I’ve been talking to a lot of hardware founders and firmware engineers lately. The same pattern comes up every time.

Founders can’t describe what they need in technical terms. Engineers can’t quote accurately without a proper brief. Both sides start anyway. Everything falls apart.

The problem was never the engineer. It was the gap between what the founder could describe and what the engineer actually needed to hear.

“Make it work” is not a specification. And no generic freelance platform fixes that.

For anyone who’s been on either side of this — what’s the one thing you wish the other side understood before the project started?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Good day all,

Wishing you a blessed Good Friday. I finally finished routing my v1 prototype for the indoor light trickle charger discussed here and here.

I've gotten good feedback from posting on here, I appreciate all the help. To address two major concerns brought up with my last BOM:

1. I have added more info to the spreadsheet and also looked up components using LCSC. My cost is now about $14 per board. It should reduce if I keep on scaling eg need to buy more in bulk. A lot of the parts are priced for 10 units.
2. I got suggestions to change my test loops to test pads. I will do that. But, after I have this prototype and validate that even works. Then, I can change it to pads and think of how best to automate testing.

Now, on to the PCB. It's a 4-layer board, I don't see this being able to be done 2 layers. Its stackup: Signal -> GND -> Power -> Signal.

The main features here (if you don't want to look at other posts):

• DC input: 0.5V - 5V
• 3.3V & 5V output, max 800mA
• Storage elements: 5.5V max; allows for supercaps, 3.7V li-ion or lipo, 2 or 3-cell NiMH
• Selective MPPT
• Optional battery ok indicator
• Fuel gauge for batteries that can see state of charge, voltage and charge/discharge rate
• Ambient light sensing up to 10k lux

I will likely test this out using like an arduino pro mini or low power MCU that can use wifi and have a project over there than use a li-ion and solar cells like these to see if it will power on then to see how much we are harvesting. I'd be very grateful to hear suggestions for a bare minimum lab to test this board to help with the spec sheet. For now, I'm thinking:

• Spectrum analyzer
• Oscilloscope
• Multimeter (would need to measure uA or even nA and uV, also have diode test function)
• Power Profiler like this
• Soldering station
• MCU and peripherals ofc

I have uploaded files to PCBWay to see a more accurate quote. Currently, each board costs about $28, that's with assembly.

I'd appreciate feedback on the board. And if you think the prototype looks good, then any advice on next steps? I have at least 2 months gap before I can be in a place to set up a home lab and actually test. I assume it's when you have a working prototype, that you can look at like kickstarter or serious content creation?

Here is the PCB:

Prototype PCB

Thank you all

Hello guys! I am a EE hardware. I am wondering (and please dont hate me for asking) but are you guys Only doing the hardware part or do you integrate a “software” into your solution?