Local Contact Makes a Difference

Guest Blog Post Earle Foster, VP of Sales and Marketing at Sealevel Systems

Advances in digital communications and information technology has made the world we share a smaller place. A mere 25 years ago when I first began my career in industrial electronics, the mail was the primary method of transferring information such as purchase orders, technical manuals, and any other written information. Engineers usually searched for products using industry magazines and vendor catalogs. Product distributors were primarily valuable in the logistics of moving products from the manufacturer to the customer.

Everything changed of course with the advent of email and the internet. Today we live in an age where customers expect immediate response to their requests, and manufacturers must find a way to meet these expectations if they expect to be successful. Sealevel Systems, Inc. has worked very hard to provide our customers the easy ability to access information, place orders, and receive technical support using our website and other assets. However, even in this digital age, our most important asset is the people that make up our team.

A critical component of the Sealevel team is our network of international distributors we call SeaPartners. One of our longest standing and most successful SeaPartners is Impulse Corporation in the United Kingdom. The team at Impulse is well trained on Sealevel products and does a fantastic job of taking care of our customers in the U.K. with support and services that cannot be replaced by a website or an email. It has been my pleasure to see Impulse continue to grow successfully while we have worked together, and we the value they add to Sealevel’s products and support for our customers.

Sealevel Partner Page

Discover our Live Chat system

On the 14th of February we launched our brand new website, and with it a number of new features to make it easier to find and obtain information about your product quickly and easily.

We appreciate it’s not always possible for you to pick up the phone, or spend time writing an email, just for a simple queston or enquiry. To help with this, we have introduced a new Live Chat function allowing you to get in contact with our sales team quickly to get answers to any enquires you may have.

What is Live Chat?

Live Chat is a system whereby you can talk to one of our technical sales team without having to wait for an email response. By typing messages, which will be responded to straight away by our technical team, you can get the answers you need quickly.

How do I use Live Chat?

The Live Chat system works in a similar way to most instant messaging services you may have used in the past. To start a discussion, simply click on the “Click here for live chat” button located at the lower left hand side of your screen. Select your enquiry type, enter your name and email address, and click Start Chat. Our team of technical sales staff will be alerted and will respond to your chat request as quickly as possible. You can then ask any questions and receive an instant answer.

Frequently asked questions:

Q. Do I need special software to use Live Chat?
A. No. Our Live Chat system will work on most Javascript enabled web browsers.

Q. What can I chat about, using this system?
A. The Live Chat service is ideal for receiving quick answers to basic technical and sales questions. If the discussion progresses to a point where more details is required, your Live Chat operator will be more than happy to take down your details and contact you at a convenient time.

Q. Can I request a copy of the discussion?
A. Yes. At the end of a discussion you have the option to email yourself a copy of the transcript.

Q. When is Live Chat available?
A. Live Chat is available during our standard business hours:

Monday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Tuesday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Wednesday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Thursday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Friday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: CLOSED

Q. Where can I send feedback?
A. Once you have ended your chat, you have the ability to submit feedback about your experience. If your feedback is a little more in-depth, feel free to get in touch via our contact page.

Looking for a reason to try new hardware? Experience the benefits of SSDs

Like you, we are constantly adapting our hardware and technology to keep at the forefront of our industry. When new boards and systems are launched we are first to identify if it has any positive benefit in our product range. This is true also for our range of peripherals.

Up until recently, solid state storage has always been an expensive technology reserved only for high end specialist enterprise applications. More recently however, there has been a rise in the adoption of Solid State Drives in the consumer computing industry. This sudden growth in demand for Solid State Drives has moved manufacturers to produce a cost effective alternative to traditional hard drives.

What are Solid State Drives?

Unlike traditional mechanical hard drives, which are made up of a series of magnetic platters, motors and reading arms, Solid State Drives contain flash memory. Flash memory is found in a wide range of every day products including smart phones, digital cameras and USB memory sticks.

What are the benefits of Solid State Drives?

When we first looked into solid state storage technology, we quickly identified the advantage it can bring to the industrial computing market. As explained by our Technical Manager, Chris Durose, the physical properties of Solid State Drives are very desirable in our industry.

“Solid State Drives offer a number of advantages over traditional magnetic hard drives. The main benefit being that Solid State Drives have no moving parts. With no moving parts, Solid State Drives are not affected by jolts, drops and vibrations.

