8 ms·

Intro to modern hardware prototyping

138 points by horigome 10y ago

6stringmerc 10y ago
Useful read and touches on several concepts I'm working through (or around) currently on a prototype. 2nd, maybe 3rd iteration thus far. Frustrating but the good kind of challenge.
horigome 10y ago
I am working on getting the servers back up.
nickff 10y ago
Site is down for me, here is a link to the Google cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TAFXX1snLgoJ:obogason.com/modern_hardware_prototyping/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TAFXX1s...
krapht 10y ago
Eh, Eagle in this day in age? If you're going cheap, I'd stick with KiCAD. It's unintuitive, like GIMP vs Photoshop, but gets the job done with no restrictions on functionality. I've also heard decent things about CircuitMaker, but never used it. If you have any academic links at all though, or don't mind piracy, I'd grab a student edition of Altium Designer. Solidworks too if you can get it for mechanical modeling. If you ever make it big, these are the tools you want to learn and know how to use. You don't mention anything about a good debugger - this is crucial! If you work with ARM the Segger JLink is the gold standard. Also you should probably mention where to get cheap stencils, like Osh Stencils etc. With all the cheap parts going to extra small packages, stencils are a godsend. Or, just have your prototype made in China at any of the small board-houses - quite cheap as well compared to the time you might spend doing board assembly. Just my quick 2c.
- nearengine 10y ago
  Curious if you've heard about the sale of CadSoft to AutoDesk, I was about to write Eagle off myself but I'm hoping they give it a little love. http://www.premierfarnell.com/content/sale-cadsoft-0 http://www.premierfarnell.com/content/sale-cadsoft-0
  - krapht 10y ago
    Yeah, I heard about it. I think Eagle is a sinking ship. The low-end PCB design software market is going to be swallowed up by KiCAD, which has been getting much better ever since CERN decided to sponsor it. Can't beat free and unencumbered. Thank the European taxpayer and move on, IMO. The market is going to be KiCAD at the bottom, Altium Designer / Pads / Orcad in the middle, then Zuken / Allegro / Expedition at the top.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - marssaxman 10y ago
      I'm so glad you mentioned that! KiCAD was infuriating last time I tried it. I considered getting involved and trying to contribute, but ended up moving out of PCB design and back into system software instead. It's good to know that the project is getting some real investment and that the whole open-source promise is working out once again. I'll take another look.
- kqr2 10y ago
  Interview with Autodesk about the CadSoft EAGLE purchase : https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/07/05/exclusive-interview-with-autodesk-about-the-cadsoft-eagle-purchase-autodesk-cadsofttech-technolomaniac/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/07/05/exclusive-interview-wit... Matt Berggren (Director of Autodesk Circuits) is a big supporter of the DIY / maker community.
- wgj 10y ago
  The team at CERN has made big improvements to KiCad, including the push and shove router: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCG4daPvuVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCG4daPvuVI Another good reason to think about KiCad is if you care about open formats (vs. Altium for example.) CERN's own statement [1]: "We think that KiCad can do to PCB design what the gcc compiler did to software: ensure there are no artificial barriers to sharing so that design and development knowledge can flow more freely." [1] http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki
  - akiselev 10y ago
    Ironically, CERN has one of the best open source part libraries for Altium.
    - cruser 10y ago
      That's really cool of them. Where can I find this library? Googling led me to the two sites below, but there's no download location in them. [1] http://ts-dep-dem.web.cern.ch/ts-dep-dem/services/library/ http://ts-dep-dem.web.cern.ch/ts-dep-dem/services/library/ [2] http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/software/altium-designer http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/software/...
    - cruser 10y ago
