В интерьвью автора инвертора Алана Коккони есть и на эту тему. В 80-х он, как выпускник Калифорнийского технологического, работая как сторонний консультант для одной из фирм, продававших сварочные аппараты, разработал силовую часть такого устройства, и на эти деньги с его же слов купил дом в Калифорнии, в Лос-Анджелесе. Сейчас это звучит фантастикой какой-то. Зная людей отсюда, которые в Калифорнии работали и жили, уже с 2000-х там цены даже не для не рядового программистского сословия, а кого побогаче.
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I was working in my apartment in Pasadena, initially, and then I bought a house out here in Glendora, which is still the house I live in. I started doing UAV work out of a rented apartment in Pasadena, and then continued when I bought a house in Glendora, when I was doing some simultaneous consulting work for MK Products doing welding power supplies that allowed me to buy the house.
That was my first major consulting project on my own after leaving TESLAco. I think they called Caltech asking if they knew any students that wanted to do consulting and somehow, they got my name through the department secretary, I believe. That's how I got that contact. They were a welding company making all kinds of welding equipment, and they wanted to develop a new high-tech power supply for their welders. I worked with them for two years or maybe slightly more, overall, to develop what became the MK-2000, which was a 15-kilowatt portable welder. Quite innovative at the time.
At the time, it was the highest power project I had ever done, with 15 kilowatts or so. It was learning how to handle high-power stuff and do it in a way that was controlled, and setting up all the equipment to test and develop the circuits. It was quite a job, and MK Products was willing to support it. They had hired somebody previously to try and do it who had very little success, so I was their second consultant on the project, and ended up basically starting from scratch. But I was successful and made a product that worked for them for many years.
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