June 02, 2021

Standardizing Manufacturing with Pete Staples

1 hour 19 minutes

Today’s episode is sponsored by Mouser Electronics. They are on the show talking about predictive maintenance this week and how the technology will change industries like automotive and industrial processing. To learn more, check out TheAmpHour.com/predictive.

Welcome Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices!

Blue Clover Devices (BCD) is "The IOT ODM"

ODMs are a flavor of CM where they do more of the design work

Busy EEs use their services to take on more of the design work

Most products are on a 9 month cycle. Some smaller designs (like a recent SiFive dev board) are shorter timelines.

Facilities:

Started in LA

Shenzhen

Now have an SF office (where Pete is located)

They reluctantly started mfg in China, because CMs wouldn't take on the work.

The factory started with "Screwdriver work" (assembly), but have moved on to PCBA and precision cable

Core of workers help to mentor younger workers

Pete took an MBA class in operations but he didn't expect the difficulties with manufacturing

Container party

Taking stuff to china: comes down to economics. Doing it for products making less than $1M per year doesn't make much sense.

Learn manufacturing locally first.

Pete checked out CMs in the bay area and didn't think they could add much value otherwise.

Devices like the LPKF and Nano Dimension Dragon Fly aren't good substitutes for a PCB house

BCD's flagship product is the PLT

PLT200 - targets IoT devices like nRF52 (described in Embedded.fm episode)

PLT300 - targets Linux devices

The PLT acts as a bridge between developers and factory

Programming and testing devices on a line

Internally:

Programmable power supply

Souped up JLink

DMM

Volage

Current

Freq counter

Linux computer

UART interaction as well

CAN bus

Many test stands are Labview based, so they are tied to that location

With the PLT, can have one in the US and one in the factory

Revision control and using CI/CD

Not built for design validation (like NI or test equipment mfg)

How does PLT talk back?

PLT cloud - a portal to manage devices

Needs to be a secure connection

Slack app integration

The PLT hooks to the ICT (In Circuit Tester)

Supports 48 digital and 45 analog test points

The cassette is custom, but can be used again with future designs

Webhooks allow for pulling serial numbers

Box is enrolled to an organization

PLTs used in China

Not blocked, but network isn't always reliable

Needs internet to work

YAML test script

Different steps might be connecting up to the PLT

Test Plan Reference

Scanner / label printer works at a lower level than Jan was talking about on the show

Release can be Zebra label format

How is data being used?

Example: product with 3 circuit boards

Gage R&R

PLT running Zephyr and linux

Trends: things are going up market and have more Linux in them. There will still be a separation due to power, cost.

Blue Clover is working on having less environmental impact after the pandemic

Working with people in the climate neutral community

Food and apparel have talked about sourcing their materials

Check out bcdevices.com for more info

Twitter @petestaples

To get a free USB cable: email [email protected]

...more

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By The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)

4.9

226226 ratings

June 02, 2021

Standardizing Manufacturing with Pete Staples

1 hour 19 minutes

Welcome Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices!

Blue Clover Devices (BCD) is "The IOT ODM"

ODMs are a flavor of CM where they do more of the design work

Busy EEs use their services to take on more of the design work

Most products are on a 9 month cycle. Some smaller designs (like a recent SiFive dev board) are shorter timelines.

Facilities:

Started in LA

Shenzhen

Now have an SF office (where Pete is located)

They reluctantly started mfg in China, because CMs wouldn't take on the work.

The factory started with "Screwdriver work" (assembly), but have moved on to PCBA and precision cable

Core of workers help to mentor younger workers

Pete took an MBA class in operations but he didn't expect the difficulties with manufacturing

Container party

Taking stuff to china: comes down to economics. Doing it for products making less than $1M per year doesn't make much sense.

Learn manufacturing locally first.

Pete checked out CMs in the bay area and didn't think they could add much value otherwise.

Devices like the LPKF and Nano Dimension Dragon Fly aren't good substitutes for a PCB house

BCD's flagship product is the PLT

PLT200 - targets IoT devices like nRF52 (described in Embedded.fm episode)

PLT300 - targets Linux devices

The PLT acts as a bridge between developers and factory

Programming and testing devices on a line

Internally:

Programmable power supply

Souped up JLink

DMM

Volage

Current

Freq counter

Linux computer

UART interaction as well

CAN bus

Many test stands are Labview based, so they are tied to that location

With the PLT, can have one in the US and one in the factory

Revision control and using CI/CD

Not built for design validation (like NI or test equipment mfg)

How does PLT talk back?

PLT cloud - a portal to manage devices

Needs to be a secure connection

Slack app integration

The PLT hooks to the ICT (In Circuit Tester)

Supports 48 digital and 45 analog test points

The cassette is custom, but can be used again with future designs

Webhooks allow for pulling serial numbers

Box is enrolled to an organization

PLTs used in China

Not blocked, but network isn't always reliable

Needs internet to work

YAML test script

Different steps might be connecting up to the PLT

Test Plan Reference

Scanner / label printer works at a lower level than Jan was talking about on the show

Release can be Zebra label format

How is data being used?

Example: product with 3 circuit boards

Gage R&R

PLT running Zephyr and linux

Trends: things are going up market and have more Linux in them. There will still be a separation due to power, cost.

Blue Clover is working on having less environmental impact after the pandemic

Working with people in the climate neutral community

Food and apparel have talked about sourcing their materials

Check out bcdevices.com for more info

Twitter @petestaples

To get a free USB cable: email [email protected]

...more

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More shows like The Amp Hour

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

This Week in Tech (Audio)

Security Now (Audio)

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Talk Python To Me

SpyCast

SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Cyber Security Podcast (Stormcast)

Embedded

Smashing Security

Darknet Diaries

Physics World Weekly Podcast

Practical AI

Hackaday Podcast

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Robinson's Podcast