      I found a 460MB CERN_ALTIUM_LIB_july_2014.7z file on torrent sites. Is this what you're talking about?
- deleted 10y ago
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- bizzleDawg 10y ago
  I've used KiCAD for a bunch of 2 layer and 4 layer prototypes for my company. The GIMP vs. Photoshop comparison is very accurate in my opinion!
- monocasa 10y ago
  Holy shit, that JLink is expensive. What does it get me more than the JTAG<->FTDI<->OpenOCD<->GDB setup that I have currently, who's boards cost my ~$100 in super low volume?
  - jotux 10y ago
    JLink is updated very quickly and works with every arm platform and IDE imaginable.
    - jpm_sd 10y ago
      Yes, this exactly. It is way ahead of OpenOCD if you are working with hardware released in the last 12-18 months.
      - monocasa 10y ago
        I mean, GCC and OpenOCD had CortexM4 support before anybody else as far as I could tell. Keil and IAR wouldn't even give us a release date at the time.
  - jpwright 10y ago
    FWIW -- for non-commercial uses you can get a J-Link EDU for about $70. The hardware is identical to J-Link BASE.
  - archimedespi 10y ago
    Just grab a cheap Chinese clone off of Ebay. They're pretty much completely functionally identical in my experience.
- akiselev 10y ago
  I'm very much against software piracy but if you're starting out in electrical engineering, you are doing an absolute disservice by not using a pirated version of Altium. Not only is it basically the industry standard (Cadence, Orcad, etc are mostly propped up by legacy clients, especially in aerospace and defence) but its interface and features are leaps and bounds beyond anything else. Pretty much all ECAD software is a naive port of the pen and paper schematic design process to mouse and keyboard (it's still called "schematic capture" in contrast to "PCB design") but Altium has moved far beyond that, especially with the introduction of cloud features in the last five years (like an online repository for user and vendor created footprints). The field of electrical engineering has been extremely averse to the ideas of open source but for many reasons, Altium's online resources among them, that is finally starting to change. Eagle does have a large community with companies like Sparkfun and Adafruit but those pale in comparison to the community forming around Altium, which is made up of a large number of vendors and professionals who are starting to grasp the benefits of sharing data. Considering how much the package costs and how much Altium benefits from the growing community, I honestly don't think they'd mind if you pirated the software a few years before you could afford it.
  - jpm_sd 10y ago
    Altium also recently developed a free (!) entry-level version, CircuitMaker (http://circuitmaker.com/ http://circuitmaker.com/).
    - lifekaizen 10y ago
      We looked at CircuitMaker but it appears that you can't have private designs - they are all public. So fine for open source but difficult to use for product dev.
  - desdiv 10y ago
    >it's still called "schematic capture" in contrast to "PCB design" So what is it called when I capture a schematic in order to do some SPICE simulations on it? "PCB design minus the designing PCB part"? "Capture" in this context means "the act of putting information in a form that a computer can use or read"¹, so I don't see how the phrase "schematic capture" is archaic when it mentions computers in its definition. ¹http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capture http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capture
- Xunxi 10y ago
  What are some of the reputable "small board-houses"? Any recommendations?
  - crshults 10y ago
    I always had good results with Advanced Circuits out in Colorado, but this is over a decade ago now.
  - skaevola 10y ago
    OSH Park is very cheap and good for bare boards: https://oshpark.com/ https://oshpark.com/ If you want somebody to populate the boards for you, I love Macrofab: https://macrofab.com/ https://macrofab.com/
    - pmorici 10y ago
      First I've heard of Macrofab, have you ever tried circuithub? I've been using the latter and wonder how they compared. Edit: just checked out Macrofab and they seem to be more expensive than circuithub at least for the couple example projects I threw into the quoting engine.
    - skslater 10y ago
