Trying to go to a pre-production prototype

NETMF & Gadgeteer
1

Hi everyone. I’m trying to go to a preproduction prototype with a product I’ve made. I’ve tested it on the CanXtra (no longer available) and also on the EMX development board. I have some issues and questions:

  1. The Gadgeteer is advertised to save money going to production. Isn’t the savings about the same if I have everything working on the EMX dev board and have just added a few more parts on a breadboard?

  2. I thought a good starting place would be to use the FEZ Cobra board (which has the EMX board soldered to the front of it) and just make the modifications I need. Is there a reason I shouldn’t go this route? Is it an inexpensive route to go.

  3. I have not gotten any of the design files (FEZ Cobra, FEZ Panda) to import into Altium. Does anyone have a solid design file (probably EMX based) that works in Altium from which I could add my parts?

The folks at GHI seem really nice, but since my budget is under $10K, I can’t seem to get a cost estimate on what it would cost take to basically go from an EMX board plugged into my 20 or a design ready for manufacturing. Has anyone else done this? Any advice?

Thank you.

2

Yes correct, you can start with any of the available board, gadgeteer or not, and then modify to fit your needs. The engineering will be your time, which is about 40 to 80 hours. Or you can pay someone to do it for you, 5K to 15K from a company an maybe less from someone working from home. The prototyping cost will be what you pay assembly house, normally couple thousand dollars. Or you can do what many on this forum do, order PCB through batch service and hand-solder the prototypes.

We have seen a script on eagle to export to altium but the schematics are simple to copy to altium.

3

Hello Hayedid,

Maybe i can be of help. If you like we can exchange some info by e-mail.

Thanks, Rob

4

Thank you Gus and Rob. Rob, I’d appreciate talking to you more.

Thanks again.

5

Ok, i have send you an e-mail.