About NCD
I started National Control Devices back in 1995, and have grown my family over our many years of business. Located in the small town of Osceola Missouri, my team is well known to senior leadership at the largest tech companies in the world, and is frequently called upon for highly specialized projects. Our diverse backgrounds and skill-sets make our company unique in the IoT industry. This page is dedicated to my team who design, manufacture, test, and ship NCD IoT connected products all over the world. I could not be more proud of these incredible people, who have mostly grown with the business over many years. I hope this gives you a window into our world so you get an idea of what makes ncd.io such a unique, special, and great company.
Dennis Higgins
Superpowers:
- Graphic Arts & Video Animations
- Brochures, Illustrations, Diagrams
- Enclosure and Sticker Printing Expert
- From Mac to PC back to Mac Trash Can
- Cousin of CEO and a Best Friend
- We’ve Been Through it All Together
- Calls Out Stupidity with Logical Thought
- Awesome Dry Humor
- Always Ahead but Never Brags About it
- Most Talented Artist Ever…Seriously
- Father of Taylor
- Most Popular of All NCD Staff
Niki Elliott
Superpowers:
- Shipping Queen
- Errand Master
- Customer Relations
- Funny and Quirky
- Capable of Learning Anything
- Troublemaker in Every Possible Way
- Always 3 Steps Ahead
- Daughter of DeeAnn
- Sister of Kyle and Travis
- Family Friend of CEO Since the Beginning
- Our Very Own Khaleesi
Siegrid Duncan
Superpowers:
- Through-Hole Assembly
- Perfectly Organized Workstation
- Memorizes Every Assembly Method
- From Germany but we Like Her Anyway
- Friend of CEO Since Age 15
- Drives Fast to Florida & Gets Ticket
- Patience of a Saint
- Closet Troublemaker
- Not as Innocent as She Looks
- Stunningly Beautiful in Every Way
- Hides a Witty Dry Humor from Everyone
Willa Applegate
Superpowers:
- Selective Soldering
- Excellence in Process Replication
- Exercises Perfect Solder Technique
- Young Liberal Hippie at Heart
- Goes Against the Grain
- Lives a Simple Life as a Free Thinker
- Trust Everything She Does
- Don’t Trust a Thing She Says
- Mischievous Mischievous Mischievous
- Not Guilty but Not Innocent Either
- And a Little More Mischievous
Shirui Xu (徐世瑞)
Superpowers:
- Lead Software Developer using Visual Studio
- Project Supervisor for Base Station Software
- Project Supervisor for AnyI2C Software
- Project Supervisor for Alpha Station
- Creator of Comm Operator (Legendary Status)
- Creator of N-Button Software (Legendary Status)
- Creator of Serial Port Tool
- Imported from China by Ryan, Best Friend and NCD CEO
- Chinese Red-Neck: Loves Hunting, Fishing, Eating
- Well Known Among all the Locals here in Missouri
- Has His Own Farm and Pilots License
- Thought He Could Clear a Few Trees with an Axe
- That Didn’t Work as Well as He Thought
- Love Turkey Hunting, Beating the Locals His First Year
- Boating with Andy & Dusty is Never a Good Idea
- Just as American as Any of the Natives
Anil Bhaskar, CEO
CEO as of October 1st, 2021
Superpowers:
- Legendary Status for Exemplary PCB Layout Skills
- King Among Firmware Developers
- Enterprise Wireless Sensors Project Lead Developer
- Pluggable I2C Devices Project Lead Developer
- IoT Device Strategy and Project Lead Developer
- Lead Coordinator of All Remote Engineering Teams
- Shrewd Business Skills – Do Not DARE Waste His Time
- Studies Business Operations and Growth for a Hobby
- Writes Visual Recognition Code for a Hobby
- Dreams About Sensing Things from Anywhere
- Active Investor and Business Growth Strategist
- Imported from India by Ryan, Best Friend and NCD Founder
- Loves to Learn and Soaks Up Everything
- Actually Has a Relationship Agreement with His Wife
- Hates to Fly and Flies More than Anyone in the Office
Ryan Sheldon
Founder – Retired October 1st, 2021
Superpowers:
- Founding Developer for All NCD Industrial Products
- ProXR Lite and ProXR Enterprise
- Taralist, Fusion, Reactor
- MirX, MirC, MirM, and MirW
- Founding Developer for Pluggable I2C Devices
- Lead Project Coordinator for All NCD Projects
