Thinking of having your product manufactured in China, India, or another low labour cost country? This can be a very cost effective route for electronic product manufacture, but you should bear in mind that these countries are not always the best choice with the new environmental producer regulations coming into force in Europe and maybe also your companies own environmental policies. Many products can be cost effectively manufactured in the UK and there are several European countries, such as Bulgaria and Poland, that also provide very low cost manufacturing choices, without the higher transportation financial and eco costs of further afield countries. Remember also to factor in your costs of dealing with offshore manufacturers. Any production cost savings need to cover your own companies costs of visiting distant manufacturers, both in terms of staff time and travel costs. If your company is environmentally aware and views carbon footprints as important you also need to factor in that many low cost manufacturing counties rely on fossil fuels for the bulk of their power generation, dramatically increasing the carbon footprint of their manufacturing processes.

Cable looms, electro-mechanical assembly, panel and cabinet wiring & full product build

Complete product manufacture. Highly recommended by some of our clients.

Complete product manufacture. Highly recommended by some of our clients.

Surface mount PCB assembly. Lovely people to work with

Complete product manufacture

Through hole PCB and cable loom manufacture. Great guys to work with.

When selecting or designing your enclosure you should consider the recycling impact of the enclosure at the end of your products life. Metal enclosures are generally very good from a recycling point of view, as with increasing raw material costs it can be very economic to melt down the metals and recycle them. For instance, using recycled Aluminium can cost as little as 10% of the cost to mine new aluminium from the ground. If you will use a plastic enclosure bear in mind that many plastics can be recycled at the end of a products life, but only if each part comprises of just one plastic type. Using moulded rubber sections for example, whilst fashionable, usually means that the part cannot be recycled economically and has to be sent to land fill. Using a label glued to a plastic part will also usually make it worthless and consigned to landfill.

Shenzhen Lian Lu Xing Technology Co., Ltd

Kingfung Internations Ltd

SCS Circuits

Anke Circuit Technology Ltd

Hampoo

Assemblink

China Shenzhen

Dongguan Shenan Electronics Co., Ltd

HongKong Credit PCB Technology Co., Ltd

CG Global – We met Henry Ng from CG Global at a UK trade show in 2010 and liked his companies keen approach.

Seal Group

Daywell mould Co Ltd

SHOUJU Industrial Limited

Xiamen(beijing,suzhou)Technology Co.,LTD

Suzhou Kaibao Electric Co., Ltd

SuNPe Prototype

Jing Cheng Technology Group(HK) Ltd

The skill level of your designer is also very important.  Designing electronic products is a very skilled job where design decisions can have very costly implications further down the line.  Poor design decisions can (and do!) lead to product failures in the field which can become very costly to deal with, both from a financial and your customers perception of your company viewpoint.  This is an area where years of design experience typically count more than anything else.

Finding the right designer for a new electronic product design can be a daunting task.  The design work needed may range from simple printed circuit board design, to technical consulting, electronic design, PCB layout, enclosure design, manufacturing a prototype, embedded programming and technical authoring.  Producing a quotation for a new electronic product design requires the basic specifications to be defined and a good electronic product design company will often be able to help define this with you.

A well designed and manufactured product starts with good planning. Circuits are often first modelled using a prototype board, before the overall design is turned into a final PCB design. Evaluation and testing needs to be carried out a specific points during the development to ensure that the design will not only perform as required but also in the different possible operating conditions.

Ergonomics and aesthetics are also often important factors in a new product development.  Ergonomics refers to the factors which make a product efficient, safe and comfortable to use.  Aesthetics refers to the things which make a product look and feel good.  When designing a products user interface, for example, a designer will typically try to ensure that the switches and other control components are located to allow them to be easily operated, and that components which provide feedback, such as LED indicators and LCD screens, can be easily seen. A product’s style is or course a more subjective area as fashion constantly changes and different people can have very different opinions on what looks stylish.

Most electronic product designs require programming of some sort, usually for embedded devices but often also to provide PC connectivity or Internet server communications.  Low cost embedded devices are incredibly powerful these days and are often programed in C,  C++ or Java.

