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As an engineer & founder going through this process right now for our product https://www.pantelligent.com/ https://www.pantelligent.com/ , I understand the pai

As an engineer & founder going through this process right now for our product https://www.pantelligent.com/ https://www.pantelligent.com/ , I understand the pain acutely. (We'll be doing a blog post about our experiences; just waiting for the testing & certification to wrap up.) It feels a bit like incorporation lawyers before https://www.clerky.com/ https://www.clerky.com/ existed -- something that should be a fairly standardized process for 10^2 dollars rather than a mostly custom process for 10^4 dollars. However, my experience with the test house has been different: (1) they actually do provide the knowledge and experience with regards to your specific product and needs, (2) it takes a bunch of conversation and bi-directional education to get the manufacturer and the test house on the same page, and (3) it's still fairly unique to each product. For example, we had to build custom firmware and custom hardware just for the testing process. (Remember, this isn't dealing with an efficient marketplace; this is dealing with multi-country government regulations that are designed by big companies to erect barriers to entry for smaller competitors.) And the volumes and willingness-to-pay from small hardware startups are low, and the test houses make most of their money from bigger companies that do more product variations, more iterations, etc., which requires relationship building, rather than a one-stop online form. So, while I'd really like your version to exist as a customer, unfortunately I don't believe it's a match for what most of the hardware testing market looks like.

bradfa 11y ago
In my experience, the hard part isn't contracting for testing to be done (so long as you know what tests you need, hence chicken and egg so providing what tests are usually needed is key), it's solving the problems which present themselves during testing. Just getting the right tests quoted for 80% of products out there can fit into a page or two of drop-downs and check boxes. Most things fit into some reasonable categories, but maybe another service this broker could provide would be that if you select something that could open a can of worms (like if you are making a radio transmitter in a non-ISM band) that it presents a big yellow warning with tons of info on the traps you're about to fall into. Obviously the broker I describe can't know everything about your product and market segment and customers and said laws that would apply, but 80% of the time, there's nothing unique to a product from a regulatory point of view, someone already has a product which falls under very similar guidelines. For example, if you don't have a radio transmitter, the types of tests you have to do for FCC are pretty straight forward. And if you do have a radio transmitter in an ISM band, again the tests are pretty cookie cutter. And if you aren't AC mains connected and don't have any voltages above X VDC then UL low voltage testing is easy. Lots of products would fall into these categories. It's when you venture out into niche market segments with radio transmitters that you really need to know what you're doing and not rely on a test house or broker (besides, your company is liable no matter how much info the test house or broker can provide you with). Yeah, if you're making a cell phone or fancy internet of things radio device, this isn't a necessarily a service for you. But if you're taking an arduino-like prototype and turning it into a real product or making a new USB charger or a keyboard or computer input device or ..., then it could fit quite well I think.

bradfa 11y ago

In my experience, the hard part isn't contracting for testing to be done (so long as you know what tests you need, hence chicken and egg so providing what tests are usually needed is key), it's solving the problems which present themselves during testing. Just getting the right tests quoted for 80% of products out there can fit into a page or two of drop-downs and check boxes. Most things fit into some reasonable categories, but maybe another service this broker could provide would be that if you select something that could open a can of worms (like if you are making a radio transmitter in a non-ISM band) that it presents a big yellow warning with tons of info on the traps you're about to fall into. Obviously the broker I describe can't know everything about your product and market segment and customers and said laws that would apply, but 80% of the time, there's nothing unique to a product from a regulatory point of view, someone already has a product which falls under very similar guidelines. For example, if you don't have a radio transmitter, the types of tests you have to do for FCC are pretty straight forward. And if you do have a radio transmitter in an ISM band, again the tests are pretty cookie cutter. And if you aren't AC mains connected and don't have any voltages above X VDC then UL low voltage testing is easy. Lots of products would fall into these categories. It's when you venture out into niche market segments with radio transmitters that you really need to know what you're doing and not rely on a test house or broker (besides, your company is liable no matter how much info the test house or broker can provide you with). Yeah, if you're making a cell phone or fancy internet of things radio device, this isn't a necessarily a service for you. But if you're taking an arduino-like prototype and turning it into a real product or making a new USB charger or a keyboard or computer input device or ..., then it could fit quite well I think.