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EMC test outfits in the UK
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hp23:
Hi All,
I'll soon be requiring a CE sticker on a product & thereby will need to find a good (friendly and hopefully inexpensive) outfit in the UK to provide a suitable test.
To accelerate development I went for a Silicon Labs Bluetooth SoC BGM220P rather than a BG22. It’s pre-Certified for Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU and of the Radio Equipment Regulations S.I. 2017/1206, but will still require EMC tests on the whole assembly according to ETSI 301 489-x.

Other than RS232 level shifters and some 1-wire devices, the main element that is starving me of sleep is the LT8391 (Buck-boost LED driver). With some tuning I replicated quite a lot of the DC2345 reference PCB including a pretty beefy EMI filter to pass CISPR25 class 5 regulations (as per their original design). The unit will be cased in Aluminium.

Naïvely I imagined that picking up a DSA815 and a set of near-field probes might bring me some encouragement, but from reading more on the topic – they are probably only good for pinpointing noise culprits after you’ve formally failed the official test.
I’d have hoped that the quasi-peak detector demo would still available on the DSA815, but alas it has expired.

So, as a cash-poor startup with a fledgling product, I have some questions:

(1)   Is there anyone in the UK (perhaps further ahead than me) that could lend some assistance in pre-compliance testing? Even to provide some guidance.
(2)   Are there helpful formal EMI outfits in the UK? I’m worried that I’ll end up engaging a ‘computer said no’ company that’ll provide me with no insight as to my next steps. Our budget would likely only stretch to 1-2 attempts.

tom66:
We have used a company just outside Cambridge who I can recommend - dB Technology. They are geared up for both precompliance work and actual compliance work.  Their sfotware seems to be mostly home grown and the engineers there (hi Stephen) are highly knowledgeable and have seen pretty much every problem there is.  Also might be work talking to Unit3 Compliance, I know the owner and went to one of his training courses recently and he has a wealth of knowledge.  He's usually quite busy though so it could be several months before you get to be seen, I guess that's a good sign.

In general, expect to pay around £500 per half day - some test houses require a full day's booking.  So a realistic budget for precompliance is probably £1-2k if there are no major headaches to be solved.  Then actual compliance could be a fair bit more, maybe £3-5k.

The majority of precompliance work can be done in a half day session I dare say - arrive exactly on time to maximise your booking.  It helps  to have a lab that's not afraid of running a "quick sweep" to identify problem areas.  Usually that will consist of using a higher RBW than the standard specifies which sacrifices accuracy for speed.  Then when you have identified problem areas you do a proper test at the rated RBW.

Do be aware you do not technically have to perform an EMC test to be CE marked (in most device classes.)  So you may be able to focus on just the intentional radiator parts for your test.  You can do a technical assessment and justify that based on circumstances X/Y/Z  (like using good design practices, well shielded case, etc.) the product is likely to comply with the rest of the standard.  However, if you do get called up on that, you will have to prove to a legal standard that the product was compliant.  Doing the tests gives you a presumption of compliance which is highly advantageous should Ofcom or Trading Standards, or an EU body, wants to review your technical file.
bookaboo:
I can recommend Compliance Engineering Ireland
 https://cei.ie/contact/

Certainly knowledgeable and helpful, never been an issue modding and retesting on the same day.
Their main lab is near Dublin but they have a UK lab in Co. Antrim, geographically may or may not work for you, but there's an airport with good UK city links close by.
bookaboo:
Oh, bad news is you might need to do RED even though the module is approved. Best check that properly by contacting test houses, CEI do RED but only at their Dublin lab.
Slh:
I'll also recommend Unit 3 Compliance (https://www.unit3compliance.co.uk/). The chap behind it (James) is very knowledgeable and if you have problems passing then he's great at digging into the details to find the source of the problem and suggesting fixes. His training course is also worth attending if you can get on it. He is very busy so it might take a few phone calls to get to speak to him. They're based in Bradford.
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