- Adores Microchip PIC Processors and Programming
- Founding Developer for endNode Devices
- Project Planner for ncd.io Web Site Architecture
- Director of Finances for ncd.io Projects and Teams
- Developer of Base Station and Alpha Station Software
- AnyI2C Development Architect
- Avid Collector of Cars and Vintage Stereos
- Enjoys a Glass of Wine, a Cigar, and a Room with a View
- Best Friends with Xu, Bhaskar, Jimmy, and Travis
- Cousin to Dennis and Known DeeAnn Since Age 5
- Surrounded by Amazing Family, Friends, and Lawyers
DeeAnn Elliott
Superpowers:
- Accounting and Customer Relations
- Manager of Remote Accounting Teams
- Component Procurement and Sourcing
- Order Packaging and Shipping
- Specialized Paperwork and Handling
- Excellence in Policies and Procedures
- Excellence in Warranty Management
- Excellence in Organization & Bookkeeping
- Phone Guardian of All NCD Staff
- Freaks Out when we Lose our Internet
Jimmy Gutzman
Superpowers:
- Senior Production Manager
- Lead Manufacturing Process Controller
- Staff Scheduling and Coordination
- Lead Wave Solder Processing
- Learns Quickly with Excellent Ethics
- Best Friend of Ryan Since 2002
- Nothing’s Ever Good Enough
- The Chicken Came Before the Egg
- Surrounded by a Great Family of Friends
- Most Honest and Reliable Friend EVER
- “Oops, I dropped your camera in the river.”
Zachary Hawkins
Superpowers:
- Wave Soldering Apprentice
- Product Testing Apprentice
- Fine Pitch Hand Soldering and Rework
- Through-Hole Component Placement
- Great Attitude and Work Ethic
- Well Liked by Everyone
- Excellent Sense of Humor
- Not Afraid to Say the Wrong Thing
- Can’t Say the Right Thing
- Quirky – Can’t Help but Like the Guy
Morgan Austin
Superpowers:
- Senior Test Engineer
- Memorizes Every Testing Procedure
- PIC Burning and Testing
- Lantronix Burning and Testing
- Communications Module Configuration
- Device Activation and Validation Testing
- Micro-Current Measurement & Testing
- Always has a Smile and Great Attitude
- Been with NCD for Many Years
Jacob Youngblood
Superpowers:
- Senior Quality Control Manager
- Senior Hardware Integration Architect
- Lead Software Architect for Quality Management System
- ISO9001:2015 Lead Manager and Planner
- Hardware Integration Adviser – Customer Applications
- Python Software Developer for NCD Devices
- Excellent Skills in PHP, CSS, and JavaScript
- Excellence in Customer Relations & Hardware Applications
- Works with Customers One on One Every Day
- Excellent Traveler with the Heart of an Explorer
- Not Afraid to Learn, Grow, and Improve Everything
- Excellence in Non-Conformance Reporting & Management
- Employed With NCD Since the Age of 18
Travis Elliott
Superpowers:
- Senior Design Engineer for NCD Firmware
- Lead Back-End Architect for NCD Gateways
- Lead Firmware Developer for Particle Devices
- Excellence in Cloud to Device Integration Strategies
- Excellent Sense of Humor
- Holds the Record for the Largest Customer Contracts
- Loved by Customers, Personable, Knowledgeable
- Goes Out of His Way to Help Everybody
- Coordinates Applications with Customer Needs
- Never Without an Opinion
- Best Friend of CEO, Known Travis Since the Very Beginning
- Brother of Kyle and Niki, Son of DeeAnn
- Has a Wonderful Wife and Two Amazing Kids
- Yes, NCD is Well Stocked with Elliots
- Started Helping Us at the Age of 15
Tommy “Trey” Felton
Superpowers:
- Senior Web Developer & Lead Architect of ncd.io
- Lead Hardware to Cloud Solutions Architect
- Lead Node-Red Drivers Developer
- Lead Architect of Mobicle.io
- Front-End Developer for NCD Gateways
- Expert Level PHP, Javascript, and NodeJS Developer
- Expert Skills in OAuth and AES Encryption/Decryption
- Expert Skills in MQTT, AWS, Azure, Particle, & Losant
- Excellent at Helping Customers through Difficult Problems
- Brilliant in Every Possible Way and Always Right
- Not Afraid of Any Kind of Software Development
- Incredibly Fast Learner, Avid Reader, Soaks Up Everything
- Applies Reason and Accountability to Every Situation
- Always Looking for a Way Around a Problem
- Seriously Respected for Outstanding Development Work
