From prototype to final product (Part II)

If you haven’t already please read first the first part of our miniseries in which we describe and comment on getting a proof of concept out of an idea.

If you have a working proof of concept, you can now test it and use your experience to build:

Prototype

Creating scheme of your PCB isn’t the easiest part because there are two ways:

• Advanced (and expensive) tools which would give you desired results. Unfortunately there is a few options to choose from.
• Basic (and limited) tools which can fit your needs. Here you have lots to choose from, which can help you at early stages of your project.

PCB used to be customized and built in different ways:

• Making a sketch,
• Photochemical method,
• Simple CNC

The biggest benefit of this solution is the fact, that they simply saved our time.

But now, you can find a company and make your PCB more professionally and it also wouldn’t cost you much.

Preparing for production

At this stage, you should make the first small series of your product. The main purpose here is to test the almost final version of your product with people who liked your idea and you consider them as a part of your target group.

PCB assembly

In the past, we had to choose from a limited number of companies and this force us to order large series of product.

Fortunately, times have changed and today there are a lot of companies which can help you in assembling your PCB. What is more, in the process of building your product, you can use your favorite components. Using your own components can be more profitable especially in test series .

Tests

Firstly, we should prepare a procedure of testing your PCB, which would not only save your time, but also would make your production more reliable.

This procedure shouldn’t be long. Try to connect great testing with optymization and make it no longer than few minutes.

Casing

This stage is the most interesting stage because using 3D printing to produce few hundreds of cases for your product will be costly. On the other hand, making the final form, which is ready for production wouldn’t be the best, because you won’t be able to make any changes in your case.

However, you can print the form for you casing and use it to produce asmall test series. This is one of the best options and here you should be prepared to pay about $1000 for production.

Here’s the third part of our series!

That’s all for now!

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