Articles
Practical notes on taking electronic products from concept to production. Calculators and checklists are in Tools.
Where is your project?
Choosing an approach
Before the first boards
Heading to production
Selling the product
Featured
Design
What I look for in a hardware design review
A design review is the cheapest point to catch hardware problems. What a useful one covers, from requirements and power to layout, test, and compliance.
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Plan for compliance from day one
Certification is cheapest to plan at the start. When each compliance step belongs in a hardware project, and the design choices that make it easier.
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From prototype to production: EVT, DVT, and PVT explained
What the EVT, DVT, and PVT builds are for, what each must prove before the next, and how small hardware teams can adapt the stages without skipping the point.
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More articles
Prototyping
Before your first board spin
A practical checklist for founders and small teams about to order their first prototype boards, so the first spin teaches you as much as possible.
Compliance
Compliance by market: the approvals your product needs
The main approvals for electronic products sold in the US, Canada, the EU, and the UK, from EMC and radio to safety, materials, and cybersecurity.
Leadership
Does your hardware company need a fractional CTO?
What a fractional CTO does for a hardware startup, the signs you might need one, how engagements are usually set up, and when it is time to hire full time.
Production
What a complete manufacturing package includes
The files a PCB fab and contract manufacturer need to quote and build your product without guessing: Gerbers, BOM, pick-and-place, test, and common gaps.
Production
Designing for production test
What to build into the board, the firmware, and the process so the factory can test every unit quickly and trust the result.
Security
Designing connected products for EU and UK cybersecurity rules
What the EU Radio Equipment Directive, the Cyber Resilience Act, and the UK PSTI rules mean for hardware and firmware, and what to design in early.
Wireless
Choosing a radio: matching the wireless technology to the product
How to pick a wireless technology from what the product needs: range, data rate, power, size, regulations, and ecosystem, from LoRa to BLE, Wi-Fi, and UWB.
Wireless
Module or chip-down: making the radio decision
How to choose between a pre-certified radio module and a chip-down design: volume, size, RF performance, control, supply risk, and certification limits.
Power
Battery-powered design: budgeting and measuring power
How to build a power budget early, find the hidden drains that shorten battery life, and measure current properly from sleep to radio bursts.
Design
It only fails in sunlight
Why electronics that pass every bench test can misbehave outdoors in direct sun, how to prove that light is the cause, and how to design it out.
Design
Built your hardware with AI? What to check next
AI tools can take a hardware idea a long way. Where AI-assisted designs most often need work, the signs you have hit the wall, and why a rewrite is often not the answer.
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