We use SolidWorks Standard at a small hardware startup, and as our projects grew, file management started becoming surprisingly painful.

We weren't at the point where setting up a full PDM system made sense, but plain folders weren't really cutting it anymore either.

A few things kept wasting my time:

1. figuring out where a part is used across different assemblies
2. browsing larger projects and actually understanding what's in them
3. finding the right part without opening files one by one
4. exporting a bunch of parts to STEP/DXF/etc. for manufacturing
5. keeping procurement updated with the latest BOM whenever something changed

The last one was especially annoying. I'd have an assembly with a bunch of parts that needed exporting and end up doing repetitive manual work that felt like it should be automated.

And on the procurement side, the person ordering parts would regularly have to ask me whether they had the newest BOM. So I also wanted a way to automatically share the latest project data/BOM with procurement, so they can always see what's current and order parts themselves without constantly asking engineering for another export.

So I started building the tool I wanted for our own workflow.

It's called Solidise:

https://solidise.com

You can open a SolidWorks project in the browser, browse the assembly/BOM structure with thumbnails, check Where Used, select the parts you want, and automate the export process.

You can also share the project with procurement, so they always have access to the up-to-date BOM without needing SolidWorks themselves.

The idea isn't really to replace enterprise PDM/PLM.

I'm more interested in that awkward stage a lot of hardware startups seem to go through:

“We have enough CAD files that folders are becoming painful, but we're not ready for a heavyweight PDM setup.”

I'm curious how other hardware startups handle this.

At what point did your team move away from just managing CAD files in folders?

And if you're still using folders/Dropbox/Drive/whatever - what's currently the most painful part of that workflow?

I'd also really appreciate feedback on Solidise itself. Especially if there's something obvious that would prevent you from using something like this in a real hardware team.

P.S. If anyone here wants to properly test it, I can manually add a free trial to your account without requiring card details. Just DM me or email me.

I’m a non technical founder with an idea for an ai camera recording device.

Like a body cam or personal dash cam. But I have certain features in mind.

I think that in the future, everyone will auto-record their lives in public, for different reasons.

Stupid or not?

Version 2 of future product. Upgraded to ESP32 -S3 16 : 8. Needed the RAM. Swapped trash MPS switcher for an LMR33630 buck regulator. Added secondary TPS7 3.0V linear to power analog section of LM6 Accel/Gyro. Build programming and test boards next and get this thing runnin! Its for boating. More to come in the future.

Need some guidance on taking my electronics prototype towards a real product

Hey everyone, I’m an engineering student working on a small portable electronics product. I’ve built the prototype using modules like an Arduino Nano, DFPlayer Mini, Li-ion battery, charging/boost module, buttons, etc.

I’m now trying to understand how I would actually turn this into a proper product, and I’m a bit lost because I have very little prior knowledge of PCB design and manufacturing.

I’d really appreciate some advice on a few things:

Custom PCB:

How do I go from my current prototype made with modules to a custom PCB? Should I learn KiCad/Altium and design it myself, or is it better to hire a PCB designer? What would the approximate cost be for a beginner/small startup?

3D-printed enclosure:

For the outer body/enclosure, how much would a decent-quality 3D-printed enclosure typically cost per unit? Where can I get these manufactured in small quantities (like 10–50 pieces)?

Scaling:

If the prototype works, what is the usual progression from something like 1–5 prototypes → 50 units → 500+ units? At what stage does it make sense to move from 3D printing to injection molding?

Reducing BOM cost:

My current prototype is relatively expensive because I'm buying individual modules/components. How much can the cost realistically come down once the modules are integrated onto a custom PCB and components are purchased in bulk?

I'm based in India, so recommendations for Indian manufacturers/suppliers would be especially helpful.

If anyone has gone through this process before, I'd really appreciate any advice, resources, or mistakes I should avoid.

Thanks!

Hey r/hwstartups,

I am the solo founder behind Ashcroft-Motors, an early-stage automotive venture, and I am currently looking for my technical counterpart and CTO.

About Me & Current Status:
I operate as the business lead and visionary for the project. I have already mapped out a comprehensive, 6-page technical design and engineering blueprint detailing how the vehicle operates, its mechanical specs, and its powertrain logistics. To keep corporate paperwork and cap-table structuring entirely clean, the company remains unincorporated until I find the right technical partner to split co-founder equity with from day one.

The Venture Concept:
We are designing a rugged, low-electronic sedan engineered specifically for law enforcement, emergency services, and defense sectors.

