News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]. Parent comment

Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by dom96 on Friday November 17, 2023 @05:19AM (#38301638)
> And you have to pay for certification

This is the thing that got me down and it seems to be the biggest barrier to entry for commercializing hardware products. The CE/FCC certification is killer.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by konschubert on Friday November 17, 2023 @05:22AM (#38301656)
CE is much worse than FCC. Maybe the US Market would work as a start?

I can recommend Sunfire Testing for certification. They are used to working with hackers.

If you want you can email me and I can maybe help with you with some advice.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by throwaway71271 on Friday November 17, 2023 @05:27AM (#38301676)
thats a great reference, thanks!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by anymouse123456 on Friday November 17, 2023 @07:23AM (#38302557)
We just had a great experience working with US TECH (https://ustech-lab.com).

The price was reasonable (for what it is), the main contact was great, they were very fast and super flexible with our delays.

I know they offer CE, but we just went for FCC on unintentional emitters. It wasn't nearly as challenging as we thought it would be.

Expect to pay something around $2,500 to $5,000 depending on how labor intensive your tests are, or become.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by dom96 on Friday November 17, 2023 @10:23AM (#38304801)
> Expect to pay something around $2,500 to $5,000

Yeah, that's what's discouraging. For something that is effectively a hobby project, spending many thousands of dollars is too much of a risk, when you're not even sure people will buy the thing you created.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by anymouse123456 on Saturday November 18, 2023 @08:12AM (#38319154)
Agreed. It's really frustrating.

FWIW, I've done some digging and at least it's not just a mafia shakedown (like the USB-IF charging thousands for an artificially scarce numeral).

The equipment and expertise are both expensive and time consuming. DIY is possible, but would cost considerably more.

I'm a little surprised I haven't heard about a single start-up accelerator that has cert gear available...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by dom96 on Friday November 17, 2023 @10:22AM (#38304785)
Sadly I am in the UK. I guess I could certify it with the FCC anyway, but my aim was to sell locally initially.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by seabass-labrax on Friday November 17, 2023 @08:38AM (#38303348)
Would you mind elaborating on what felt problematic, please? I looked into the CE requirements a few years ago and it didn't seem like a large barrier for small electronic devices - nothing that wouldn't be expected in a safe design already, such as ensuring proper earthing or using lead-free components.

I'm curious to know what you found so that I don't have any unpleasant surprises should I go ahead with a hardware product! Maybe konschubert also has experiences they could share here.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Simone Giertz spent 3 years working on a coat hanger ... by konschubert on Friday November 17, 2023 @10:18AM (#38304732)
The issue is that verification costs 10K, no matter if you use a pre-certified radio or not.
[ Parent | on HN ]