Complete’s Student Alert signals bus’s arrival
Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006
SPRINGDALE — Those working at Complete Inc. feel like they have a new baby and are watching it grow.
For the first time in Complete Inc. ’s 10-year history, the Springdale electronics firm is making its own product, rather than serving as a contract designer and manufacturer for other companies ’ products. Instead of just making the intricate circuit boards to be inserted into consumer products, Complete Inc. rounded out the production cycle from conception to customers when it created the Student Alert System.
The system signals a family when a student’s school bus is approaching the home so a child does not have to wait long outdoors and is less likely to miss the bus. Response from school districts and parent-teacher associations has been enthusiastic, company officials said.
With the aid of their first brochure and Web site, www. studentalert. com, more people are asking them about their new “baby.” President Loy Hoskins has seen the company grow from two partners and based in his garage to a 6, 000-square-foot building at 605 Bain St., with room to expand. He’s looking at adjacent space on the lot, remembering three previous moves as the company expanded its production area to accommodate more products and employees. The company now grossing just under $ 2 million a year could see the product double its production in the next year, Hoskins said. “We will expand to meet the need, whatever it is. We’re proud this is made in the USA,” the Fayetteville native said.
A FAMILY AFFAIR The current 14 employees include some of Hoskins’ family members, and when needed for a large order on a quick deadline, friends also help out. Hoskins said his 84-year-old father regularly comes in with his girlfriend to help assemble the electronic circuit boards.
Hoskins got his start as a development engineer for an antenna company that dealt only with large runs. Now Complete Inc. sometimes provides customers with runs of 10 to 10, 000 pieces on more of the customized circuit boards.
He figures the firm now makes 55 different boards for companies across the country. Its circuit boards end up in paintball guns, pump controllers, asphalt pavers, emergency doors and other products. Complete Inc. has helped customers receive 15 patents on their products as well as Federal Communications Commission approvals. Now Complete Inc. awaits final word on its own patent for the Student Alert System, which has already received FCC certification. The company handles leasing and warranty inquiries while working with sales through Student Alert Systems Inc. in Russellville, where units are ready to ship.
The Student Alert System has three market plans, quality manager Tim Stout said. Their Russellville marketing firm can sell the system to a school district, which could choose to let a PTA administer the leasing program. Complete Inc. can lease to a school system or, the most popular plan, a combination of selling and leasing units.
Northern states are interested because students can suffer in winter’s low temperatures, Hoskins said. Complete Inc. has a couple of states interested in ordering for schools statewide.
Hoskins points out that parents may have a different perspective from that of school administrators. Parents want their children to have a short wait outside, especially when some bus routes start by 6: 30 a.m. when streets are still dark.
Administrators could be concerned with keeping buses on time for each stop in an era when less drivers are available and some routes are growing. Another benefit is spending less money for fuel because buses don’t have to idle as long at each stop.
And since reports have linked school-bus diesel fumes to asthma, slowed brain development and other health problems, the federal government has offered grants of $ 50, 000- $ 200, 000 to qualified schools to acquire technology that helps “reduce school-bus idling.” Complete Inc. officials see the Student Alert System as ideal technology for the grant program.
HOW IT WORKS The 900-MHz long-range system works equally well in remote rural areas and urban subdivisions, Hoskins said. Although it uses technology originally developed for high-security military radios, Stout said it is Hoskins ’ complex design of the circuitry that makes the system so easy to use.
School administrators must first input a number code on each bus’s small transmitter. That number is picked up from the transmitter that’s mounted on the dashboard and plugged into a power port (such as a cigarette lighter ).
All families have to do is press one button once on the first day the bus comes with its unit. No other programming or menus are required.
The 5-by-7-inch home receiver unit gives out an audible signal for about three minutes, then switches to just a light. The light stays on to tell parents the bus has arrived.
The unit can receive up to eight signals if children use different buses, signaling which number bus is near. The unit needs only an electrical outlet and is left switched on in the home.
The signal transmits from a half-mile to 1. 5 miles, depending on terrain.
The ease of use for families makes this a real plus for special-needs students, Stout said. They may ride a different bus to school and often need extra time to reach the bus stop. Since in some cases drivers must help them aboard, cutting wait times is important for both.
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