Device Factory

A little bit about the Device Factory team

So What is Device Factory?

  • A virtual company: there is no physical "factory"
  • We coordinate online, often working in cafes and bars
  • And we make cool devices with open source
  • We emphasize working with like-minded people passionate about technology

How Did We Start?

  • Just JB’s geeky hobby...
  • Then the idea to create a Baby Monitor
  • But consumer products require full-time effort
  • We have day jobs and would not want to have angry customers
  • So we focused on just technology with other technologists

What Do We Make?

  • There are no consumer products...
  • Consumers don't care about the insides of technology
  • We make platforms that can be adapted to a variety of use cases
  • And we do sell devices to other techies as cheap as possible
  • The code is there so they can be hacked into you own ideas

What is our Goal?

  • To experiment, learn, and create
  • While engaging with other technical people
  • Producing a steady stream of devices that can adapt to problems
  • ...and to have fun.

Making Of ...

Current landscape for producing electronic devices

Creating Devices is Accessible

  • The advent of Smart phones that can act as an interface
  • Internet of things (IoT), and sensors to measure everthing
  • New wireless technologies to connect devices and the internet
  • Rapid prototyping services: 3D printing, PCB, and Assembly
  • Access to low-cost manufacturing capabilities

Electronics Design

  • Circuit design: lots of reference designs as a head start
  • Lots of open source tools to create PCB layouts
  • Prototyping and PCB fab in small quantities to develop and learn
  • Mouser to buy all the bits and bytes in small quantities

Understanding the Sensors

  • MEMS: windows to the physical world
  • Motion, temperature, humidity, light, and many more!
  • Connected to a System on a Chip (SoC) by Ti or Nordic

Wireless as the Glue

  • WiFi and Bluetooth to ZigBee, ANT+, and Bluetooth Low Engergy
  • BLE low power requirements means long battery life
  • Good range is only achieved though optimized antenna design
  • BLE throuput is also limited, on device data processing may help
  • Custom implementation requires FCC certification

CAD Design

  • 3D printing is good to refine ideas, not good for finished product
  • Precision enclosures require an injection mold
  • Rapid prototyping with aluminum molds to make thousands of parts
  • Steel molds are very expensive, but can make millions of parts
  • Understand the limitaions of each process, lots of pitfalls and gotchas

Manufacturing

  • Scaling the prototype from the few to the many
  • Document every step of the process + Gerber files and BOM
  • Source all parts to maintain compatibility with design
  • Robot assembly requires additional setup
  • Easier to on-shore PCB, assembly, and molding

The Net Effect

  • What used to cost millions now costs thousands
  • Price breaks are higest when making thousands of devices
  • Molding cost is prohibitive, but scales way better than 3D
  • Good documentaion is key, but mistakes will happen
  • Maintaining good relationships will help in the long-run

Our First Device

A brief introduction to DF1

3-Axis Accelerometer

Open Platform

With Bluetooth Low Energy Wireless

Fully Baked

  • Not just bare electronics
  • Injection molded enclosure
  • Integrated software stack
  • Complete documentation
  • FCC certified
  • Scalable production

Specifications

  • Main IC: TI CC2541 System on Chip
  • Sensor: Freescale MMA8451Q Accelerometer
  • Primary Clock: XTAL1 32MHz
  • Secondary Clock: XTAL2 32.678kHz
  • Bandpass Filter: Murata Chip Balun
  • Chip Antenna: ANT-2.45-CHP-x
  • LED: RGB
  • Battery: CR2032 3.0V

Capabilities

  • Streaming data, event subscriptions
  • 150-200ft wireless range
  • Tunable accelerometer range 2/4/8G
  • Tunable accelerometer DSP parameters, threshholds
  • Over the air upgradable firmware

Interfaces

  • iOS opensource library + demo app
  • Node.js opensource library based on noble
  • Full BLE Services spec for custom implementations

Use Cases

  • Yet another activity monitor
  • Bike alarm for your fixie
  • Home security system
  • Research sensor and data collection
  • Motion-based PC controller
  • Anything you can think of...