Once the development of a product is complete documentation needs to be produced for production manufacture.  For cost sensitive or high volume products using an off-shore manufacturer is often an attractive choice at this stage to achieve lowest manufacture cost.  Therefore the manufacture documentation needs to be very thorough, accurate and simple to follow.  The manufacturer needs to know not only exactly how to build the product but also how to test it prior it being shipped to customers.

IBEX provides electronic product design, embedded software development, PC software development, technology consultancy in South East England on the Surrey / Kent border, 30 minutes from Central London.

Ensure your PC is running the latest version of MPLAB IDE (which may be downloaded from www.microchip.com).

1. Connect the PICStart Plus programmer to your PC using its serial cable.
2. From the menu select:- ‘Configure’ > ‘Select Device’ > Select the device you are programming (you can find this in the manufacture documentation, on the circuit diagram or by looking at the part number on the PCB).
3. From the menu select:- ‘Programmer’ > ‘Select Programmer’ > PICStart Plus’
4. From the menu select:- ‘Programmer’ > ‘Settings’. Check the correct serial COM port is selected
5. From the menu select:- ‘Programmer’ > ‘Enable Programmer’
6. From the menu select:- ‘File’ > ‘Import’ > Select the ROM firmware file to be used ([filename].hex).

Then for each IC to program follow the following procedure:

1. Insert the IC into the PICStart Plus, ensuring pin 1 is at the top (marked on the IC with a dot or dimple at the pin 1 end)
2. Press the ‘Program Target Device’ button in MPLAB.

1. Watch the ‘Output’ window and wait for programming and verifying to complete.
2. Remove the IC and fit on the target PCB.
3. Verify the correct operation of the PCB using the new firmware

This guide isn’t extensive and Microchip may have altered their software since it was written. If you run into problems please contact us.

You might be thinking this is all rather unfair and not like the graphic design company you use who assigns you full IP rights on all the design work they do for you.  The thing is, a graphic design company starts off your project with a blank sheet of paper, or maybe with some existing designs you supply to them. That’s not the case for electronic, software and other technology development fields.  Most of the development work we do involves utilising lots of our pre-existing design elements towards your project, at little or no cost to you, as well as creating all the new elements that are needed for your specific project.

OK, so why can’t you have ownership of the bits that are developed specifically for you?  Your paying for the time it takes to create them so why can’t you own them?  Well there’s a few things to bear in mind:

• Firstly, trying to separate the two (the pre-existing and the new) can be very difficult on a practical level.  This is particularly true for software source code.  When writing source code a programmer tends to constantly grab existing bits of code from libraries and past desings to do all sorts of simple things.  Trying to administer whats new and what isn’t can quickly become impossible on a practical level.

• Very often when we start off creating some new design element or block, say for instance an electronic circuitry or source code block to do something particular, we start off using an existing design element or code segment you haven’t paid for and adapt it as needed for the task. Your therefore only paying for time it takes us to adapt it and you’re getting the underlying base design or code functionality at no cost to you. The extent of this varies a lot, but given all the years we’ve been designing and programming it’s rare there is something we need to design where there isn’t something existing we have that is used to start as a basis from.  Again, whats new and what isn’t, but also how can you own something you haven’t paid for in its entirety and contains bits that have also been released within other designs for other clients?

• Your project will typically use large amounts of existing design elements (schematic and PCB component definitions, library source code, mechanical part CAD designs, etc) that we copy straight in and use as is.  You get all this at no cost to you.  If you want ownership of the bits we create specifically for you then you need to start paying towards all these other bits your getting for nothing.

These last two points are why using a design house can be so much cheaper than using an employee.  Not only can you use us only when you need us, but you also get our extensive background utilised on your project at no additional cost.  With an employee you’ve got to pay for everything to be created from scratch, as they can’t bring libraries with them from their last employer!