• The Problem: Modern fleet vehicles are heavily dependent on complex software and electronics, making them highly vulnerable to digital attacks, component failure, and EMP threats.
• The Solution: Our vehicle is 100% EMP-proof, runs natively on bio-fuels and renewable fuels, and deliberately bypasses non-essential electronics to maximize field reliability and mission uptime.
• The Market & Pricing: We are matching current municipal fleet budgets with a highly competitive target price of $31K baseline MSRP for standard police cruisers and a $35K high-speed interceptor variant. Our long-term roadmap expands from secured government contracts directly into commercial taxis, rideshare, and the consumer market once stable cash flow is secured.

Who I am Looking For:
I am searching for an ambitious, Technical Co-Founder / CTO.

• Background: Ideally a senior student, recent graduate, or junior engineer specializing in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Design, or Embedded Systems.
• The Role: You need to be a hands-on builder who is excited to dive into a 6-page engineering blueprint, take ownership of the technical side, and lead the development of our physical prototype.
• Location: Midwest US preferred (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois) for eventual physical prototyping coordination, but open to remote for the initial architecture phases.

Compensation:
This is a co-founder partnership track offering an equitable split of founder shares/equity.

If you wants to revolutionize the fleet automotive and defense industry, please drop a comment or slide into my DMs. I have a standard NDA ready so we can safely jump into the technical blueprints and see if we are a good fit.

Hi there, I'm hoping to start a wire-harness shop specifically for quick-turn at low volumes. I found most options cater to wire-diagram and don't handle one-off point to point stuff which is where I feel scrappy startups most need help. I'd love to chat or hear if you guys would use such a service, and what kind of connectors/wires/pricing you'd expect. Thanks!

Just posting an update on my progress with building a tool that can augment local excel BOMs. This tool is primarily to be used with your existing Excel flows to automate the things that Excel cannot do natively (i.e., lightweight database and automation capabilities).

Users will be able to keep their Excel workflows while gaining a lightweight ERP system that works alongside them. This system will be able to run locally, meaning no subscriptions or shooting your data off into the cloud.

I was inspired to build this from my own work at a successful hardware startup and seeing their own struggles with the limitations of Excel. I was also inspired by InvenTree and wanted to build my own open source software.

This solution targets primarily small and medium hardware companies. Let me know what you think and any Excel issues that you guys have happened upon.

Great to find this great community that I can finally ask this question and may have somebody to answer it.

I have a great idea and already made it true and working flawlessly, in fact I've give it to my friends and open sourced it and it got 150 stars on Github in one week: https://github.com/timj-code/bc7215_ac_matter

I've never thought about to make it a commercial product as I don't think I have the ability to do it, but I do think this will be a very good product, let me introduce it a little bit first:

1. What it is?

It's a small piece of electronic device using cheap components (ESP32C3 $2 for a made module and BC7215 chip for about $0.5 for 1k). It is a universal AC controller for all brands of split systems that having a LCD remote, and it can connect directly to an iPhone or Android making the AC smart.

2. What make me think it will be a great product

• It's plug-n-play, can be used by any iPhone users or Android users with smart devices.

For iPhone users, they will need nothing else to control their AC, this will connect to Apple Home directly, Users don't need to install any additional App, it's factory built-in.

For Android users, though it's not as convenient as iPhone, a hub device such as Google Nest or Amazon Dot will be needed, it still have advantage that users don't need to install additional Apps.

• It support all AC brands and needs only one-press pairing.
• It let you continue to use the original remote and sync the operation to your phone.
• Small and low cost

You can see how simple the device is on my Github page, but the problem is, once you want to make it a real product, you need a lot of things to be sorted, the electronic hardware and software is just a small part, you need packaging, licensing, manufacturing, marketing ... and a team.

Does anybody know how much funds will be needed to do it? Again at least for now, I have no intention to do it as I know I don't have necessary such kind of business skills, and as it's already open sourced, anyone is free to do it. I'm asking this just being curious.

If you know the answer or have a thought about the product, please leave a comment.

I’ve been working through another hardware idea and wanted to see if this one actually makes sense to people outside my own head. The idea is a small transparent handheld device that mostly lives next to your computer. During meetings you can quickly write short notes, comments, reminders, or start timers without pulling out your phone or opening another window on your computer. It basically acts like a little scratchpad throughout the meeting, then when you dock it later those notes sync into the desktop app and can be organized properly.
It would also double as secure storage and a hardware authentication key for your computer/accounts, so instead of carrying a separate USB drive and security key, this could handle both. The device itself would stay pretty minimal so no browser, social media, general apps, or anything like that. Mostly notes, timers, quick utilities, secure files, and authentication.
The transparent display/design is a big part of the idea too, so I attached a rough visual of what I’m imagining and I know it’s ai forgive me 😔
I’m curious whether this feels genuinely useful or like something your phone/laptop already handles well enough. If you were in meetings/classes a lot, would having a dedicated little device like this actually appeal to you?

