Looking for help/resources in creating a prototype

[Andrew Havens]

Hello,

I'm interested in building a Raspberry Pi accessory, but I don't have much (if any) experience with electronics and 3D printing. I'm trying to find someone who is interested in helping me. My goal is to produce a prototype so that I can set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to mass produce it. I have been in contact with a PCB manufacturer in China who seems capable, but they quoted me me $2,700 for R&D and to produce a few prototypes. That's a little out of my budget for this side project, so I'm wondering if there are any people/resources locally that could help me produce a prototype for much cheaper and/or have experience manufacturing things in China.

Thanks,
Andrew Havens

[Eric Garner]

Honestly $2700 sounds pretty cheap to design and manufacture a prototype to specification. You might encounter some sticker shock when you get a quote from a US based engineer who wants fair market wages for their work. Unless you are going to do the assembly yourself, having an assembly house produce your protos for you  will also likely be a surprise at the cost. Just to have some assembly cost numbers to play with go to http://www.aapcb.com/quote/ and poke some numbers into the boxes and see what even a 20 day assembly turn time will cost.

-Eric

 

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Eric Garner

[Nathan McCorkle]

Was that $2700 just for design and manufacturing of PCBs? Or enclosures too? How many prototype articles would finally arrive at that cost?

It might help to add some description, even though I understand you might not want to give away the idea. If you are just trying to book some lights and get data from some sensors, maybe there's much less work than other projects. What I mean is, it might be possible for cheaper or less resources.

Have you made a prototype with an Arduino and breadboard/etc? Would that be possible? Maybe you need faster digital processing, or less digital and more analog.

Do you really need to fully outsource this, or do you have the time to learn and work yourself on this new (to you, it sounds) side of things? How you break it up, and if you do some judicious subcontracting, immediate number of potential dollar signs can reduce.

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[Michael Sanchez]

Send me a line about what you are working on and some details of the electronics I can probably help and can get prototypes/production done.

[Andrew Havens]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I really appreciate it. The cost to produce 5 prototypes from this company includes “R&D”, “Schematic”, “PCB Layout”, 5 “PCBA samples”, 5 3D-printed plastic shells, but does not include shipping/export from China.

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think creating a personal prototype would be that hard, but it wouldn’t be a “real” example. Maybe that doesn’t matter. The product isn't that complicated. It includes a screen, battery, and some buttons which need to be mapped as USB keyboard keys. There are some other more complicated things I want to add that probably wouldn’t be necessary for a prototype. Hmm…maybe my biggest hangups aren’t a big deal. I wonder where in Portland I can find a 3D printer and/or someone who can help me learn how to design/print the shell that I need?

Thanks,

Andrew Havens

[Aaron Eiche]

There are several printers at Control-H, and if you show up at a Dorkbot meeting, or a Ctrl-h open house you can probably get someone to help you print it.

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 2:06 PM Andrew Havens <em...@andrewhavens.com> wrote:

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think creating a personal prototype would be that hard, but it wouldn’t be a “real” example. Maybe that doesn’t matter.

Probably doesn't matter if it looks similar in form and function. The guts can always be updated. Electronics are usually done in stages with iteration and proof-of-concept proving in mind... You only want to deal with a limited  number of variables at each stage, or otherwise they are too conflated and it's too confusing/frustrating during debugging.

The product isn't that complicated. It includes a screen, battery, and some buttons which need to be mapped as USB keyboard keys.

Sounds doable in short time (maybe an hour, best case, depending on the screen size/resolution... As more resolution often means more complexity) with something like a Micropython development board I've got, or an Arduino if you are OK with C code.

[isaac...@solarcyclepower.com]

I do my own mechanical design and hand over the required PCB dimensions to a PCB layout specialist to figure out how to fit all the circuit components in the space for ~$750 if I provide the BOM, Schematic, Netlist, and overall dimensions. This doesn't include any prototype assembly, which can run over $1,000 easily especially if you want to test the capabilities and quality of a board assembly shop. If your vendor is providing both Mechanical, PCB, and prototype full-turnkey services, then $2,700 is a good deal. The only issue I would have is finding a trusted supplier that makes good quality PCBs, assembles them without flux residue or other defects, and does give you genuine parts that come off a reel from the supplier and not cheap recycled dumpster parts off Ebay.

Isaac