This is our Design and Management Office, this is where we design our web site, graphics, documentation, handle phone calls, as well as order processing, shipping, and accounting. We are equipped with a full studio for live video streaming and product demonstration, as well as industrial printers for manufacturing our products. Construction began in 2005 and we moved in in 2006 once it was complete. We finished this office ourselves, with most of the work completed by Travis, Jimmy, my brother Sean, and myself. We outgrew manufacturing in our main office several years ago, so we built another building nearby. Our second building is located on a 200 acre farm, complete with fencing, gates, and cattle. Inside the building are pick and place machines, solder machines, testing equipment, and a ton of computers. It’s always a rather humorous contrast for our visitors to discover our manufacturing facility in the middle of our cattle farm.
Our manufacturing facility is located about 3 miles away from our main office. We are currently working on expanding the floor space to accommodate more equipment. This is where all SMT assembly, through-hole assembly, soldering, inspection, testing, and rework are completed.
Panbanisha and Ryan back in the 1990’s…
This was a rather typical day during the Spring and Summer months.
I wasn’t always the CEO of National Control Devices. When I was 20 years old, I had the good fortune to meet Russ and Pam RuBert. They focused the direction of my life in a way that has made my life story unique and in retrospect, incredible. I accepted a job with Russ and Pam as a software developer. I began by writing video games for Bonobos, a rare breed of chimpanzee. The video games I wrote would collect research data, and would later be used to help prove scientifically, that Bonobos have language skills. After working for Russ and Pam for 7 months, I moved to Atlanta to meet Dr. Duane Rumbaugh and his wife, Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. Over the next 7 years, my life would be focused on assisting them with their research. I also had the incredible opportunity to spend time directly in contact with Panbanisha and Tamuli, the little sisters of Kanzi (the most famous Bonobo in the world). Of course I knew Kanzi well, but Panbanisha and I became great friends throughout our early years in life.
As part of the research, it was necessary for us to provide a food reward when successfully completing computer tasks. And the world’s first RS-232 relay controller was created with the help Tom Maier, a long-lost friend I hope to reconnect with again someday. Tom helped me bring my controllers to market through Nuts and Volts Magazine, where I published a series of articles titled “The Computer Controlled World”. In October of 1995, National Control Devices was born. Soon-after, the internet was
became readily accessible to everyone, and I began building my own web sites, ControlAnything.com and ControlEverything.com. These web sites were used to showcase my products, which I was assembling myself along with occasional help from friends.
After working with Bonobos for 7 years, my business was starting to fly, and I needed more time to focus on creating new products and increase our manufacturing capabilities. On September 16th, 1999 I returned to my home-town in Missouri and began building my business with the help of a few local people. We made good use of ControlAnything.com and ControlEverything.com over the years, and grew to thousands of customers worldwide.
On November 7th, 2015, we re-branded ControlEverything.com to introduce plug-and-play modular hardware to the automation market. Though I am deeply proud of my web developers, I was never quite happy with the way ControlEverything.com worked. So we rebuilt the site on Shopify to help get us through. With ControlAnything.com aging badly and the ControlEverthing.com operating on Shopify, I always felt we could do better. My web developers are insanely good, but it was time to redirect their talents. I decided it was time to put all of our work in one place.
