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Circuit Board Design For a Small Startup?
Patrick Bowman writes "I'm with a small (okay, it's just me) startup planning a camera-related USB device for the mass market. It's probably patentable so I can't give details. I can handle the software but have no hardware design or manufacturing experience. Does anyone have any recommendations for a company to handle the PCB design and manufacture? Instead of starting from scratch I've also considered approaching one of the companies (mostly in China) that make similar devices and asking them to modify their hardware for my requirements, and to provide their source for me to modify. Has anyone taken this route before? How did it work for you?"
Some truth in that, but if your market has already been hugely cannibalised, (before you even get to it) then it's small comfort to say, "look, my product is better".
Also, I was in China recently with the boss of a major multinational which develops and sells complex electromechanical industrial products. He showed me two products; one made in their 'state of the art' factory in Europe, the other a Chinese copy. He asked me to spot the difference. I could not.
His reply; "It's easy. Hook 'em up and the Chinese one works". Ouch.
back in 1994-95, I had an idea of converting tv signal to a video stream (ala sling media). Contacted a firm in Atlanta, and they were going to charge some 20K (guarenteed 3 boards, etc), but found a firm in HK that would do it for 5K. We opted to go with the 5K. Had issue after issue after issue with them. In the end, after spending 20K and still not having SQUAT from them, I called it quits. That is why Sling has a product and we did not. Otherwise, the unit would be different and it would have come from Colorado.
Do yourself a favor and do it local. Once you have the product selling, if you still feel like you can increase the margins by getting it done overseas, then and only then do it. Just keep in mind that Asia does not have the same laws and know it. Basically they will nickle and dime you to death. And for the states, I suggest knowing EXACTLY upfront what you need done. Shop around. They all have specialties of items that are one offs. There are a number of chips out there that will allow you to try various ideas.
One last thing. If you get your company going, if I may suggest, keep your engineers local. If you go over to Asia, any ideas you have will likely end up in some other product before yours is out the door.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
And some plants just don't meet their tolerances.
A refund on a $50 component isn't comforting when all of a sudden your latest units start failing infant mortality tests.
Actually, now that someone posted a comment about some of the Chinese factories... I think this is exactly what happened with our components.
These components were manufactured to a tolerance, and sold in lots of 50-100k. I have no doubt that as production continued, the factory stripped out what it could from the components in terms of structural support gradually. They kept removing it while it continued to work, and we kept using the components over the course of 20 years.
Now, 20 years later, the components that worked for us so long ago, have now been stripped down to eggshell thickness. We began a new production that required some specific qualification tests. Quite literally we ended up with the Rattle in our Shake, Rattle, and Roll tests. The component had snapped off during vibration tests.
Pulling out the microscopes, we found that the newer components used less glue at their adhesion points than the previous components, or components manufactured in the company's flagship plant. The glue was just enough so that the components would survive safety qualification tests, but when exposed to HALT, they were the first things to go.
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(Former) Plexus lab bitch here. Very good company with some extremely talented engineers. They are fairly expensive, but you certainly get what you pay for.