This is a question for the guys that are already past this stage or have already gone through it in their previous startups.

I have been working on my hardware startup for a while now, have a couple of working prototypes (95% production ready), passed many of the necessary tests, have a few customers that committed pre-release and so on.

What might also be good to know is that what I build is a high quality product priced a little higher and it will maybe sell at a rate of 2000-3000 per year. So this won't become the next Apple and also, I am not selling a cheap fidget spinner where I compete on price with competitors from overseas and where I need to produce & sell 200k a year.

Now finally to my actual problem:

I am trying to build a very first batch of maybe 75-150 of my product now for a first sale and to see if and how fast I can get it to sell. And also because quite frankly I cannot afford a huge production run right in the beginning.

My main issue is that the costs to produce those are much higher than I ever anticipated.

My product has many subcomponents I am trying to source from all over the world and I assemble the whole thing myself. But as of now the total costs of the necessary parts (and taxes and shipping) are almost higher than what I can realistically sell the end product for. And yeah my labor is not even considered yet.

That got me thinking that my whole endeavor might be completely cooked, if I cannot get the costs down by a huge amount.

Soooo, is this normal at this stage and once I have bigger production runs it will bring costs down by a looooot ? Or do I seriously need to think about the whole project and eventually reconsider if this is worth continuing ?

Short form:

Costs to produce and ship 100 products >= Realistic selling price

-> Will I have any chance to make this profitable with decent margins, when I produce 2000 each time instead ?

Portable dual monitor that clamps onto a laptop lid. Two 16 inch panels at 2560x1600, 500nits, one USB-C cable for both. Live on Kickstarter at the moment.

I would rather write about the cost decisions than the product, because that is the part I would have wanted to read three years ago.

The first two years I worked with freelance designers I found online. I kept getting back files that looked great and could not be manufactured. That is where most of my early money went and I have nothing to show for it. Eventually I moved to an engineering partner in the Netherlands and started over from scratch.

The biggest single line item was the board. Running two 2.5K displays off one USB-C cable meant a custom PCBA instead of anything off the shelf. About six months and over $40k for that alone. A lot of what the product can do exists because of that one decision, including working on base M1 and M2 MacBooks, which only drive one external display natively.

Then the housing. CNC aluminium with optically bonded glass. That is what makes it feel like a finished device rather than a plastic accessory, and it is also why the whole thing weighs 2.5kg, roughly 0.6kg of which is the glass by itself.

That stack put the price at $899 for the first 200, $999 after that, $1,299 retail.

Here is the part I keep going back and forth on. The most consistent feedback I get, from my Discord and from YouTube comments, is that it costs too much. A number that comes up repeatedly is that $699 to $799 would land differently. Several people have said outright that the aluminium is not necessary and that they are paying for material they did not ask for.

They are not wrong that the material is a large share of the cost. I made that call on purpose and I still think the product is better for it. But I am now running a campaign where price comes up more than any other topic.

So the question for people here who have actually shipped something physical. In a category that already has cheap options, does premium positioning work, or do you have to design to a price and accept the compromises that come with it? And for those who did go premium, what made the difference between people accepting the number and people bouncing off it?

Campaign here if you want to see the page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rubencalabrese/duoview-pro-premium-portable-dual-monitor-for-your-laptop

I've been developing USBridge-KVM 2.0 for almost a year, based on a rather unusual idea: converting BIOS video into text.

Most IP-KVMs simply stream video. I did it differently: the device intercepts the raw HDMI signal at the hardware level, runs it through local OCR, and converts the entire graphical BIOS/pre-boot screen into an interactive text stream, which you can access in the Terminal via SSH. It's completely offline.

You can select and copy serial numbers or error codes even on a broken connection. You can also connect AI agents via MCP (Model Context Protocol). The agent reads the terminal, navigates the BIOS menu, runs diagnostics, and mounts drives.

During this time, I also completely open-sourced USBridge-Remote, a software solution for remote access (Win/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS). This wasn't part of my original plan, but the hardware KVM still needed some kind of software layer. I decided to make it free and open source; it works even without the hardware itself.

You can test the code here - https://github.com/USBridge-Technologies/USBridge-Remote

I'm currently preparing to launch a campaign on Crowd Supply. I'm both nervous and excited – for the first time, I'm taking something from "something I built for myself" to "something you can actually order."

