Frequently asked questions

mBedrock comes from the conjugation of two words: embedded and bedrock. As a company, we design hardware and firmware that is the foundation (bedrock) of an embedded product. We pronounce the name as `embed-rock`.

Please fill out this form to give us important information that'll help us serve you better.

mBedrock can help you with two services:

1. ODM product design and manufacturing

2. Turnkey EMS for your designs

Our core competency is ODM services for electronics products. We can design custom hardware, managing hardware manufacturing logistics and write low-level firmware and software.

We are adept at multi-layer hardware designs based on microprocessors and microcontrollers with specialisation in low-power designs for any application.

Our ODM services are supported by our automated, turnkey EMS service - so you don't need to juggle between multiple vendors to bring your ideas to life. Your teams can focus on the parts of the product where you bring most value.

Yes, we can! Reach out to us at support@mbedrock.com and if we're able to, we'd be happy to help. We can take care of the design and manufacturing of the hardware (through our PCBKingdom service) and deliver it to you so you can focus on the software.

Maybe! We prioritise work where we handle the hardware design and manufacturing. That way we're completely responsible for the hardware working and we don't spend time supporting a different manufacturing workflow to our own.

Reach out to us at support@mbedrock.com and if we're able to, we'd be happy to help. We'd be happy to walk you through our PCBKingdom service to see if it can fit your manufacturing needs.

We use a monthly retainership model to work on ODM designs. Please refer to our Pricing page for details. Clients will get access to qualified HW and SW engineers, UX and Industrial design specialists in order to:

1. Come up with a well-defined HW and SW specification for the product if one isn't present

2. Work on HW design, Schematics and Layout of the electronics based on specifications

3. Write application firmware and test suites

4. Work on Enclosure design, UX testing, 3D printed prototyping and mould manufacturing

5. Electronics Manufacturing including PCB, component procurement and assembly

6. Box building and factory flashing

7. If required, we can work on ongoing software maintenance and offer managed warranty and repair services

You are welcome to cancel the service at anytime if you change your mind. You will only be charged until the end of the current month.

We do not do pro-rated billing except for the first month when a project starts.

In other words, except for the first month where the project might start at any time, we will bill for the entire month in subsequent months. We assign engineers and specialists to projects for at least one month.

We avoid fixed-cost projects for the following reasons:

1. Most HW projects don't have a well-defined specification for the inputs and outputs which then causes multiple iterations of HW

   • The multiple iterations to get to an MVP specification increase design costs

2. Most HW projects require an indeterminate amount of R&D

   • Specifications change as a result of new information found during prototype testing that wasn't known in the design stage

   • As the prototypes get tested, the specifications change quite often in response to customer feedback

   • This again leads to additional design costs

However, if you have a really well-defined specification, reach out to us at support@mbedrock.com and if we're able to, we'd be happy to quote a price for a fixed-cost project.

Yes, we accept commissions for custom enclosure design if it is part of a turnkey project where we're also designing the electronics. This makes it easy for us to argue with ourselves when the connectors on the PCB aren't quite aligned with the openings in the enclosure. :-)

It depends on the complexity of the design. From a month to several months, depending on how much customisation is needed for the electronics and enclosure design.

We first need to gather the requirements, do component selection to fit the requirements, design the schematics for the circuit followed by the layout on the board. Finally all the signals are routed. There are cross-checks and testing involved at each stage to ensure that the board is operating with-in the design parameters. Each of these requires anywhere from a day to several weeks of effort depending on the complexity.

Product design takes time too since everyone has their ideas on what they'd like the enclosure to look and feel like.

The up to date timelines can be obtained on PCBKingdom, but we try to keep it down to under 6 weeks after the order is paid for. We routinely do much shorter timelines of 2 weeks or less for repeat, prepaid orders and users of our product inventory services.