In addition, Solid State Drives are not affected by magnetic fields and produce very little heat. These kinds of features are desirable in the industrial market where electromagnetic interference and high environmental temperatures are common.”

Thanks to not having to rely on power hungry motors, Solid State Drives consume over 20% less energy than its mechanical counterpart and produce no sound. With no mechanical parts to fail, many of the Solid State Drive manufacturers have published MTBF figures that double that of mechanical hard drives.

In addition to its physical properties, Solid State Drives also bring a number of performance advantages. For example, operating system boot up time is approximately 1.5 times faster compared to mechanical drives. Software has been noted to load within seconds and reading and writing data can reach speeds of up to 500MB/s.

With so many benefits, as well as a lower overall total cost of ownership, it is no wonder why we are taking full advantage of Solid State Drives as a rugged and reliable alternative to mechanical hard drives.

If you would like to trial a Solid State Drive in your next embedded system or would like to know more about solid state technology, then contact our technical account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Related links
Alternative high performance storage solutions available at Impulse

Discover our system integration facility

Click to enlarge

Did you know that Impulse has a system integration facility based in Stoke-on-Trent? Our engineers take full advantage of the state-of-the-art facility when designing, building and customising industrial computer systems for our customers.

Many of our customers take advantage of our flexible build and delivery scheduling service. They rely on Impulse to ensure they receive the right hardware at the right time. With our build and delivery scheduling service we can ensure we have sufficient hardware in stock ready for testing, building and dispatching, on time and on budget.

Why do customers choose us for their industrial computing needs? Here are five reasons why:

1. Purpose built production facility based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
2. Experienced team of highly qualified engineers
3. Flexible system build and delivery scheduling service
4. Strict quality assurance and revision control policies
5. Custom Windows Embedded OS design service

Click here to find out more about our system integration facility

For more information about our system integration facility and how it can benefit you, contact our technical account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impuse-corp.co.uk.

The ARK-1120 – high performance yet compact embedded system

The ARK-1120 from Advantech

This week we launched our latest embedded PC, the ARK-1120 by Advantech. The ARK-1120 is an ultra compact embedded system powered by the popular Intel Atom N455 and includes the Intel ICH8-M chipset providing a powerful combination features and performance.

The first thing we noticed about the ARK-1120 was how small and light it was. The ARK-1120 measures in at just W133mm x H43mm x D94mm and weighs only 0.7kg. The chassis is constructed out of a rugged yet lightweight aluminium alloy featuring a series of solid fins designed to help disperse heat generated by the processor and board components. The ‘fin’ design gives the benefits of a true fan-less system without the need to rely on noisy and unreliable chassis fans. The chassis features VESA mounting holes on the underside allowing you to mount it on the back of a monitor or on a wall via a mating VESA bracket.

Although the ARK-1120 is very compact it still includes an impressive range of I/O features. As standard it has four USB2.0 ports and two RS-232 serial ports. Inside the system it features a SATA port, a CompactFlash Type I/II socket and a half size Mini PCIe socket. The Mini PCIe socket is quite a useful feature to have as it allows you to expand the system’s capabilities by including a WiFi or HSDPA/3G modem card.

The Intel Atom N455 processor is part of the embedded CPU range from Intel. Integrated into the processor for better reliability is a GPU and memory controller. The GPU is based on the Intel GMA3150 and performs at a 200MHz clock speed ensuring fast graphic performance. It features DirectX 9c and OpenGL 1.5 support and is capable of hardware accelerated MPEG-2 video playback. The integrated memory controller supports up to 2GB of DDR3 SODIMM memory and up to 384MB of this memory can be shared with the GPU through Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT). In total the Atom N455 consumes only 6.5W making it an ideal solution for high performance yet low power embedded systems.

You can view the press release here. A full specification list and datasheet can be found on the product page. For more information on the ARK-1120 you can get in contact with us on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Impulse launch new Industrial Ethernet Switch range

Impulse is pleased to launch the new EKI Series Industrial Ethernet Switches from Advantech. These new Industrial Ethernet Switches are designed to meet the demanding requirements of the industrial environment and come with communication standards such as Fast and Gigabit Ethernet. These Industrial Ethernet Switches are avaliable with copper and fibre optic connections.