So this is why design companies like IBEX grant you a licence to use technology parts of a design.  Its simple to state legally, its simple for you to assign if you ever want to sell the product design to another party and you get a design at a significantly lower cost than it being designed from scratch.

That said, if you must own the IP rights in your design it is possible.  If you need to own all of the IP then it is typically only achievable by us designing everything for your project without using anything pre-existing.  Do-able, but typically much more expensive.  Alternatively if there are one or two specific aspects of your design you need to own then we can often quote on the basis of designing just these elements from scratch within the overall design work and to assign you IP ownership of them.

Want to know more?  Please give us a call…

http://www.iee.org

If you do not already own a block of addresses the IEEE offers two options:-

To obtain a block of 4,096 MAC addresses from the IEEE (IAB – Individual Address Block)

The fee for this is $550 (05/2009)

Use the following link:

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/pilot-ind.html

or if the page has moved search the IEEE site for

Request Form for an Individual Address Block (aka Ethernet address)Block of 4,096 Addresses

To obtain a block of 16,777,214 MAC addresses from the IEEE (OUI – Organizationally Unique Identifier)

The fee for this is $1650 (05/2009)

Use the following link:

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/forms/

or if the page has moved search the IEEE site for

Request Form for IEEE Organizationally Unique Identifier or ‘company_id’ (aka Ethernet address)

The following page includes links on how to use the addresses once purchased:-

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml

Once purchased you may use the assigned addresses for programming into devices at the end of the manufacture process. You must ensure that good record keeping is kept so that each address purchased is only ever programmed into one device. Typically this involves recording the last addressed used at the end of each batch of products.

MUTUAL NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

This Agreement is made on the (insert date)

Between:

(Insert name) of (Insert address)

And

(Insert name) of (Insert address)

WHEREAS: The two Parties are prepared to disclose confidential information to each other for the purposes of establishing joint projects, joint commercial ventures or for advisory purposes.

NOW IT IS HEREBY AGREED: Either Party, when acting as the recipient of information from the other, is prepared to accept disclosure of confidential information on the following terms and conditions.

1. Confidential information means any information supplied by either Party to the other, whether written, graphic or oral, of a technical, statistical or commercial nature and including samples or specimens but excluding:

a)    Information which at the time of disclosure is in the public domain

b)    Information which after disclosure becomes part of the public domain through no fault of the recipient

c)    Information received by either Party from any third party having the right to disclose the same, provided that the information was not obtained improperly

d)    Information which was in the recipient’s possession prior to disclosure.

2. The recipients agree to:

a)    Use the information only for the purposes described above, and for which purpose it may be disclosed only to those employees, associates or consultants deemed necessary for its proper evaluation who are bound to the recipient by similar obligations of confidentiality

b)    Hold in confidence all confidential information disclosed for a period of five years from the date of disclosure

c)    Not otherwise disclose the information to any person, firm or company without prior written permission of the donor Party

3. The disclosure of information shall not be construed as conveying any rights in the information to the recipient or any obligation on either of the two Parties to enter further agreements.

4. No modification or waiver of this agreement shall be valid unless in writing and signed by both Parties.

5. This agreement shall be governed according to the Laws of England and the Parties shall submit to the jurisdiction of the English Courts.

As WITNESS the hands of the parties thereto:

Signed:                       …………………………………………………………..

On behalf of (Insert Company name) by (Insert Signatory name)

Signed:                       …………………………………………………………..

On behalf of (Insert Company name) by (Insert Signatory name)

Legal notes:
IBEX UK Ltd makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose.  IBEX UK Ltd shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in conjunction with the furnishing, performance or use of this material.  You should take independent legal advice regarding the suitability of this, or any other, legal agreement for your particular needs..

Is It An Invention?

