Electronics Design
Electronics hardware design and development services
What is it?
In order to do something useful a device needs some electronics (hardware) that is typically designed onto a printed circuit board (PCB) by electronics engineers.How we can help
We have extensive experience in electronics hardware and software/firmware development. Most of our projects are related to IoT / M2M but we also develop electronics for other industry sectors. From circuit design, PCB layout and build all the way through to a production ready product. If you have a concept for a new product we can help realise it. Why not contact us and benefit from our many years experience of developing electronics hardware and software for new products - an initial discussion will not cost anything.
Software for electronics (firmware) is one of our key strengths. We specialize in C/C++ and assembly programming languages for a range of micro-controllers and processors e.g. ARM Cortex (STM32 range), NXP, PIC, AVR, x86, 8051, MSP430 and more. See our firmware section for more information.
Cellular Communications
Most of the projects we get involved with use cellular communications of some kind to get data to the Internet (the same technology used in mobile/cellular phones). There are several generations of cellular data technology with each abbreviated to a number before the letter 'G'. The distinction between generations can be vague but the list below provides a general guide to the technologies encompassed by each generation.
- 2G
- 3G
- 4G
- 5G
Additional to the above, mainly handset focused cellular technologies, there has been a trend towards also providing services aimed at low data rate and low power IoT / M2M devices. Listed below are some of the main ones
-
NB-IoT
- LTE Cat 1
- LTE Cat 0
- LTE Cat M1
- LTE Cat NB1
-
LPWAN
- LoRa
- Ultra Narrow Band
- Sigfox
- Weightless
We have 2 decades experience of designing with cellular modems in almost all of the above technologies. We have completed designs using modems (module and chip formats) from the following manufactures:
- Telit
- Gemalto (Cinterion)
- u-blox
- SIMCom
- Sierra Wireless
- Quectel
When it comes to interfacing with these modems we also have wealth of hardware and firmware experience. We have used these modems frequently to connect to our web platform. We also provide SIM cards and other airtime services to go with these modems.
RF Technologies
As well a cellular we also have extensive experience of designing with radio frequency (RF) technologies.
- Bluetooth & Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- Zigbee
- WiFi
- NFC
- RFID
- GNSS (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo)
Production Testing solutions
When a product is production ready it needs a way of being programmed and tested efficiently (no one likes to hold up the conveyer belt), we develop and build production programming and test solutions for many of the products we design as well as for others. Design for manufacturability is an important element that we factor into the design process from the beginning.
Already have some?
Great, no problem. We can help with the firmware either by developing it from scratch or adding in (or helping you to add) features you need e.g. the ability to communicate with a server. Or if you are fine with sorting the electronics hardware and firmware then we can provide the web platform and SIM cards.
