Fast product prototyping

Do you have an idea you want to see working in a hurry so you can test it out? We can build a quick solution using commercial off the shelf boards and a fast prototyping firmware platform to get that idea into your hands as fast as possible, where you can begin to use it and iterate your vision.

Electronic product development

A quickly assembled prototype is an amazing tool for actually being able to play with and understand a new idea, but it’s usually not a product you’ll want to sell somebody, unless it’s a bespoke device. If you want to build hundreds or thousands (or more) of products, you probably need a product that’s designed.

You need a well designed reliable PCB that contains all the parts your product needs, and nothing it doesn’t (maybe one that fits snugly inside a beautifully conceived plastic case from an industrial designer) And is easy to manufacture.

You need firmware that’s not just hacked to sort-of work using borrowed pieces of code from people’s hobby projects, but designed to do exactly what’s needed, and react gracefully to unplanned situations and faults.

You need a product that’s been tested to all the legislative requirements required by its product type, and to all the functional requirements the product and its features have.

You need a testing approach that’s appropriate for your product and the scale of manufacturing that’s needed.

You need something that’s designed to be handed off to manufacture after verification and then produced easily, faultlessly, with no dramas, batch after batch after batch.

Project setup and leadership

A full electronic product design project can be a large undertaking – covering a lot of areas with multiple dependencies and feedback paths (ie, requirement and spec development and tracking, progress tracking, schematic capture, PCB design, industrial design, firmware design and development, prototype manufacturing, testing, test system design and development, product compliance testing, and of course everybody’s favourite – documentation)

Keeping on top of this requires an understanding of where things can go wrong. It can involve a lot of separate but related paths, and so requires understanding of how the different development and reporting processes interact.

We can help you define the requirements of the project, the specifications of the different parts that make it up, cut up the work into pieces that make sense, given the resources and time frame available, and track execution, changes, and issues as the project runs.

We can assemble a team to match the project requirements as needed, and can work with any existing team members you already have.

Factory evaluation and production transfer

Businesses like to look at Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) as a fungible commodity – that is, all are equivalent. You pick one based on a quote, hand over manufacturing information, then push in money and out pop your products at the agreed schedule. While this can be the case, unfortunately not all EMS work to the same standards, processes, or values.

Evaluation of an EMS partner basically involves deciding what your values are, the level of quality and care you require vs the price you want to pay, and then checking the partner’s capabilities and processes for compatibility with your needs and values.

When an EMS is selected, it’s necessary to work with them to understand all the particular documentation and tools they need to do the best possible job at the price they quoted. Then it’s necessary to efficiently deliver these things.