How to turn an Arduino-based proof of concept into a final prototype

http://digitaljunky.io/how-to-turn-an-arduino-based-proof-of-concept-into-a-final-prototype/

by zwtaylor • 11 years ago

49 21 11 years ago

digitaljunky.io

atmosx2• 11 years ago

Are there any books for non-engineers, that go from basic concepts up to PCB design?

UPDATE: Not sure if it's going up to PCB design but apparently this one[1] seems to be the most praised on Amazon UK.

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0071771336?psc=1&redirect...

digitaljunky4• 11 years ago

I learned a lot about the basics with "Getting started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mims III, it's very (very) accessible and I find the drawings very amusing.

Or else you have the Bible of the trade, or "The Art of Electronics" by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill that just came out for a third edition. It's an incredibly comprehensive guide but you'd better have some free time ahead if you want to read through it all :)

bliti• 11 years ago

Agree with you. The Forrest Mims books are concise and written in a very simple manner without dumbing things down. His collection of the basics which is about four small volumes, will cost you about $50 in total. Money very well spent.

tdicola• 11 years ago

Check out Chris Gammell's Contextual Electronics course about board design with KiCad: https://contextualelectronics.com/ The KiCard course is now free and great at walking through how to use KiCad to design boards: https://contextualelectronics.com/course/kicad-tutorial/

malcolmputer5• 11 years ago

1. Contextual Electronics does have a really good course on kicad.

2. Kicad is a very good PCB software package.

Word of warning though, kicad is currently in a state of "flux" with the latest stable from 2013, and the bleeding edge versions having all of the features you want to use. I personally use nightly builds and the 2013 version quite often, and neither are what I would call professionally stable.

malcolmputer5• 11 years ago

I can recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. It is very helpful in getting practical prototypes designed pretty quick. I sometimes still refer to it when I need something simple I haven't designed in a while.

arbuge• 11 years ago

Next question is how to go from final prototype into production... that can be pretty hard in practice.

Indeed, calling a prototype "final" before looking at the manufacturing side of things might not be wise.

digitaljunky4• 11 years ago

yeah I'm right in the middle of that problematic...if you have any advice I'm all ears (so to speak)!

malcolmputer5• 11 years ago

Honest advice? Hire someone to do it. There are so many things that you won't know about how to make things manufacture-able it would be worth your time and money to just pay a contractor/employee to optimize things for you.

(shameless plug, my username @ gmail.com if you would like to discuss what services I can offer you)

Animats2• 11 years ago

Right. This is something that looks like the final product, but isn't ready for manufacture.

* If you run a 9V battery into a linear regulator to get 5V, there goes 55% of your energy and battery life. Consider 4 AAA cells. Work on reducing standby power consumption. When idle, put the CPU to sleep until IR is sensed. (An ATmega can do this.) Things which burn battery power when idle fail as consumer products.

* "I could (and probably should) use an ATtiny for such an application but I only had some ATMega328 in my parts bin."

* Prototype plastic things with 3D printing. Manufacture them by injection moulding. The little injection moulder at a TechShop could bang out about one box a minute. Any commercial shop can turn out thousands in a day. Making the mould is either work or expense, but you come out way ahead after a few hundred parts.

bsder• 11 years ago

Making the mould is either work or expense, but you come out way ahead after a few hundred parts.

Where are you getting your mould? Everywhere I deal with wants $5K+ USD NRE.

You can 3D print a lot of stuff for $5K USD.

sjtrny• 11 years ago

Tip: to help make even smaller proof of concepts use a Teensy [1] instead of an Arduino.

[1] https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/

Mahn• 11 years ago

Great article, lots of resources in there for someone getting started and your writing style is great too. Please do a follow up if you figure out the production part :)

digitaljunky4• 11 years ago

hey thanks. I sure will add additional details along the road and probably write something else about manufacturing. Since it appears that it can be a very complicated (and costly) adventure, I contacted a local start-up incubator hoping to benefit form their expertise.

How to turn an Arduino-based proof of concept into a final prototype

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