      OSH Park are also beginner friendly. Allowing you to import your design directly from Eagle rather than having to generate individual layer files and also not requiring you to specify copper thickness, board finish, etc.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
      I'm going to throw in a plug for OSH Stencils. Cheap, high quality PCB stencils. I'm never going back to a syringe full of paste! Had a QFN-64 that I hated doing because of that.
  - elijahparker 10y ago
    For simpler prototype boards I use oshpark.com, but a big downside is no electrical testing. For more important/complex stuff, I've been very happy with jetpcb.com in Taiwan. Full e-test and I get the boards in about 5 days
- zachrose 10y ago
  This may not be pleasant in practice, but is there anything that offers a text-based language for describing schematics and/or PCBs? (Similar to the way OpenSCAD has a DSL/Scheme for 3D modelling?) From what I understand, VHDL etc. are for FPGAs and ICs, I'm just talking about boards with components.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    Absolutely nothing is stopping anyone from writing Gerber files by hand. It's just a flat text file with a well documented format. Likewise, Eagle (and I am sure, KiCad) files are text based.
impostervt 10y ago
I've been getting into playing with Arduino's and Photons, and have some ideas that I'd like to THINK about taking to market, but all of these sort of intros seem to stop at the PCB stage. They leave off the part about how to get an enclosure made - designing one, prototyping it, injection molding, etc. I think it's because that's where things get really expensive...
- krapht 10y ago
  Yeah, so don't make an enclosure. For one-offs and small runs, there are companies that will sell you a box - you design your PCB to fit. Way cheaper.
- horigome 10y ago
  That's definitely one reason for the lack of step-by-step tutorials. Another one is that each product is so unique, with its own needs when it comes to later prototyping phase and then manufacturing. Also, designing a enclosure is a completely different beast. Nowadays you would typically start out by 3D printing stuff and then later on in the process get it manufactured by injection molding. That means going to the factory and making sure that everything is set up right before they start the manufacturing the part. Again a very ad hoc procedure that's unique for every product.
  - impostervt 10y ago
    Sure, I get that. I guess I'd still like to hear some stories from small companies that went through it. How do you find someone who can 3d print it for you? For that matter, how do you find someone who can do the design for you (and the experience to do it right)? Did you get it done locally, or in China? What are some pitfalls to look out for? How can you save money? How long does this step take? etc.
    - kyzyl 10y ago
      Yeah the real reason you never get guides to this stuff is that when it comes down to making a successful prototype, what makes it good vs. just barely work or not work at all is somewhat of a black art. There is so much intuition and experience that goes behind decisions like what material to use, what kind of fastening, how to seal it, finish, how/where to route cables, what kind of cables, connectors, will-it-pass regulation XYZ, is it safe, etc. It's nigh impossible to really get all that into a guide, you really just have to go at it and learn (which includes reading what guides there are ;-). Anyhow here are a few points that might be relevant to you: - As someone else mentioned, unless you're in a money-is-no-object sort of group, usually at a large corporation like google, then you'll almost always start with some stock enclosure for testing purposes. There are tons of choices, from extruded aluminum to cast steel, bent sheet metal, ABS weather proof housings. The list goes on. No, it's not a custom box designed by Dang from Silicon Valley, but trust me there's crap you didn't think of yet for the stuff inside the box. One step at a time, and remember, Compromise is the Hypotenuse of the Conjoined Triangles of success. - Next stop: Proto Case[0]. They will use your CAD, or you can use their custom 'box cad' package. They will do sheet metal, solid machined metal, powder coating, fasteners, everything. Not ultra cheap or anything but still a good deal if you value your time. