share as recently i came across a telephonic call followed by a email conversation which make me feel , what the hell is this?

I don't want to mention the name of company as i understand what it means, but it was defiantly a bad attitude from their side. After a bit of emails and follow-up, i got a online test request which i wasn't able to take for 2 time and for the same, i had dropped them a apology mail. I was a bit curious as that was a start-up from my field of interest. The very next day, i got a call from their HR and he said that "Are you able to take the test because i have a long list of people in queue and i cannot wait". Well that sound a bit rude and absurd and following that i said, please carry on with the queue. May be i am wrong in showing attitude, but at the same time, what impression they had left on me, i cannot forgot. It was just like saying some one "Dude we are the one big start-up that is booming up and we don't give a shit for people like you", well that is welcomed and that show that you are a booming company and heading towards great height, but just think, with that attitude where are you heading towards? On LinkedIn i came across a great article "Don't fuck up the culture". That is a good article to read. Culture is one of the major part of any start-up and it is the thing that is going to help you out in the future. In my previous company, Saurabh Jain(Director/Founder) said "It is the culture prevailing here that make us different.". It might sound like i am a bit disturb with the way that start-up company treated me, so answer is "Yes" i am. But at the same point, it let me think, what will be the guidelines should i make during recruitment. 

Start-up recruitment is a long-time process. Some time it may decide the future of the company. If you get the right guys, you can achieve you aim with the common focused energy of your colleagues, but if not, you will end up splitting in too many broken parts. 

During my last meet-up visit, i heard from a start-up founder Mrs. Sugandha Dubey (www.Stockimagebank.com), that start-up hiring is  long and important process. You need to find the right guy and your search must continue till the time you find a time with synergy with you . 

So as per me , we must continue with the culture of company , till the very last end. I may not say that we must follow the same guidelines every-time, but yes, thing will revolve around these points and will change according to situation. 

1.  Refer the social networking web-sites like linkedIn and facebook.
2. Work out on the referals. 
3. Job portals are good source.
4. Initial conversation will be just like introducing your company and asking for the very next conversation .
5. Getting them for a telephonic interview, rather then a on-line test. It make people a bit absurd. 
6. Follow-up with their availability. No one around you is free and keep in mind that you are dealing with one of the probable employee of the company, who is always going to help out in your venture. 
7. If that guys meet your requirement , call for the next F-F round. 
8. Have technical round/management question round.
9. Set a threshold, if qualified, ok, if not, talk to him in person. Now the talking person may be head _HR(if any or founder itself, if they have time. Keep in mind, talent and employee acquisition is a important part. ) 
10. Personal conversation must be to find out the personal interest of the candidate in what you are doing, how much interested they are in your venture, how much they can give and what they expect in return.
11. Get the aggregation of points and find out if he qualifies or not. 
12. If he/she is missing by some points, neglect technical/management round and go withe personal interaction result. 
13. And the most important point is "Dont  make the guy feel that he is just another shit candidate for you, but he is a probable employee"

 It is what i feel for the recruitment. There are experts sitting around me, who can tell us better what need to be done, but some time, it's your personal interaction with the probable employee or employee which make him/her feel that it's the right company in which they want to work and they can put their enthu and commitment for the company. For me, my co-founders, my employee are the one who are running my start-up and if i can make them happy , i am very sure, they will take care of others things in a better way.

Its' not being different by nature, its your passion towards a goal which make you different.

Young Entrepreneur

What does it take to be a be passionate about what you think?

Well its a big question to be asked and i think i might not be the best person to answer that of my experience, but lets me try. When you say you are passionate, that means you love the thing which you want to do, some people say that you are becoming "romantic" with what you want to do and not becoming realistic. I find them to be true upto some extent. Now upto some extent means, being in romance with what you want to do give you more confidence in what you are doing and you don't see  other things that are going to be effected by your romance, and that make you different from others. "A beautiful mind" a movie on Nobel prize winner JOHN NASH, describe the what it take to be in love with what you want to do in your life. It always have it pros and cons. Although till the very last stage you might not get the pros of loving what you do, but you will always face cons from the very starting but what you get in the last make you different. Not much people are able to do that and of-course there are conditions around you which not let you do so. There is no body to blame around. 