Our new Industrial Ethernet Switch range includes:

• Managed Ethernet Switches
• Unmanaged Ethernet Switches
• IP67 Ethernet Switches
• PoE Switches

To learn more about our Advantech Ethernet Switches then contact our Technical Account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Leading UK Advantech Distributor

Did you know that Impulse is a leading UK Advantech distributor? Founded in 1983, Advantech has provided leadership for innovative ePlatform products and services for over 25 years. Advantech offer comprehensive system integration, hardware, software, customer-centric design services and global distribution support.

Impulse has been a leading UK Advantech distributor since 2003 and has provided customers with a comprehensive range of Advantech Single Board Computers, Panel PCs, Industrial Ethernet Switches and Distributed Analog and Digital I/O adapters.

Click here to find out more.

Impulse announces partnership with DFI inc

Impulse is pleased to announce that we are now an official UK distributor for DFI. DFI are a leading Taiwanese manufacturer and developer of high performance embedded computing technology. Since 1981 DFI has been leading the industry with cutting-edge boards and systems designed for embedded applications.

Impulse was keen to work with DFI as they ensure strict revision control and long life availability on their industrial computer products. DFI use the latest technology platforms and manufacturing techniques to produce cost-effective products for use in medical diagnostic & imaging, ATM/POS, industrial control, kiosk, security & surveillance, digital signage, gaming, and many other embedded applications.

Key benefits offered by DFI

Strict revision control
DFI is committed to strict revision control and ensures consistency by using the same components across its entire product line. DFI ensure that all customers are notified in advance if any revisions are required. When a change to a critical component is required, DFI perform extensive testing with their testing facilities to ensure every aspect of the component is tested before launch.


Long product lifecycle supply
DFI guarantees that their products will be available for a minimum of 3-5 years and do this by maintaining stock of critical components. This minimizes the risk of discontinued items and will issue end of life notices as soon as components become unavailable.


Manufacturing capability
DFI have a large in-house manufacturing facility that ensures that they offer stability and quality control. DFI have a wide range of manufacturing methods such as: Surface Mount Technology (SMT), Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), In-line Circuit Testing Machine (ICT) and Manual Insertion (MI). This allows DFI is able to fulfil the demands of off-the-shelf products, custom design service and EMS in various industries.


Quality control
DFI follows the ISO 14001 & ISO 9001 Quality Management System with QC080000 to ensure that customers receive only the highest quality product. This process includes product evaluation starting at functional/environmental/shipping tests to lifecycle analysis and quality reliability tests that consist of high frequency design analysis and thermal/humidity/vibration/drop tests.

Impulse is a leading UK DFI Distributor. For more information on our DFI product range then contact our Technical Sales team on +44(0)1782 337 800 or email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Impulse launch GENE-LN05 Rev B

Impulse is pleased to launch the GENE-LN05 Rev B from Aaeon Technology. The GENE-LN05 Rev B is a high performance Single Board Computer featuring the Intel Atom D525/N455 processor and Intel ICH8M chipset.

The GENE-LN05 Rev B can also support DDR3 SODIMM memory making it an ideal solution for resource intensive applications.

GENE-LN05 Rev B specification and features

• 2 x 10/100/1000Base-TX RJ45 Ethernet
• 7 x USB2.0
• 6 x COM
• 1 x Parallel
• 1 x 8-bit Programmable digital I/O
• 1 x VGA
• 1 x 18/24-bit single channel LVDS
• 1 x 4/5/8-wire touchscreen controller
• 2 x SATAII
• 1 x CompactFlash
• 1 x Mini Card
• 1 x LPC Bus

Impulse is a leading UK distributor of Aaeon products and can configure your hardware to meet your exact requirements. Impulse is a Microsoft Windows Embedded Silver Partner and can create a tailor made embedded operating system built to your exact specification to suit your application.

For more information on the GENE-LN05 Rev B and our custom Embedded Windows Image solutions then contact our Technical Account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

See our official GENE-LN05 Rev B news article

Panel PC Solutions at Impulse

Did you know that Impulse is a leading UK distributor and Integrator of Panel PC solutions? Since 1993, Impulse has been offering a wide range of Panel PC solutions such as Industrial Open Frame, IP65 Panel Mount and Full IP67.

Our Panel PCs have a wide range of processing capabilities with processors such as the Intel Core i7, Core2 Duo, Atom and RICS based SOC. We can off you a tailor made solution for your industrial computing requirements.

Find out more about our Panel PC solutions