The Hardware Academy open house opened Monday morning.
In the first two days, guests have started a lot of great new discussions, from California to the Netherlands to New Zealand.
I want to show you a few of them, so you can see what the week looks like from the inside.
One guest is finalizing a commercial instrument built around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module, and he's preparing for FCC certification.
He posted his entire compliance plan: how to leverage the radio module's approval, testing strategy, labeling, all of it.
He got back a detailed answer confirming the plan, plus what lab testing realistically costs (typically $2,000 to $6,000 for this type of product), why Class A was the smarter target than Class B, and why a cheap pre-scan beats paying for a failed retest.
His reply: "This one reply probably saved me a retest."
Another guest, a first-time founder with a working prototype, asked the question almost everyone gets stuck on: what now? Custom PCB? Patent? Crowdfunding? More validation?
Within hours, five different engineers and experienced product people had weighed in.
They covered how much validation he could squeeze out of his current prototype before spending on custom electronics, when to file his provisional patent (and why to wait until right before his big validation push), and how to model his true unit cost before locking down the design.
That's a 6 to 12 month roadmap, for a dollar.
There's plenty more happening too.
One guest is rethinking three parts in his schematic after an engineer asked why each one was there. All three came from reference designs, which is how most boards end up with parts nobody has questioned.
Another asked whether to hire an engineer for his production design, and along with a ballpark cost, he was advised NOT to spend that money yet, because he hasn't validated demand.
Others are getting answers on antenna layout, running sensors over long cables, charging multi-cell batteries, and potting a sensor to survive outdoor abuse on a farm.
Every one of these questions was answered by experienced engineers and product experts who've taken real products through production.
That's what's running inside right now, and you can still get in and get your questions answered.
But you don't have to ask anything at all to get a lot out of this week.
Every discussion above is open to you, along with years of archives: design reviews, certification failures, sourcing problems, manufacturing decisions, hidden costs, and much more.
Other people have already asked the questions you haven't thought to ask yet, and the answers are sitting right there waiting for you.
Watching an experienced engineer catch someone else's expensive mistake is one of the fastest ways to avoid making it yourself.
It's $1 for full access through Sunday. Read everything, ask anything, or just look around:
Get in for $1
Doors close Sunday at midnight. Get in today and you still have four full days inside.
Cheers,
John Teel
Founder / Engineer
Predictable Designs
P.S. If you do have a question you want answered, ask it today rather than Saturday. That leaves time for a real back-and-forth before the doors close. Ask your question today.
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