First things first.  You cannot patent an idea just because you believe you are the first person to come up with it.  A patent is there to protect an ‘invention’, not simply an idea.  When you apply for a patent what you are doing is specifying, through text and drawings, how your invention works.  In return for this public release of your invention, if it really is new the state will grant you exclusive rights to it for 20 years.  Therefore to be able to patent your idea, its core concept needs to be explainable in simple and direct terms

The other reason you can’t just patent an idea is that it must involve a novel and inventive step.  The novel bit is easy but a common misconception is that many people think they can apply for a patent because they are the first person to come up with the idea.  However when you sit down for your first meeting with a patent attorney one of the first things they will want to establish is whether your invention is actually an invention.  It is really important to understand this, so that you don’t waste time looking into patenting something that is simply not patentable.  A very simple explanation of this ‘obviousness’ test is as follows: Would a hypothetical skilled person, who knows everything but does not have the slightest spark of inventive ingenuity, come up with the same idea if they knew all the prior art (all previous ideas), but had not read your patent application?  If the answer is yes then your idea is not an invention, its simply the logical application of current day knowledge to a new problem and therefore you can’t patent it.

This is a good description in more legal terms of the EU approach to judging inventiveness (the UK is slightly different): Is there any teaching in the prior art, as a whole, that would, not simply could, have prompted the skilled person, faced with the objective technical problem formulated when considering the technical features not disclosed by the closest prior art, to modify or adapt said closest prior art while taking account of that teaching [the teaching of the prior art, not just the teaching of the closest prior art], thereby arriving at something falling within the terms of the claims, and thus achieving what the invention achieves? It’s the “would, not simply could” that is the all important definition here.

The US is a bit different to Europe and actually this inventiveness step is regularly not properly tested or applied, leading to many many patents being granted in the US that are actually very obvious logical application of existing ideas.  Many companies have spent huge sums of money trying to overturn such patents but although a granted US patent can be overturned its is extremely rare that one is.  In many ways the US patent system is more akin to what many people assume about patents over here, if your the first person come up with an idea then you can patent it.  The obvious downside is that many bad patents have been unfairly granted and have unfairly blocked many others from being able to produce products that should never have been protected by patents in the first place.

Commercial Value

If you’ve got to here then hopefully you have an invention that may be patentable.  The next tests are often completely overlooked at the outset but are also really important.  The first and most important is what will a successful granting of a patent do for you?  Patents cost money.  Sure you can search and file yourself but its incredibly time consuming and like all things legal bringing in an expert, in the form of a patent attorney, is generally a much better route.  Carrying out the searches and filing your patent application through an attorney will cost a few thousand pounds.  You then have a relatively short period of time before you have to decide if you are going to file the patent in other countries throughout the world, which costs more money and if you are filing in lots of countries the translations can become very expensive.  Once you’ve got your patent you then have ongoing costs each year to patent offices to keep the patent active.  So whatever it is your looking to patent has got to be worth this from a commercial business perspective (if you are put off by the thought of having to spend several thousand pounds with a patent attorney is what your doing really worth patenting at all?).

Many people and companies file for patents to gain the IP, so that they can then attract investors to help them take their invention forward.  If you’ve watched a few episodes of Dragon’s Den on the TV then it should have become very obvious that investors do not take wild risks and if you want someone to invest in your company or idea they need to feel secure in doing this.  If you have a patent for a great idea that can be commercialised it will often provide exactly this protection for an investor so you are a stage closer to getting them to part with that all important cash (you’ll probably have also noticed that although investors are sometimes not very nice people they tend to only want to do business with nice people!).

Another misconception is that once you have a patent no-one else can copy your idea.  Well although legally they can’t, the State won’t actually stop them.  If someone infringes on your patent it is down to you to stop them, typically by spending large sums of money with lawyers and using the courts.  If the infringer is a large company, or several companies infringe your patent you need to be able to fund the legal action.  If your invention is commercial enough then these legal steps will not be a problem as you’ll find the money, win the case and eventually get much of it back.  However if your fighting a big company which has a lot of money to string out your legal action for a long time is it actually worth it?  Is the idea your looking to patent commercial enough to justify all this.

There are many smaller companies out there that view patenting as a waste of time and money and prefer to direct their resources, attention and money at being the first to market and first to innovate.  Should you be one of them rather than spending what could be a lot of your time and money protecting your idea?

