Incubated startups
You have a pitch and a slide with a render. You need something that switches on in front of a panel.
Home / Hardware / Prototyping
Product prototyping
An idea you can hold, test and show to somebody who writes cheques.
For startup teams, incubatees, research groups and departments taking a concept toward a working product — schematic to PCB to firmware to enclosure to a small pilot batch.
Stage gates
Six gates. You approve each one before the next starts.
The order is deliberate: the expensive irreversible steps come after the cheap reversible ones.
Gate 01
Requirements
What it senses, controls, logs or sends. Environment, power source, cost ceiling and volume.
Gate 02
Architecture
Block diagram, controller and module selection, power budget, costed BOM and risk list.
Gate 03
Breadboard
The riskiest subsystem is built and measured first, before anything is committed to copper.
Gate 04
PCB
Schematic, layout, fabrication, assembly and bring-up — with test points designed in from the start.
Gate 05
Firmware & enclosure
Application logic, connectivity, calibration and a printed or machined housing that fits.
Gate 06
Pilot & handover
Small batch, test report, user guide, and all source, board and CAD files handed to you.
Who this is for
Four situations we see repeatedly.
Research groups
A published method that needs a physical demonstrator for a funding review or a field trial.
Product teams
An existing product that needs a variant, a cost-down, or a redesign around a part that went obsolete.
Departments & centres
A centre of excellence that needs demonstrable, working hardware rather than a poster.
What you own at the end
All of it.
No locked files, no dependency on us to make the next revision. If you want to take it to a manufacturer, you can.
Design files
Schematic and PCB source (KiCad or Altium), Gerbers, drill files, pick-and-place and a fabrication-ready package.
Firmware
Full commented source, build instructions, toolchain notes and the flashing procedure.
Mechanical
STEP and STL files for the enclosure, print or machining settings, and assembly notes.
Bill of materials
Every part with manufacturer part number, supplier, quantity, unit cost and at least one alternate.
Test report
What was measured, under what conditions, with the raw logs — not a claim without evidence.
User documentation
A short guide for whoever operates it, written for the person, not for the engineer.
On IP: if you brought the idea, you own the output. We are happy to sign an NDA before you describe the concept — ask, and we will send one before the first call.
On cost
Why there is no price list here.
A prototype price is dominated by three things we cannot guess: how many unknowns are in the design, what the components cost this month, and how many revisions the design needs before it holds. A soil-moisture node and a three-phase energy analyser are both “an IoT prototype” and differ by an order of magnitude.
Quoted per gate
Each gate is priced separately. You can stop after any gate, with everything produced up to that point handed over.
Components at cost
Parts and fabrication are billed at what they cost, with invoices. Our fee is engineering time, not a margin on a sensor.
Gate 01 is cheap
The requirements and architecture gate is deliberately low-cost. It tells you what the whole thing will cost before you commit to it.
Next step
Have a concept?
Describe what it should do and who uses it. An NDA first is fine — just say so.