Erik Olsson 100 years!
Today, we commemorate EIDELs founder Erik Olsson which would have been 100 years, August 16th 2022!
Erik was from a young age more than averagely interested in technology and electronics. In 1949 he got hold of the first low cost junction transistor, the Reytheon CK722, several years before it was commercial available on the market. Even though he was born, raised and educated in Sweden, he moved to Norway where he at a time worked as an engineer for FFI (the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment). Erik and his family found their home in Eidsvoll, a small town an hour drive north of Oslo. There, he started working on new private development projects and soon after founded the company Eidsvoll Electronics (EIDEL). We can only speculate if it was his wife who motivated him to move his development projects from the kitchen table to the garage.
One of EIDELs first projects was the delivery of telemetry decoders and encoders to the Northern lights laboratory and Tromsø Telemetry Station. The latter used to track Europa 1 F9, a rocket launched from Woomera in Australia 1970. The F9 was developed for ELDO (the European Launcher Development Organization), which later evolved into ESA (the European Space Agency).
Over the years, EIDEL has been developing different electronics systems to a wide range of customers and applications, from environmental research to defence and industry, whithin the areas of remote sensing, telemetry, remote control and encryption. There has also been some odd projects, such as the development of an automatic chicken shit remover in the 1970s and using satellites to track the biker Tore Nærland on his trip around the world in the 1980s.
Below is a list of historical events and customer projects over the years:
Start End
1949 Erik Olsson bought his first transistors, Raytheon CK722
1964 – 1965 Control System for the Radio Telescope at RÅØ north of Gothenburg
1965 Eidsvoll Electronics AS is established
1964 – 1966 Notodden
1965 – 1967 NEK
1966 The Company expands into Olssons Car Garage. EE company registered.
1966 – 1967 Telemetry Decoder for the Northern Light Laboratory in Tromsø
1966 – Quality control system for cable production, NEK, STK
1967 – 1970 F9 Satellite Data Encoder, ESA
1967 Vertical weather profile measurement for meteorology
1968 – 1969 Railway Traffic Control System, STK
1969 – 1970 Balloon Telemetry System, FOA Sweden
1969 – Platinum Temperature Sensors for Balloons, NDRE
1970 EIDEL moves to the second floor of the bus terminal Rubis
1970 – 1971 TELOX
1970 – 1972 TOKE Torpedo Fire Control System
1970 – 1977 Olsons Box PCM Telemetry Decoder
1971 – 1972 TOFOK
1972 TOFOK Torpedo Control System, N Navy
1972 – 1975 MAE-SS Radar Target Display for Sea-Sparrow, N Navy
1975 – 1976 Duplex data link on a single cable to sub-sea vessel Snurre
1976 EIDEL moves into a new building in Kastellvegen at Vilberg
1976 Sawmill material sorting system for Fåvang Sag
1976 – 1987 68P1 Telemetry System, industrial
1976 – 1977 Telemetry Data Link from the wrecked jacket on the Frigg gas field, SI
1976 – 2009 CBB Side Thruster Propeller Controller, Brunvoll
1977 – 1978 Duplex data link Remote Control of sub-sea vessel SAAB-SUB, SAAB-SCANIA
1977 – 1987 ARGOS Satellite PTT
1977 – 1978 Automatisk hønemøkkraker for hønseriet på Lie. Levert via Holars.
1978 – 1983 EE4000 Telemetry Decoder
1978 – 1980 Radar Transponder
1979 Biking Vikings, ARGOS PTT with Tore Nærland Around the World
1979 – VICTOR Industrial Weight
1979 – TSA-1 ARGOS Testset
1979 – 1982 Penguin Mk II PETEL telemetry Unit, NDRE
1979 – 1990 Electrometers for Sounding Rockets, NDRE
1980 – 1986 Snow Stick, Optical snow depth measurement transmitted via Argos, NVE
1980 – 1982 Oil-pipe Pig. Ultrasonic measurement of internal rust pits, Veritas
1981 – 1982 Argos PTT tracking S/Y Berge Viking in the Whitbread Round the World race