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent fixing/remaking sheet metal enclosures when I accidentally bent a flange 2mm too long, or screwed up dimension scaling while waterjetting it. It takes time to become proficient, even if you have the tools. - For 3D printing and such, there are tons of 'Maker' shops that have popped up over the years. I've used Ponoko[1] before, and while slightly slow and again not ultra cheap, the parts are nice. They do 3D printing of many sorts (ABS, PLA, sintered metal, powder ceramic, UV resin), as well as laser cutting. Note: Laser cutters are REALLY awesome for prototyping things. I use a laser cutter constantly when developing prototypes. - For machining, check out the First Cut[2] service from protolabs. You send them a CAD model, they analyze it and then you use a flash plugin to select materials, tools, threading, etc. and click go. Last time I used them they did single approach 3-axis parts in Stainless, aluminum, mild steel, various plastics, and brass. They also do CNC turned parts (on a lathe). The parts are very high quality for the price. Beware: The tolerances are not super tight, and they won't make any guarantees about mating parts! They made parts that mate for me and it worked, but it's a bit of a gamble. - Protolabs also does 3D printing, as well as small run injection molding[3]. I haven't used this service so I can't say much about it, other than that their advertised prices are significantly cheaper than getting tooling made and certified anywhere else. - Locally vs. China? Well if you mean getting a production run done in Shenzen, then if you have to as the answer is probably 'local'. Anyhow, this is just based on my experience. I'm by no means a manufacturing or design expert. But I've made and worked on countless prototypes for all sorts of applications (nuclear medicine, MRI imaging, thoracic surgery, industrial microscopy, POC blood testing) and what I've said has held true in my arena. One final hint: If you're thinking of taking some hardware device 'to market', stop and think HARD about who your market is, how big it is, and how much it will cost to get there. It's quite possible that a traditionally 'production run' isn't necessary to get started. Lots of hardware projects started small. Also, in my experience investors aren't too keen to accept risk of the 'will the prototype work', or 'do you have the expertise to scale the hardware' variety. So bear that in mind. [0] http://www.protocase.com/products/electronic-enclosures/ http://www.protocase.com/products/electronic-enclosures/ [1] https://www.ponoko.com/ https://www.ponoko.com/ [2] https://www.protolabs.com/cnc-machining/ https://www.protolabs.com/cnc-machining/ [3] https://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/ https://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/
bizzleDawg 10y ago
As an addition to this, it might be useful to go into more detail on the other aspects of making a hardware based MVP - i.e. 3D design, laser cutting and 3d printing. Personally, I've alway gone in for using openSCAD[1] for the 3d design aspects, though clearly that's when approaching the problem as a programmer! I've always had laser cutting done by external services, but have a form labs 2 and repraps for printing parts. Perhaps this would justify a separate blog? [1] http://www.openscad.org/ http://www.openscad.org/
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antoniuschan99 10y ago
This tutorial helped me with generating Gerbers since the Jeremy Blum video didn't really help me there https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/using-eagle-board-layout/generating-gerbers https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/using-eagle-board-layou...
imh 10y ago
It's great to mention github. Since you point out to be careful that some software has licenses, it is probably worth noting that software without a license means it reserves all rights [0]. No license != no copyright. [0] https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing/#what-happens-if-i-dont-choose-a-license https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing/#what...
thecamelisdead 10y ago
>Only after you have validated that the idea makes sense on a breadboard you can start to think about designing your own PCB. Is it even possible to breadboard with PCIe?

