Using development board in production stage

Zeni241
Posts: 85
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:28 am

Using development board in production stage

Postby Zeni241 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:39 pm

Is it a good idea to use development board in production stage for first version of product (and you are just testing the market of your product), if:
1. It fulfils your requirement.
2. You are not very sensitive about size of final product.
3.
What are the benefits of using custom PCB board apart from saving in size? Does it saves lot of money?

ESP_Sprite
Posts: 8921
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:08 am

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby ESP_Sprite » Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:21 am

It depends. A custom PCB is usually better for large-scale runs, as you can control the components better (devboards may happily change around LDOs, flash chips etc, or even change pinouts without informing customers) but a custom PCB also incurs more development time, and for small runs that may not be worth it.

As an intermediate, you can use e.g. an ESP32-Wrover module. These modules are well-specced and assumed to go into mass-produced devices, but as they already integrate all fiddly high-frequency things in the package, they're a lot easier to integrate than a 'raw' ESP32 chip.

Zeni241
Posts: 85
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:28 am

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby Zeni241 » Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:54 am

Thanks for reply.
. (devboards may happily change around LDOs, flash chips etc, or even change pinouts without informing customers

This didn't occurred to me.
As an intermediate, you can use e.g. an ESP32-Wrover module
How about WROOM with single core, it will use less power and suites for battery run.
Now that I am going for dev board, the big question which board to choose. It needs to be reliable as well as affordable. I was thinking about WEMOS ESP32. It's around $6 each. Other boards without battery inlet are cheaper but I don't know any reliable company which is also affordable. Any suggestions?

ESP_Sprite
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Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:08 am

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby ESP_Sprite » Tue Jun 25, 2019 8:11 am

As an Espressif employee, I'd suggest our own DevkitC boards, but obviously I'm slightly biased...

Franco
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:11 pm

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby Franco » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:20 pm

You can check the price of Espressif modules on the usual online distributors, and notice that the cost of an ESP32-WROOM-32D would be less than half the cost of an ESP32-devkitC. And you have more flash size options for the modules vs. ESP32-Devkits which have 4MB flash. Obviously the kit includes more devices like the LDO, USB to Serial converter etc.

Franco
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:11 pm

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby Franco » Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:24 am

This thread should be moved to Hardware

ESP_Sprite
Posts: 8921
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:08 am

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby ESP_Sprite » Sat Jun 29, 2019 2:26 am

Franco wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:24 am
This thread should be moved to Hardware
You're absolutely right; I moved it.

TomWS1
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 2:50 pm

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby TomWS1 » Sat Jun 29, 2019 3:34 pm

Another reason to use pre-existing modules in a product is that it is easier to get FCC, etc. approvals if you're using a module that is already approved.

chegewara
Posts: 2207
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2017 9:00 pm

Re: Using development board in production stage

Postby chegewara » Sat Jun 29, 2019 5:01 pm

I have clients that are using devkit-WROVER-B, m5stack and other boards available on market in their products that also are on market or are in pre-production stage.

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