1982 – 1995 EE4100 Telemetry Decoder
1982 – 1985 Alfred
1982 – 2000 Azimuth Propeller Controller, Brunvoll
1987 – 2002 EE9000 Have-Quick System
1984 – EE4110 PCM Simulator
1984 – 1995 EE688 PCM Encoder
1986 Building in Kastellvegen sold. Moves to rented facilities at Gruemyra.
1986 – 1995 EE205 PCM Encoder, EE688 System
1986 – 1987 Snow Depth measured by Radar on a Snow-scooter, NTNF
1986 – 1990 EE400/401 Transmitter Data Link
1987 – 1988 F5
1988 – 1990 Airborne Encoder – Decoder, Dornier
1988 Remote steering of M/S Remman
1988 – 1999 EE315 PCM Decoder, AT-bus cards
1989 – EE322 PCM Simulator
1990 – EE220 Data Encoder for Missile Test
1991 – EE230 Storage Encoder. Qualified to 5000 G, Saab
1992 – 1994 Artemis IPDE, Ion Propulsion Diagnostic Package, ESA
1992 – 1997 Avalanche detection and warning system for roads, Statens Vegvesen
1993 – EE235 Solid State Recorder, 32 Mbyte cards
1994 Nisse, Norsk Romsenter
1994 – EE235 Solid State Recorder
1994 2012 EE240 PCM Encoder
1994 – 1999 EE240/235 for Citius Propeller Test, CPS Production
1994 – EE206 PCM Encoder. EE688 system in a 19” rack.
1994 – EE239 Control Box for EE235
1994 – Destruct system for SAAB RBS15 missile
1995 – EE235 Solid State Recorder, 128 Mbyte cards
1995 – 1999 SSSB, Elmer, LFK
1996 – 1997 EE235 SSR for Ariane flight 503, Aerospatiale
1996 EE235 SSR for ARD, Ariane flight 502, Kayser-Threde
1996 – 1998 ODIN 1 Artillery Controll System, N Army
1996 EE206 1000 channel test system on the Ariane 4 launcher in Kourou, Aerospatiale
1997 EE1001 Bitsync 1553 for Enerdyne Video Compression
1998 EE240 Encoder, EE235 SSR for UK Submarines, MoD Rosyth
1998 – EE240-M6 for RBS15 Missile Test, SAAB Dynamics
1998 – EE235 Solid State Recorder, 256 Mbyte cards
1999 EE235-512MB SSR F2 Flight Test, Mitsibishi, Japan
1999 – 2014 SISAM, Remote Radio Control, LFK
2000 EIDEL moves into a new building in Nedre Vilberg vei
2000 EE235 SSR for IRIS-T, Dielhl-BGT
2000 – 2015 EE350 PCM Decoder, PCI-bus cards
2001 – EE355 Bitsync
2002 – 2011 EE240 MiniTM Data Encoder for RBS15, SAAB Dynamics, Finnish Navy
2002 EE240+ for UK Submarine, MoD Rosyth
2003 – EE356 Bitsynchronizer Standalone
2005 – 2011 EE240-M8 for RBS15 Missile Test, SAAB Dynamics
2006 – EE360 PCM Decoder for fixed applications
2006 – RCDS, Remote Crypto Distribution System, FLO
2010 – EDDAS Test System for JSM, Kongsberg
2014 – SISAM SSSB, FLO
2014 – m-NLP Plasmaprobe, ESA
2019 – CIRIS Plantekammer på ISS, ESA
2020 – CCSDS USLP, ESA
2020 – NCU, FD/FFI
In 1986, EIDEL celebrated its 20th anniversery with a video – “The story of EIDEL”
Erik retired from the company in early 1990’s, but he left us with his long lasting legacy; the spirit of innovation and entrepeneurship, which in turn has provided us with the foundation for our core company values of Empowerment, Synergy and Curiosity.