138 points by horigome 10y ago

Useful read and touches on several concepts I'm working through (or around) currently on a prototype. 2nd, maybe 3rd iteration thus far. Frustrating but the good kind of challenge.

horigome 10y ago

I am working on getting the servers back up.

nickff 10y ago

Site is down for me, here is a link to the Google cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TAFXX1snLgoJ:obogason.com/modern_hardware_prototyping/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TAFXX1s...

krapht 10y ago

Eh, Eagle in this day in age? If you're going cheap, I'd stick with KiCAD. It's unintuitive, like GIMP vs Photoshop, but gets the job done with no restrictions on functionality. I've also heard decent things about CircuitMaker, but never used it. If you have any academic links at all though, or don't mind piracy, I'd grab a student edition of Altium Designer. Solidworks too if you can get it for mechanical modeling. If you ever make it big, these are the tools you want to learn and know how to use. You don't mention anything about a good debugger - this is crucial! If you work with ARM the Segger JLink is the gold standard. Also you should probably mention where to get cheap stencils, like Osh Stencils etc. With all the cheap parts going to extra small packages, stencils are a godsend. Or, just have your prototype made in China at any of the small board-houses - quite cheap as well compared to the time you might spend doing board assembly. Just my quick 2c.

nearengine 10y ago
Curious if you've heard about the sale of CadSoft to AutoDesk, I was about to write Eagle off myself but I'm hoping they give it a little love. http://www.premierfarnell.com/content/sale-cadsoft-0 http://www.premierfarnell.com/content/sale-cadsoft-0
- krapht 10y ago
  Yeah, I heard about it. I think Eagle is a sinking ship. The low-end PCB design software market is going to be swallowed up by KiCAD, which has been getting much better ever since CERN decided to sponsor it. Can't beat free and unencumbered. Thank the European taxpayer and move on, IMO. The market is going to be KiCAD at the bottom, Altium Designer / Pads / Orcad in the middle, then Zuken / Allegro / Expedition at the top.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - marssaxman 10y ago
    I'm so glad you mentioned that! KiCAD was infuriating last time I tried it. I considered getting involved and trying to contribute, but ended up moving out of PCB design and back into system software instead. It's good to know that the project is getting some real investment and that the whole open-source promise is working out once again. I'll take another look.
kqr2 10y ago
Interview with Autodesk about the CadSoft EAGLE purchase : https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/07/05/exclusive-interview-with-autodesk-about-the-cadsoft-eagle-purchase-autodesk-cadsofttech-technolomaniac/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/07/05/exclusive-interview-wit... Matt Berggren (Director of Autodesk Circuits) is a big supporter of the DIY / maker community.
wgj 10y ago
The team at CERN has made big improvements to KiCad, including the push and shove router: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCG4daPvuVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCG4daPvuVI Another good reason to think about KiCad is if you care about open formats (vs. Altium for example.) CERN's own statement [1]: "We think that KiCad can do to PCB design what the gcc compiler did to software: ensure there are no artificial barriers to sharing so that design and development knowledge can flow more freely." [1] http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki
- akiselev 10y ago
  Ironically, CERN has one of the best open source part libraries for Altium.
  - cruser 10y ago
    That's really cool of them. Where can I find this library? Googling led me to the two sites below, but there's no download location in them. [1] http://ts-dep-dem.web.cern.ch/ts-dep-dem/services/library/ http://ts-dep-dem.web.cern.ch/ts-dep-dem/services/library/ [2] http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/software/altium-designer http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/services/software/...
  - cruser 10y ago
    I found a 460MB CERN_ALTIUM_LIB_july_2014.7z file on torrent sites. Is this what you're talking about?
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bizzleDawg 10y ago
I've used KiCAD for a bunch of 2 layer and 4 layer prototypes for my company. The GIMP vs. Photoshop comparison is very accurate in my opinion!
monocasa 10y ago
Holy shit, that JLink is expensive. What does it get me more than the JTAG<->FTDI<->OpenOCD<->GDB setup that I have currently, who's boards cost my ~$100 in super low volume?
- jotux 10y ago
  JLink is updated very quickly and works with every arm platform and IDE imaginable.
  - jpm_sd 10y ago
