Creating a new product - Prototyping

RE: Creating a new product - Prototyping

Problemchild — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:36:43 GMT

Good one this is a very interesting post. On these small boards which don't have too small components it would be good to try the baby CNC machines to mill your board shortening your turnaround time... giving you more time to "fail often "

RE: Creating a new product - Prototyping

shabaz — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:53:24 GMT

Hi Andy,

Great post! I missed this earlier : (

As you suggest, nothing wrong with failing, as long as something is learnt from it.

I think my first PCB (well, photo-plot) had things shorted together : ) (I was using an awful CAD package), a few have had a signal unconnected (so needed to add wires), now it's unlikely to have electrical errors, but cosmetic and positioning errors are more likely, due to excellent ERC and DRC capabilities. This all assumes the design is sound, i.e. prototyped first perhaps. Being tired makes it easy to make mistakes, so I try not to submit a design late in the evening.

Also, for me I feel more comfortable double-checking gerber files, just to provide confidence that it looks ok. There are free tools for that.

Sometimes when a dev-board doesn't exist (which is now less likely, we are so spoilt by the manufacturers) I'll dedicate one PCB just as a test board, with just the essentials, to get moving with the IC quickly.

RE: Creating a new product - Prototyping

Workshopshed — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:23:45 GMT

A variation on this is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/11/minimum-viable-products-exceptional-products-and-cupcakes/