4 ms·

The first 15-20 years of my career were spent as a hardware/embedded engineer and I'd like to add a few notes to the list above: 5. Unless you've got very spe

by smoyer 5y ago

The first 15-20 years of my career were spent as a hardware/embedded engineer and I'd like to add a few notes to the list above: 5. Unless you've got very specialized instrumentation, the power supply and case will dominate your costs. Per step 2 above, these will also dominate your timeline if you include an internal power supply. 6. FCC certification is also probably needed if your device is consumer oriented. 7. Expect development, time to first article, etc to be much slower. In my day, we couldn't have customers update their Flash-based firmware so we had to guarantee the hardware was perfect AND that the firmware was perfect. In your day, you still have to make sure the hardware is perfect and the reality is that very few of your customers will ever update the firmware (so it has to be perfect with each version. 8. For a small business, hardware returns are not only painful but have real costs. A recall will put you out-of-business (and if you're not careful with your corporate structure could put you into personal bankruptcy.)

buescher 5y ago
5. Which leads to: for small volumes (or MVPs or early-stage prototypes), if you can buy your power supply, you should! 6A. Most products with a microcontroller will need verification that they are compliant with FCC regulations on unintentional radiators. That's relatively cheap to do. If you bought your power supply (see 5) you are probably compliant. The problem is... by the time you get to this point, you are behind schedule, money is getting tight, and any respin or even adding ferrites is going to be a huge headache. Also, what got you here... might not help you solve an EMC problem. Good luck! 6B. If you need a transmitter (i.e. bluetooth or WiFi): for low volumes, if you possibly can buy a prequalified module, do so. Then certification is just paperwork at most. But don't listen to me, do a chip-down design because your industrial design requires it. YOLO and there is no other way to learn. 2.4 GHz at WiFi SoC powers is pretty forgiving. BLE with its low duty cycle practically handles compliance for you. Buy your matching networks and filters and don't go crazy with your antenna design 7. In general expect to be surprised by how the engineering - hardware, software, mechanical, etc - involved is much more exacting and demanding than you might expect from say, how conceptually difficult your problem domain might be. Especially if you are a software engineer and haven't worked with physical products 8. See #7 - you should be doing everything you can in design and procurement to minimize customer issues, from UX to field failures to any abuse of the product you can reasonably imagine. (Misuse you can anticipate has product liability ramifications also) If you are building 1000 units, any returns are going to cut into your margins. Look up typical warranty return rates for your industry and work that into your business plan and your pricing 9. They will all tell you hardware takes 10x-100x longer than software (I think this is a software engineering perspective where they expect to be able to deploy from a schematic or something), but then they will also tell you that if firmware isn't making you late, you aren't getting enough value out of firmware. You figure it out
dataangel 5y ago
I'm surprised to hear power supply and case are the biggest issues since those are needed by everybody. What keeps them expensive?
- buescher 5y ago
  Economies of scale, basically. Your options for a case are to go full-custom, which is expensive in small volumes, or to go semi-custom, which involves buying a case and having holes machined, which is expensive. With power supplies, you probably should buy off-the-shelf, and in small quantities that is going to be relatively expensive. I've never seen the case and power supply dominate costs on any of the designs I've shipped, though. The poster might have very particular power requirements. Some folks also get hung up on how much cable harnesses and connectors cost. I think it's because they conceptualize the design in their mind without them.

by smoyer 5y ago

buescher 5y ago

5. Which leads to: for small volumes (or MVPs or early-stage prototypes), if you can buy your power supply, you should! 6A. Most products with a microcontroller will need verification that they are compliant with FCC regulations on unintentional radiators. That's relatively cheap to do. If you bought your power supply (see 5) you are probably compliant. The problem is... by the time you get to this point, you are behind schedule, money is getting tight, and any respin or even adding ferrites is going to be a huge headache. Also, what got you here... might not help you solve an EMC problem. Good luck! 6B. If you need a transmitter (i.e. bluetooth or WiFi): for low volumes, if you possibly can buy a prequalified module, do so. Then certification is just paperwork at most. But don't listen to me, do a chip-down design because your industrial design requires it. YOLO and there is no other way to learn. 2.4 GHz at WiFi SoC powers is pretty forgiving. BLE with its low duty cycle practically handles compliance for you. Buy your matching networks and filters and don't go crazy with your antenna design 7. In general expect to be surprised by how the engineering - hardware, software, mechanical, etc - involved is much more exacting and demanding than you might expect from say, how conceptually difficult your problem domain might be. Especially if you are a software engineer and haven't worked with physical products 8. See #7 - you should be doing everything you can in design and procurement to minimize customer issues, from UX to field failures to any abuse of the product you can reasonably imagine. (Misuse you can anticipate has product liability ramifications also) If you are building 1000 units, any returns are going to cut into your margins. Look up typical warranty return rates for your industry and work that into your business plan and your pricing 9. They will all tell you hardware takes 10x-100x longer than software (I think this is a software engineering perspective where they expect to be able to deploy from a schematic or something), but then they will also tell you that if firmware isn't making you late, you aren't getting enough value out of firmware. You figure it out

dataangel 5y ago

I'm surprised to hear power supply and case are the biggest issues since those are needed by everybody. What keeps them expensive?

buescher 5y ago
Economies of scale, basically. Your options for a case are to go full-custom, which is expensive in small volumes, or to go semi-custom, which involves buying a case and having holes machined, which is expensive. With power supplies, you probably should buy off-the-shelf, and in small quantities that is going to be relatively expensive. I've never seen the case and power supply dominate costs on any of the designs I've shipped, though. The poster might have very particular power requirements. Some folks also get hung up on how much cable harnesses and connectors cost. I think it's because they conceptualize the design in their mind without them.