    Yes, this exactly. It is way ahead of OpenOCD if you are working with hardware released in the last 12-18 months.
    - monocasa 10y ago
      I mean, GCC and OpenOCD had CortexM4 support before anybody else as far as I could tell. Keil and IAR wouldn't even give us a release date at the time.
- jpwright 10y ago
  FWIW -- for non-commercial uses you can get a J-Link EDU for about $70. The hardware is identical to J-Link BASE.
- archimedespi 10y ago
  Just grab a cheap Chinese clone off of Ebay. They're pretty much completely functionally identical in my experience.
akiselev 10y ago
I'm very much against software piracy but if you're starting out in electrical engineering, you are doing an absolute disservice by not using a pirated version of Altium. Not only is it basically the industry standard (Cadence, Orcad, etc are mostly propped up by legacy clients, especially in aerospace and defence) but its interface and features are leaps and bounds beyond anything else. Pretty much all ECAD software is a naive port of the pen and paper schematic design process to mouse and keyboard (it's still called "schematic capture" in contrast to "PCB design") but Altium has moved far beyond that, especially with the introduction of cloud features in the last five years (like an online repository for user and vendor created footprints). The field of electrical engineering has been extremely averse to the ideas of open source but for many reasons, Altium's online resources among them, that is finally starting to change. Eagle does have a large community with companies like Sparkfun and Adafruit but those pale in comparison to the community forming around Altium, which is made up of a large number of vendors and professionals who are starting to grasp the benefits of sharing data. Considering how much the package costs and how much Altium benefits from the growing community, I honestly don't think they'd mind if you pirated the software a few years before you could afford it.
- jpm_sd 10y ago
  Altium also recently developed a free (!) entry-level version, CircuitMaker (http://circuitmaker.com/ http://circuitmaker.com/).
  - lifekaizen 10y ago
    We looked at CircuitMaker but it appears that you can't have private designs - they are all public. So fine for open source but difficult to use for product dev.
- desdiv 10y ago
  >it's still called "schematic capture" in contrast to "PCB design" So what is it called when I capture a schematic in order to do some SPICE simulations on it? "PCB design minus the designing PCB part"? "Capture" in this context means "the act of putting information in a form that a computer can use or read"¹, so I don't see how the phrase "schematic capture" is archaic when it mentions computers in its definition. ¹http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capture http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capture
Xunxi 10y ago
What are some of the reputable "small board-houses"? Any recommendations?
- crshults 10y ago
  I always had good results with Advanced Circuits out in Colorado, but this is over a decade ago now.
- skaevola 10y ago
  OSH Park is very cheap and good for bare boards: https://oshpark.com/ https://oshpark.com/ If you want somebody to populate the boards for you, I love Macrofab: https://macrofab.com/ https://macrofab.com/
  - pmorici 10y ago
    First I've heard of Macrofab, have you ever tried circuithub? I've been using the latter and wonder how they compared. Edit: just checked out Macrofab and they seem to be more expensive than circuithub at least for the couple example projects I threw into the quoting engine.
  - skslater 10y ago
    OSH Park are also beginner friendly. Allowing you to import your design directly from Eagle rather than having to generate individual layer files and also not requiring you to specify copper thickness, board finish, etc.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    I'm going to throw in a plug for OSH Stencils. Cheap, high quality PCB stencils. I'm never going back to a syringe full of paste! Had a QFN-64 that I hated doing because of that.
- elijahparker 10y ago
  For simpler prototype boards I use oshpark.com, but a big downside is no electrical testing. For more important/complex stuff, I've been very happy with jetpcb.com in Taiwan. Full e-test and I get the boards in about 5 days
zachrose 10y ago
This may not be pleasant in practice, but is there anything that offers a text-based language for describing schematics and/or PCBs? (Similar to the way OpenSCAD has a DSL/Scheme for 3D modelling?) From what I understand, VHDL etc. are for FPGAs and ICs, I'm just talking about boards with components.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  Absolutely nothing is stopping anyone from writing Gerber files by hand. It's just a flat text file with a well documented format. Likewise, Eagle (and I am sure, KiCad) files are text based.

