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I am curious: as a HW project how did you go through the CE / FCC certification process and production 0-series batch? Did you have some investor or paid from y

by raron 5y ago

I am curious: as a HW project how did you go through the CE / FCC certification process and production 0-series batch? Did you have some investor or paid from your own pocket? Asking as somebody who thought making some embedded / HW projects, but the initial cost seems to much to be paid by myself.

dom96 5y ago
Also curious about this. I’ve done a lot of research on CE/FCC and while it seems possible to do CE yourself (since you can self-certify) you are on the hook if you miss something, like certain required tests (and doing some tests can be very expensive).
- raron 5y ago
  I think if you self-certify you have all the responsibility. (I do not know you as person or you as an organization.) But if this thing just emit in a wrong RF band, it could mean insane fine fine from the local-frequency-band-office. And this is a very likely scenario (not like what happens if it catches fire and kill somebody...). Anyway, I heard you should aim (at least) to the US market, which needs FCC. (eg. 300+ million people with one language vs. 30+ language in Europe.)
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
The answer is a big "it depends", but there are ways to get basic FCC certification done for as little as $1K-$2K if you contact enough labs and your engineers are reasonably good at adhering to proper design practices (minimize respins and testing repeats). CE mark isn't actually required in the US, but you'd need it for Europe and other locations. It's more involved, but all-in testing can be done for <$5K for EU if you're careful. > Did you have some investor or paid from your own pocket? > Asking as somebody who thought making some embedded / HW projects, but the initial cost seems to much to be paid by myself. Crowdfunding is how it's done for HW products. Investors aren't going to be interested in anything small time (less than $10-100mm potential revenue + recurring subscriptions) unless they're friends and family or something like that. It's a lot of money, but it's not out of reach for someone with a tech job who uses crowdfunding for the major production push.
- milesvp 5y ago
  My understanding as someone who works with embedded RF, is that if you use a SoC that is already FCC certified you don’t need additional certification, as long as you don’t do anything stupid like modifying chip registers that effect signal strength. This is a reason espressif chipsets are very popular in consumer electronics that require RF.
  - raron 5y ago
    At least for CE it is not so easy, the "whole product" has to meet the requirements. Using an certified chip / module lowers the risk of failing, but you have to pay for the measurements and certification anyway. (Which here, as I heard, can be about 6 months engineering salary.) (For crowdfunding you need a good campaign and probably some ads / self-promoting which also could be expensive.)

by raron 5y ago

dom96 5y ago

Also curious about this. I’ve done a lot of research on CE/FCC and while it seems possible to do CE yourself (since you can self-certify) you are on the hook if you miss something, like certain required tests (and doing some tests can be very expensive).

raron 5y ago
I think if you self-certify you have all the responsibility. (I do not know you as person or you as an organization.) But if this thing just emit in a wrong RF band, it could mean insane fine fine from the local-frequency-band-office. And this is a very likely scenario (not like what happens if it catches fire and kill somebody...). Anyway, I heard you should aim (at least) to the US market, which needs FCC. (eg. 300+ million people with one language vs. 30+ language in Europe.)

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

The answer is a big "it depends", but there are ways to get basic FCC certification done for as little as $1K-$2K if you contact enough labs and your engineers are reasonably good at adhering to proper design practices (minimize respins and testing repeats). CE mark isn't actually required in the US, but you'd need it for Europe and other locations. It's more involved, but all-in testing can be done for <$5K for EU if you're careful. > Did you have some investor or paid from your own pocket? > Asking as somebody who thought making some embedded / HW projects, but the initial cost seems to much to be paid by myself. Crowdfunding is how it's done for HW products. Investors aren't going to be interested in anything small time (less than $10-100mm potential revenue + recurring subscriptions) unless they're friends and family or something like that. It's a lot of money, but it's not out of reach for someone with a tech job who uses crowdfunding for the major production push.

milesvp 5y ago
My understanding as someone who works with embedded RF, is that if you use a SoC that is already FCC certified you don’t need additional certification, as long as you don’t do anything stupid like modifying chip registers that effect signal strength. This is a reason espressif chipsets are very popular in consumer electronics that require RF.
- raron 5y ago
  At least for CE it is not so easy, the "whole product" has to meet the requirements. Using an certified chip / module lowers the risk of failing, but you have to pay for the measurements and certification anyway. (Which here, as I heard, can be about 6 months engineering salary.) (For crowdfunding you need a good campaign and probably some ads / self-promoting which also could be expensive.)