In January of 2017, we rebuilt our entire web site at ncd.io. Our web developers poured their heart into it the site migration, we all did. Dennis was busy creating the graphics while Jacob designed the faceting system. Trey managed everything and glued all the pieces together into a single site. 2017 will go down in the history of our company as the most difficult year we ever faced, trying to concentrate our work in one place. ncd.io opened on Monday, August 14th, 2017. With a strong WordPress foundation, our company is much easier to find with a product line more in tune with today’s needs.
Since the opening of our new site, NCD has been introduced to an ever-expanding network of IoT engineers worldwide. We are currently collaborating with members from nearly every aspect of the tech industry, including the largest industrial giants. NCD has also taken on new partnerships with Temboo, Particle, Onion, Blynk, Losant, PyComm, and Cayenne for which we are very proud. We are working to form new partnerships with many amazing IoT companies, big and small. Our client base has also grown considerably as we take on challenging client applications that expand into heavy machinery and automotive industries. Our future is looking really bright these days thanks to you, so thank you all for visiting and joining our community. Enjoy the pictures of our staff, where we live, and our incredible friendships.
Bhaskar is a serious part of our family, and with that comes some ribbing…my nephew wore the “Bhaskar” wig to school on a dare, and I lost $200 that day on a bet that he would not last the day. Pay Up Uncle Ryan…
Dani and Travis
Jill, Ryan, Niki, and Madison so many years ago.
Our early customers will remember talking to Jill.
This is my good buddy Travis on the day we connected to the local water tower to a cellular network for remote control from the pump station. We used the Particle cloud.
This is my good buddy Shawn, he use to be our Surface Mount Production Manager, he was one of the best we ever had. Shawn works for Ford these days, but we still try to hang out every chance we get. Shawn is down to earth and adored by everyone.
Travis and his son Liam
Niki, Travis, and Ryan when we were much younger!
Osceola is Hidden Treasure in Missouri. These pictures were taken from “The Lodge”, which is part of our home property. We try to enjoy the scenery each day.
Bhaskar and his wife Anjali…not married at the time of the photo.
Kent Stroker from Microsoft came to visit us and we worked together for IoT in Action 2017. We later flew to Boston for the event.
Rehearsal for Microsoft IoT in Action 2017.
Jacob Getting Ready for Microsoft IoT in Action 2017.
Microsoft’s Carl Coken, Peter Hoffmeister, and Kent Stroker introduce NCD Modular Plug-and-Play Hardware at IoT in Action 2017.
Unfortunately, we missed our second IoT in Action event when we were hit with a serious ice storm.
All flights were cancelled that day, and we had no way to get to California in time.
Ryan (left) and Kent Stroker (right) at Microsoft in Redmond.
Shirui Xu (徐世瑞) (left) and Kent Stroker (right) at Dinner in Redmond.
Kent, Xu, and Ryan at Dinner in Redmond in Preparation for a Microsoft event. Stunning Views and Amazing Food!
Christmas with Xinping Shang (商欣萍), Shang Xu (徐商), and Shirui Xu(徐世瑞), my Chinese Family.
Christmas with Bhaskar and Anjali, my Indian Family, a couple of years before they got married.
More Christmas with my Amazing Family. Cassidy, Shirui (徐世瑞), Macy, Brent, Shang Xu (徐商), and Lolly.
Jacob, Bhaskar, and I Flew to San Jose to meet Losant for IoT World.
Jacob, Bhaskar, and I at the beach in California.
Jacob, Bhaskar, and I Spent the Day in Alcatraz and San Francisco Before our Meeting with Losant.
Meeting Losant in California.
Bhaskar and Anjali in Seattle Just Before the Wedding
Bhaskar on his wedding day in India.
Anjali and Bhaskar Wedding on one of their many wedding days!
Anjali and Bhaskar in L.A.
Anjali on her wedding day in India.
It was our customers who brought us all together.
Thank you for being the most important part of our journey.
Ryan