Well, the way that this forum works I will have to put in a biography...;-))
Again, my name is Wilfried (Wilfred is the Americanized version) Voss and I was born and raised in Germany. I share my birthday with celebrities like THE KING (Elvis Presley) and David Bowie, i.e. January 8 (not the same year, though).
I have a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering and my last job in Germany got me involved with the paper industry. In my capacity as specialist for sheet cutters I was temporarily sent to the United States, i.e. for a limited time of 8 months. That was back in 1989 and I never really went back to Germany. I got married to an Irish-American woman (Hey, what are the chances to find some Irish folks in Masschusetts...) and this last year (2007) I was blessed with the birth of my son, Patrick. The same year I was also officially received into the Episcopal Church and the next adventure will be to finally become an American citizen.
In 1993 I started my own business, Copperhill Technologies. Even though I tried to continue my involvement with the paper industry things went a little bit different than planned. Through some contacts in the motion control industry I started writing software for servo motor sizing, first under MS-DOS and then under the various Windows flavors.
Work on VisualSizer began in 1995 while developing program versions for Siemens Energy & Automation and GE Fanuc. Since then the list of customers expanded steadily, simply by mouth-to-mouth propaganda. We also started to sell copies of our generic version, but, honestly, with a great number of free sizing softwares in the market, selling single copies was tough. That, among many other things, triggered the idea to make VisualSizer a free download.
Since 1997 I am also involved in the CAN (Controller Area Network) & CANopen industry and here I sensed a lack of documentation. As a result I started publishing my first book "A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network" (2005), followed by "A Comprehensible Guide to Servo Motor Sizing" (2007). Both books sell very well and that in turn made the decision to concentrate on writing technical literature rather than developing software.
I will continue to add functionality to VisualSizer and I am counting on the feedback from members of this forum. This way I am not under the pressure of time lines and expensive marketing activities.
So, please, everybody, give me some feedback...;-))