Now question is why the hell is my post heading is YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR and what is the necessity of all that philosophy which i had written above and what is the relationship between the 2. Well there is a relationship between two. Well everybody around here cannot become John Nash or Albert Einstein  or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs as there need to be diversity in the society( well it can be said as bloody excuse though ). "October Sky" a inspirational movie  which show how much struggle you need to put to do things differently from the very early stage. So here is where my article topic is justified. Being a young entrepreneur means a lot of trouble in the early stage of life. Lets take a example around you and ofcourse i am not talking about "nerds", i am just taking a example of a common boy having a average IQ and what will make him different will be his passion. 

Now take a example, you are a very common person, belonging to a average grade group in college or even not in college. You had a family around you and you got all the expectations roaming around you which are continually stopping you to fly, fly high in the sky , chasing a dream of doing something different. You don't have anyone around you to guide you what to do and what to not, you just want to do be different. Now this point of being different make you choose a option infront of you. You choose that option and then being in that field you develop a idea  and that is nature of your's and start working to achieve you goal, not thinking where it will lead you, not thinking what it is giving you in return. Now those person who will follow this path will definitely reach a point where they will feel themselves to be different. Well ofcourse in the meantime you might have missed many things, your girlfriend might have left you , your parents expectation might have been broken. That will take a lot of courage to do the same and that is what i missed. 

Looking back in my past, i become greedy. I wanted to take everything with me and that's not possible in reality and that is why i said it is difficult to be romantic with what you want to do until and unless all the others things around you are being taken care of  or unless you are not a born nerd. 

So my advice to my fellow "YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR" is that , the path you had taken might be a bit difficult, you might have to face a lot of people and their sayings, you might not be that lucky that your girlfriend will support you, you might have to listen too much scarce comments from your parent's like you cannot do that, it's not that easy to do so (yes ofcourse it's not that easy to be a YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR, but it's what i want to do, let me take a decision for my life and i will take care of the rest), you might have to face your inner dignity many time that what the hell you are doing, you had got some responsibilities towards your parents, but believe me my friend, just give a try and not try, just give your full for the one time and you will see the result , you will feel that you are different from others. There is a possibility that people around you might not identify you as a different person and you might fail, but the confidence you will fell will be immense and beyond description. 

Again there are lots of pros and cons related to this action of being in romance with what you are doing and becoming "romanceliastic". The later will make you feel safe while taking risk, but what will be the meaning and benifit of taking a risk when you are being safe on the other hand. 

Cognitive radio..........

A cognitive radio is a kind of two-way radio that automatically changes its transmission or reception parameters, in such a way that the entire wireless communication network -- of which it is a node-- communicates efficiently, while avoiding interference with licensed or unlicensed users. This alteration of parameters is based on the active monitoring of several factors in the external and internal radio environment, such as radio frequency spectrum, user behaviour and network state. A cognitive radio, as defined by the researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is "a software defined radio with a cognitive engine brain"


FROM WIKIPIDEA.....................


more to be uploaded soon.......

aeromodel flying day 1st :- ''''''''''''''Heavy wind in an open field cause a lot of problem''''''''''

After a long hard work by Mr.Raju,we were able to throttle up the engine as we require,but today i see what role wind play during flying ,a little more wind and bad control by me may have broken mine aeromodel worth Rs 10,000 into pieces which can never be addded again.
well under Mr.Raju supervision aeromodel made a safe land just after the first bank turn due to heavy wind,

i just put the throttle off,level the wings and made a sudden land.

NEW PHOTOS................

SOME PICS FROM MINE AEROMODELLING LAB.

SPECIAL THANKS TO "Mr.RAJU" A AEROMODELLER WHO HELP ME A LOT IN THIS STUFF.

Aeromodel ready:- Ready for the phase 1

Hello every body,
                            So may be in 5 or 6 days as i receive mine wireless camera,i would be able to complete the phase 1st of mine project so called AMATEUR UAV "SURYAAN".
Well i am ready with the aeromodel which is being prepared with the help of a aeromodeler named RAJU, he is a hobbyist and is expert in making aeromodels,with in 1 day i would be able to upload the exact dimensions and measurements of aeromodel along with RC Remote and engine specification,

Well for this i must congrats the team "SURYAAN" for being with me all through the project.

CONGRATS TEAM "SURYAAN"
srj0408@gmail.com
www.suryaanuav.blogspot.com