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Profile of Johannes M. Heuss
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Who is Johannes M. Heuss?
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I am a male German, born 1960, raised in Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Since 1973 I live in Nuremberg located in Middle Franconia  (Northern
Bavaria).
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After studies in Communications Engineering I gained professional
experience in several industries, namely in the development and manufacturing
of electronic assemblies, in automation engineering, software development,
audio engineering, and in varied jobs as a technical writer, eventually in
2009 resulting in the start-up of a new business as service provider for
technical documentation, content management and audio processing.
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The whole story
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It was in my early life when I began to implement technical projects
– electronic audio circuits mostly built from publications in journals
but also self-developed. I used to be named a hobbyist but this did not
match my self-perception as an ambitious developer. An electronic device
needs detailed instruction documents for its production and, when
completed, operating instructions for the user can be of avail, especially
when operated by others. So I started to document my hobbyist work.
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After military service as a radio operator in Donauwoerth (Bavaria) and a
practical at Frieseke & Hoepfner in Erlangen (Bavaria) I studied
Communications Engineering at the Ohm University in Nuremberg. In that
course, I had an internship at PKI Philips Kommunikations Industrie
in Nuremberg. During studies I learned to competently craft electronic
assemblies using printed circuit boards. I created an eligible design for
the chassis, operational controls and connections, and I wrote proper
documentation, at that time by means of typewriter, drawing board and
photocopier.
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Having finished studies in 1985, I took up a job as a constructing
engineer at zsi Zertz & Scheid Ingenieurgesellschaft in Nuremberg.
They produced electronic assemblies for automation engineering but also
worked on automation projects, so I learned to program Simatic automation
systems starting from simple sequence chains up to complex time-critical
processes.
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Privately in 1985 I engineered a digital metronome featuring special
functions for drumming. This turned out to be a paradigm for the
coordination of circuit design, product development, user interface, and
manufacturing. Its electronics were based on a quartz-driven phase-locked
loop circuit using CMOS logic chips, to be set directly in beats per
minute. A functionally comparable device was the Korg DTM-12 Digital
Tuner/Metronome launched in 1986.
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In 1986 I started up a business to combine electronics engineering,
audio engineering and software development. I developed electronic
circuits for measurement applications, operational logic for audio
equipment, and many other devices, and I participated in automation
engineering projects, e. g. for Schering in Feucht (Bavaria)
and for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony). In Untertrubach
(Bavaria) I was in charge of maintenance engineering at the Trubach
Digital recording studio.
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In 1989 I taught myself to work with software for computer-aided design
(CAD) to construct electronic circuits, and I noticed the lack of
ready-made pictograms for electronic parts. So I decided to develop and
launch a symbol library for the Draftsman-EE CAD system under the
trade name PicTron that I had registered as a trade mark . Articles in trade journals were
to follow, such as elektronik industrie or Elektronik-Praxis,
causing lively interest but not leading the enterprise to commercial success.
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Starting from 1991, I developed software programs for the Microsoft
Windows operating system, at first using QuickBasic and QuickC and
later using Gupta SQLWindows, a 4GL database programming environment.
Commissioned by Engel EDV-Systeme in Nuremberg, a comprehensive
modular order management program for the toolroom industry was realized
that was later complemented by me with a document management software
interfacing with Microsoft Word.
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More software development was done by me in 1997, namely components
for Borland Delphi which were then to be documented in an on-screen help
system, available also as a manual. So I started creating single-source
documents using Word and WexTech Doc-To-Help, which was then fully
deployed in an extensive modular help system designed for an
application program for the communication industry. These German
documents were also translated into English language by myself.
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In the years from 2000 to 2005, I translated engineering standards and
educational material originating from the IPC (Intellectual Property
Committee) from English to German language for the Fachverband
Elektronik-Design in Berlin, the German association for the
construction of electronic circuits. Here my experiences in the
development and production of electronic assemblies proved to be extremely
beneficial, that text material being very inconsistent for the authoring
qualities as well as for the peculiarities to accentuate, in particular
on the topic of assessment criteria for the manufacturing of printed
circuit boards and assemblies.