You may be looking to patent your invention to then licence it to another company to produce.  For 12 months from filing your patent you have international patent protection and you want to use the first 10 months of this to make sure your idea can be commercialised before having to decide on which other countries to also apply in and giving your attorney a month or two to carry out the necessary work. You have to move bloody fast! If you are approaching big companies they will often take a couple of months to get back to you before you can even show them the invention and start negotiations. If your doing this 6 – 8 months in its too late as they know you have no time and will often play for time to force you into a bad business position, or simply in the hope you wont complete the patent when the 12 months is up.  Whilst you can’t tell anyone about your invention before you file you patent application you can get round this by asking companies (such as us) to sign non disclosure agreements and start work on the development of your product ahead of time so you hit the ground running the moment the application is filed.

If the above hasn’t put you off then maybe you do have that elusive brilliant idea.  Book an appointment with a patent attorney (any good attorney should give you a first appointment for free) and get cracking!  For more information there are many great web resources on filing for patents which we won’t try and re-create here.

A few patent help tips

When researching an invention you’ll often need to read through existing patent applications to make sure your idea is new.  Patents can be many pages long and horribly worded, but generally its only the first primary claim in a patent that is critically important.  The rest will simply be lesser claims the patent can fall back to should the higher claims ever be overturned or rejected by the patent examiner.

Where there could be ambiguity in a claim the patent description is able influence the claims and may therefore have been deliberately written as such, so look through the description to see if it tries to provide this.

Patent claims are not exclusive.  Just because a claim describes one way of doing something doesn’t imply that it couldn’t be done differently.

Patents include a detailed description which is generally intended to provide an explanation / instructions of how the invention could be utilised.  Bear in mind that this only needs to cover one specific use of the invention and doesn’t exclude the claims being used in other ways.

Claims generally relate to an Apparatus (equipment designed or assembled for a particular purpose) or a Method (a way of doing something), and often patents include both with the intention that the method claims can be fallen back on should the apparatus claims be rejected.

Interestingly one of the aims of patents is to promote invention and innovation.  Whilst blocking other companies from copying ideas may seem to do the exact opposite, the natural reaction when faced with a patent it to try and work around it.  We’ve worked with several companies and done exactly this, having been briefed with a product they want to produce and the existing patent seeming to block it.  There is almost always a way round a patent but the  aim is to try and do it in a way that leaves you with a commercial product which still serves its purpose in an affordable way (great patents block this by protecting against all the economical ways of achieving the same thing).

Filing a patent application doesn’t mean that any searching will be done. All that happens is the application is filed and given the once over. It will then be examined in detail by a patent examiner but even if the patent is awarded it can be overturned at any time if prior art can be proved.  If you want your application to have a level of commercial value (if your doing it for IP purposes) you need to also do a search.  However even then bear in mind that searches are not necessarily as skilled as you may expect and patent office searches will not necessarily search anything other than previous published patent applications and filings.  If you are just filing in the UK then a UK patent office search will of course be the best route, but if you plan to file internationally bear in mind that searches carried out for EU or international applications will often be significantly more detailed and thorough.  The reason is that there are far more EU patent examiners and this tends to mean that individual examiners are able to be much more knowledgeable in their specialised areas.  You can pay for third party searches but whilst these are often very expensive (£1000 and upwards)  they are not necessarily much better than the search the UK patent office provides unless you spend a lot of money (the cost of the UK search is subsidised).  The thing to always remember about searches is that its very hard to quantify a search result.  Just beacuse a search didn’t find prior art doesn’t mean that a different serarch won’t.

There is no point giving the patent attorney too much information. They need to write the patent from their knowledge and experience, not from your bad attempt. Here’s what should be ideally provided:-

• Drawings and descriptions of the drawings to get the idea across.
• The advantages of the invention.
• Modifications that are possible to the invention.
• Crucial points and optional points.
• Don’t include loads of existing patents – they’ll only have to read them and that will therefore cost more. One or two might be helpful though.