Converting your Arduino project into a Product
Creating a prototype using Arduino board is a great start in bringing an Arduino based electronic product to a market. Arduino is an ideal microcontroller board for shaping your idea into a product. However, Arduino alone is not enough. There is still a lot of engineering work to be done. Following is the detailed description of steps needed to design the first Arduino product.
- Estimate the Manufacturing Cost
- Selecting Arduino Board
- Selecting the Right Shields
- Develop the Firmware/Software
- Design Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
- Order PCB Prototypes
- Test, Debug, and Repeat
- Electrical Certifications
1: Estimate the Manufacturing Cost
The most common mistake people make is they don’t estimate the cost needed to build a product. Most developers skip this step, and they proceed directly towards the schematic design. It is crucial to know how much your product will cost to manufacture. In order to figure out your best sales price, inventory costs, and most importantly, profits, an estimated number is needed.
2: Selecting Arduino Board
Arduino is a microcontroller board, so the first step in designing a product is to select the best board that can meet the requirements of the product and have some profit margin to make the overall project cost effective. Multiple Arduino boards with vast applications are available, some have more pins like Arduino mega to cover big projects such as making drones while some boards such as Arduino zero are specific for making an IoT based solution. If your product needs a small place to fit then you can go with Arduino nano.
3: Selecting the Right Shields
Once you have selected an Arduino board, the next step is to select an Arduino shield or design a custom one according to product requirements. Shields are a great way of optimizing Arduino projects; they can reduce overall product complexity into simple interfaces. Also, shields are not limited to hardware; there are some shields that can be programmed, decreasing overall product development time and cost. Different libraries are available for shields.
4: Develop the Firmware/Software
Developing firmware or software is the main part of the Arduino based product. Having a good user interface to interact with is key to success for an Arduino based project. Some projects demand a separate code other than Arduino to work like designing a hospital management system. Writing an efficient code demands high skills, a code written for Arduino should be universal that can work under any type of environment. If the product is Iot based, then it must explore Iot based platform that offers free plugins and software to test Arduino hardware.
5: Design Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
After selecting the Arduino board and right shield for the product it’s time to design a printed circuit board (PCB) to combine all hardware peripherals onto a single board. PCB will help to connect all components electrically and provide mechanical support which reduces product wiring resulting in less chance of failure.
To design a PCB board, we have to build a schematic of our project. Multiple free tools are available to design Arduino product schematics. To know about them click here. It not only helps to make PCB designing smooth but also gives a chance to simulate Arduino with hardware without spending money on real hardware. It is a great way of debugging Arduino circuits before we move towards the hardware side. If your project has some wireless functionality like Wi-Fi, GSM, Bluetooth or infrared then you have to pay special attention to the PCB layout for the antenna design. Designing an incorrect antenna layout for PCB is the common cause of failure for Arduino products.
6: Order PCB Prototypes
Once the PCB layout is ready the next step is to order PCB prototypes and test them in real condition with hardware and complete circuitry. Before ordering any PCB prototype it is recommended to give an independent check to schematics or product. This will help to identify any type of bug and reduces the likelihood of mistakes that can make their way to PCB prototype.
To order a PCB prototype we need a Gerber file, it is the standard file used by PCB manufacturers for designing a custom PCB. While ordering a PCB you will find two different vendors, one who will only print a blank PCB board while the other one will also solder the components for you. For the first prototype version, don’t place an order for more than a few PCBs, as it is the first version of the product prototype there is a great chance of bugs which need to be removed. Once you gain confidence in the product then place an order for more PCBs.
7: Test, Debug, and Repeat
It doesn’t matter how good someone is at programming there is always a chance of making mistakes unless the designed product is very simple with little hardware. After the PCB layout is received, the next step is real time testing of written code. Debug all the errors that come on your way. It is one of the extremely challenging tasks because one might have to deal with unknown and unexpected errors. This step contains both hardware and software debugging.
8: Electrical Certifications
Once the product is ready and in its final stage to be ready to sell out. Last step before your Arduino project features in an electronic store is to get electrical certification. Different countries have several types of certifications depending on the region and the product which is to be sold.
I will recommend getting an Arduino product certified as it will open limitless doors and opportunities for Arduino products to sell. FCC, RoHS, and CE are the most common international electrical certifications needed.
Conclusion
In this article we’ve looked at some basic necessary details required to turn an Arduino project into a product. To get an idea to the point of having a production quality prototype is a big achievement. However, there is still a considerable amount of work needed to turn prototypes into mass producing units. Before jumping into developing a product, look for the bigger picture and give an insight to all steps and costs involved in dominating the market.
