Going into production

[Jeeper44]

I've searched around but haven't found a good answer to my query. I'm curious if there are reputable companies that help people go from prototype to production. For example, I've spend a few years doing software and database development and prior to that was trained and worked with electronics in the military. I've never really worked with embedded systems before but am working on a little pet project using a Beaglebone black. I've been using Linux for about 20 years both professionally and at home, and I want my project to have voice recognition, so I thought embedded Linux was the way to go. At least I couldn't argue with the price for the Beaglebone to start out with. The Arduino's are neat but I suspect that I would have memory issues if I tried to load up a voice recognition library in C along with the appropriate dictionary. I started programming around 1983 on Radio Shack TRS-80s and still have memories of spending hours creating an awesome program only to get out of memory errors trying to actually run it. I was so happy when we upgraded to 16K!

Lets pretend that my little prototype works great and I think would make a wonderful consumer product. Obviously I don't want to buy a couple thousand Beaglebones so I would have to start looking at a more dedicated solution. That also includes board design, cases, etc. There is crowd funding available to see if my widget is something the public would want, however, I wouldn't even know where to start as far as what funding I would need. How can I look for sponsors at $29 each only to find out it costs $49 to actual produce them. I was listening to an AmpHour from September last year when Chris went to Boston for the open hardware conference and he mentioned he visited a place like a Hackerspace but they had engineers available to assist people with development, for a percentage.

I don't know when my widget will be a fully functioning prototype so I'm just in a inquisitive mood right now. I've watched some of the crowd funded products and I've always been a little curious as to how people set their goals. I mean when Dave was doing his uCurrent, he had a set production cost and a local production house. Then its just a matter on figuring out how many you would need to sell to make it worth while. Just looking for people's thoughts on the subject.

[tonyarkles]

I've never worked with them or anything, but I heard an interview on a podcast once... Sounds similar to what you're looking for? http://www.dragoninnovation.com/

[Jeeper44]

I've never worked with them or anything, but I heard an interview on a podcast once... Sounds similar to what you're looking for? http://www.dragoninnovation.com/

Interesting. I listened to the Pebble developers a while back, I think on Elecia White's podcast, might have been the AmpHour. I know Chris and Dave have gotten into a few discussions about watches. I see they work with Freescale too and I was looking at their products when considering initial development. It basically came down to spending a few bucks on the Beaglebone to try out my ideas on as opposed to a couple hundred for a Freescale development board. The Cypress PSoC is also floating around in the back of my mind. From initial review they seem to offer exactly what I was looking for. I'll have to keep them in mind when my prototype gets further along.

[jmole]

I've never worked with them or anything, but I heard an interview on a podcast once... Sounds similar to what you're looking for? http://www.dragoninnovation.com/

Interesting. I listened to the Pebble developers a while back, I think on Elecia White's podcast, might have been the AmpHour. I know Chris and Dave have gotten into a few discussions about watches. I see they work with Freescale too and I was looking at their products when considering initial development. It basically came down to spending a few bucks on the Beaglebone to try out my ideas on as opposed to a couple hundred for a Freescale development board. The Cypress PSoC is also floating around in the back of my mind. From initial review they seem to offer exactly what I was looking for. I'll have to keep them in mind when my prototype gets further along.

If you're thinking about PSoC send me a PM, I've had experience taking many PSoC designs from prototype to production and can advise you on whether or not it's a good fit for your application.