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In my spare time I used to create documentation using Aldus PageMaker
and Adobe FrameMaker since 1998. I appreciated particularly the features
of template pages in order to create documents efficiently and
goal-oriented. On the other hand, I learned to create web pages by HTML
coding which I employ to date for homepage maintenance of the “Bund
Naturschutz Nuremberg”, a Bavarian environmental organisation.
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From 2006 to 2009, I worked as a technical writer employed at
Mohles, a local personnel-services provider in Nuremberg. Part of
the job was working for Ziehm Imaging, a company for medical
equipment in Nuremberg, where I was responsible for the creation, update
and final layout of all technical documents as well as for editing
pictures such as screen shots, drawings and photographs, and I managed
the translation supervision and final layout in foreign languages. Adobe
FrameMaker was in heavy use here, but also the initial contact to content
management took place attending workshops for the Schema ST4 system.
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Subsequently I worked in the office of Mohles in Erlangen (Bavaria)
where I created a wiki system that was to collect the corporate know-how
using MediaWiki software. I also supported editing and translating
documents using FrameMaker, PowerPoint and Word.
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Since September 2011 I work as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging
in Nuremberg.
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You may download my job profile here as a PDF
document.
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Job items in review
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| 1979–1984 |
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Studies in Communications Engineering at Ohm University in Nuremberg
(internships at Frieseke & Hoepfner in
Erlangen (Bavaria) and PKI Philips Kommunikations
Industrie in Nuremberg |
| 1981–1982 |
Summer jobs at Foto Quelle in
Nuremberg |
| 1981–1983 |
Mixing engineer for Ernie's Band in
Fuerth (Bavaria) |
| since 1981 |
Engineering and manufacturing of various electronic assemblies for use in
recording studios
(amongst others: reproduction amplifier, switching
equipment, digital metronome) |
| since 1982 |
Sound recordings for SelbstLernZentrum (institute
for self-learning) in Nuremberg |
| since 1983 |
Installation of my own recording studio |
| 1984 |
Freelancing for refurbishment of the Colosseum
recording studio in Nuremberg |
| 1985–1986 |
Employed as constructing engineer at zsi
Zertz + Scheid Ingenieurgesellschaft in Nuremberg
(engineering of electronic assemblies; automation engineering using
free-programmable controller systems) |
| 1986 |
First start-up business |
| 1987 |
Automation engineering for various engineering companies
(projects for Kabelmetal and
Schering in Nuremberg and for
Volkswagen in Wolfsburg) |
| 1988 |
Attendance of the advanced training course Current problems in technical
acoustics at the Academy of Technology
Esslingen |
| 1988–1989 |
Maintenance engineering at the Trubach
Digital recording studio in Untertrubach (Bavaria) |
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| 1990 |
Conductorship of a training course for automation engineering at ibp in Nuremberg |
| since 1991 |
Member of
Fachverband Elektronik-Design (German association for the construction of
electronic circuits) |
| since 1991 |
Development and launch of a symbol library for CAD systems for the
construction of electronic circuits
(trade name: PicTron) |
| since 1992 |
Compilation of a database containing references to articles in several
German sound recording journals |
| 1993–2010 |
Activities for the University of Erlangen
(Bavaria)
(research project in hydrogeology) |
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| 1994–2005 |
Activities for Engel EDV-Systeme
in Nuremberg
(software development, on-screen help files, documentation
work) |
| 2000–2005 |
Activities for Fachverband Elektronik-Design
in Berlin
(translation of US-American engineering standards and
educational material, articles und manuals) |
| 2006–2009 |
Employed as a technical writer at Mohles in Nuremberg |
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| 2006–2008 |
Working as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging in Nuremberg
(editing and layout
of manuals using Adobe FrameMaker) |
| 2008–2009 |
Working at Mohles in Erlangen
(creation
of a corporate wiki system) |
| 2009 |
New start-up business for technical documentation |
| since 2009 |
Activities for Engel EDV-Systeme
in Nuremberg
(documentation work, BPMN diagrams) |
| since 2011 |
Employed as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging
in Nuremberg |
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Good engineering deserves best documentation
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engage Heuss !
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