impostervt 10y ago

I've been getting into playing with Arduino's and Photons, and have some ideas that I'd like to THINK about taking to market, but all of these sort of intros seem to stop at the PCB stage. They leave off the part about how to get an enclosure made - designing one, prototyping it, injection molding, etc. I think it's because that's where things get really expensive...

krapht 10y ago
Yeah, so don't make an enclosure. For one-offs and small runs, there are companies that will sell you a box - you design your PCB to fit. Way cheaper.
horigome 10y ago
That's definitely one reason for the lack of step-by-step tutorials. Another one is that each product is so unique, with its own needs when it comes to later prototyping phase and then manufacturing. Also, designing a enclosure is a completely different beast. Nowadays you would typically start out by 3D printing stuff and then later on in the process get it manufactured by injection molding. That means going to the factory and making sure that everything is set up right before they start the manufacturing the part. Again a very ad hoc procedure that's unique for every product.
- impostervt 10y ago
  Sure, I get that. I guess I'd still like to hear some stories from small companies that went through it. How do you find someone who can 3d print it for you? For that matter, how do you find someone who can do the design for you (and the experience to do it right)? Did you get it done locally, or in China? What are some pitfalls to look out for? How can you save money? How long does this step take? etc.
  - kyzyl 10y ago
    Yeah the real reason you never get guides to this stuff is that when it comes down to making a successful prototype, what makes it good vs. just barely work or not work at all is somewhat of a black art. There is so much intuition and experience that goes behind decisions like what material to use, what kind of fastening, how to seal it, finish, how/where to route cables, what kind of cables, connectors, will-it-pass regulation XYZ, is it safe, etc. It's nigh impossible to really get all that into a guide, you really just have to go at it and learn (which includes reading what guides there are ;-). Anyhow here are a few points that might be relevant to you: - As someone else mentioned, unless you're in a money-is-no-object sort of group, usually at a large corporation like google, then you'll almost always start with some stock enclosure for testing purposes. There are tons of choices, from extruded aluminum to cast steel, bent sheet metal, ABS weather proof housings. The list goes on. No, it's not a custom box designed by Dang from Silicon Valley, but trust me there's crap you didn't think of yet for the stuff inside the box. One step at a time, and remember, Compromise is the Hypotenuse of the Conjoined Triangles of success. - Next stop: Proto Case[0]. They will use your CAD, or you can use their custom 'box cad' package. They will do sheet metal, solid machined metal, powder coating, fasteners, everything. Not ultra cheap or anything but still a good deal if you value your time. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent fixing/remaking sheet metal enclosures when I accidentally bent a flange 2mm too long, or screwed up dimension scaling while waterjetting it. It takes time to become proficient, even if you have the tools. - For 3D printing and such, there are tons of 'Maker' shops that have popped up over the years. I've used Ponoko[1] before, and while slightly slow and again not ultra cheap, the parts are nice. They do 3D printing of many sorts (ABS, PLA, sintered metal, powder ceramic, UV resin), as well as laser cutting. Note: Laser cutters are REALLY awesome for prototyping things. I use a laser cutter constantly when developing prototypes. - For machining, check out the First Cut[2] service from protolabs. You send them a CAD model, they analyze it and then you use a flash plugin to select materials, tools, threading, etc. and click go. Last time I used them they did single approach 3-axis parts in Stainless, aluminum, mild steel, various plastics, and brass. They also do CNC turned parts (on a lathe). The parts are very high quality for the price. Beware: The tolerances are not super tight, and they won't make any guarantees about mating parts! They made parts that mate for me and it worked, but it's a bit of a gamble. - Protolabs also does 3D printing, as well as small run injection molding[3]. I haven't used this service so I can't say much about it, other than that their advertised prices are significantly cheaper than getting tooling made and certified anywhere else. - Locally vs. China? Well if you mean getting a production run done in Shenzen, then if you have to as the answer is probably 'local'. Anyhow, this is just based on my experience. I'm by no means a manufacturing or design expert. But I've made and worked on countless prototypes for all sorts of applications (nuclear medicine, MRI imaging, thoracic surgery, industrial microscopy, POC blood testing) and what I've said has held true in my arena. One final hint: If you're thinking of taking some hardware device 'to market', stop and think HARD about who your market is, how big it is, and how much it will cost to get there. It's quite possible that a traditionally 'production run' isn't necessary to get started. Lots of hardware projects started small. Also, in my experience investors aren't too keen to accept risk of the 'will the prototype work', or 'do you have the expertise to scale the hardware' variety. So bear that in mind. [0] http://www.protocase.com/products/electronic-enclosures/ http://www.protocase.com/products/electronic-enclosures/ [1] https://www.ponoko.com/ https://www.ponoko.com/ [2] https://www.protolabs.com/cnc-machining/ https://www.protolabs.com/cnc-machining/ [3] https://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/ https://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/

bizzleDawg 10y ago

As an addition to this, it might be useful to go into more detail on the other aspects of making a hardware based MVP - i.e. 3D design, laser cutting and 3d printing. Personally, I've alway gone in for using openSCAD[1] for the 3d design aspects, though clearly that's when approaching the problem as a programmer! I've always had laser cutting done by external services, but have a form labs 2 and repraps for printing parts. Perhaps this would justify a separate blog? [1] http://www.openscad.org/ http://www.openscad.org/

deleted 10y ago

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antoniuschan99 10y ago

This tutorial helped me with generating Gerbers since the Jeremy Blum video didn't really help me there https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/using-eagle-board-layout/generating-gerbers https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/using-eagle-board-layou...

imh 10y ago

It's great to mention github. Since you point out to be careful that some software has licenses, it is probably worth noting that software without a license means it reserves all rights [0]. No license != no copyright. [0] https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing/#what-happens-if-i-dont-choose-a-license https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing/#what...

thecamelisdead 10y ago

>Only after you have validated that the idea makes sense on a breadboard you can start to think about designing your own PCB. Is it even possible to breadboard with PCIe?