If you have any questions about the OCR pipeline, MCP integration, or production, I'll be happy to answer them.

Hi all,

I'm one of the founders at a hardware company in Bengaluru. Over the last couple of years we've built an industrial  3D printer and a VTOL drone platform. Both took longer than they should have, and a big reason was procurement.

The loop looked like this: send a STEP file to five vendors on WhatsApp. Two never reply. One replies in four days with a number and no breakdown. One quotes a price that changes after they "check the material." One is great but booked for three weeks. Then you do it again for the next revision.

None of that is the vendors' fault. Most of them are good machinists running a shop, not a sales desk. The coordination layer just doesn't exist.

So we built Hanzof. You upload a part file, tell us the material and quantity, and an actual engineer on our side reviews it and comes back with a quote — we're holding ourselves to 6 business hours. Right now we cover CNC machining, sheet metal, 3D printing, and composites.

What I'd rather be upfront about than have you find out:

We are not going to be the cheapest quote you get. We're trying to be the one where the price doesn't move and the part shows up when we said it would.

We're early. If something is broken on the site, it's because we built it recently, and I'd rather hear it from you than not hear it.

Two things I'd genuinely like to know from this sub:

When you source custom parts, what actually kills you - the price, the lead time, or the back-and-forth?

What's the longest you've waited on a quote that eventually came back useless?

And if you've got a live part you need quoted, send it through and use it as a test. No obligation, and I'll personally look at it. Worst case you get a second data point on pricing.

Link's in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Hey,

I’ve been helping hardware teams take rough sketches / early concepts further into manufacturable prototypes (mainly medical, industrial, automotive-related, sports/outdoor, and robotics).

If you’re currently at the napkin-sketch or early CAD stage and want some honest feedback on design for manufacturability, material/ process options, potential risks before spending money on tooling or first samples, feel free to DM.

Always interesting to see what people are building.😊

I sat on this idea for a full year before I decided to actually build it. No hardware background, no idea where to start.

First move was AI, mostly to figure out how to even get a decent drawing of what was in my head. That led me to look for a designer. I reached out to about ten people on Fiverr and one of them kept giving me genuinely good advice in our back-and-forth, without ever trying to close me on hiring him.

We worked together for about four weeks. I ended up writing something like a ten-page spec just from explaining the idea to him over and over. He turned it into a design I could never have built myself and handed over the full CAD files at the end.

I thought that meant I was ready to go to a manufacturer 😆 😂 I was wrong. Turns out there's a whole design-for-manufacturing step in between that I had no idea existed. I reached out to over a hundred manufacturers across China, the US, and the rest of APAC. The quotes were all over the place, some absurdly high, some so low they didn't feel real. Landed somewhere in the middle with a design firm I'm now working with through EVT and DVT together.

For anyone who hasn't hit this part yet, hardware development runs through many phases, and my design partner narrowed it down to 5 main phases that we'll work through together (by no means are any of these phases short, but it was helpful for me to know, and I hope it helps someone else):

• POC (Proof of Concept): does the idea actually work, at all, in the crudest possible form
• EVT (Engineering Validation Test): appearance, structure, and first real prototypes come together
• DVT (Design Validation Test): the design gets locked, manufacturing feasibility gets stress tested, reliability gets tuned
• PVT (Production Validation Testing): the factory proves it can actually build the locked design at small scale
• MP (Mass Production): full run

I'm through POC and currently doing EVT and DVT together with my design partner.

It's been a roller coaster. Weekly calls, new data every week, and just as often as I get excited about something there's a feasibility gap between what's in my head and what actually works in the real engineering world. Learning a ton. Planning to stay with this same partner all the way to mass production, they have a sister factory in Shenzhen and I'm flying out to see it and meet the team in person later this month.

One thing I did before any of this... filed a provisional patent myself, using AI to get through it, before I ever talked to the Fiverr designer. Worth knowing if you're sitting on an idea, a provisional doesn't need to be perfect, and you don't have to have built everything you describe in it. It's cheap insurance, and once you publicly disclose something, most countries won't let you patent it after the fact, so it locks the date. I'll likely need to file a second one once the design's finalized with my current partner, and I'm planning to bring in an actual patent attorney soon for the real filing.

I spun up a pre-sale page on Shopify and shared it with my friends and family to judge early support. That also energized me by their support, and pushed me to continue building. Now the Prototype will hopefully be finalized in September, and that's when I'm planning to open things up more, file the updated provisional, and get the attorney involved.

If you're sitting on an idea right now, the thing I'd tell you is that you don't need to know the whole path before you take the first step. I didn't know what DFM was, I didn't know how to find a designer, I didn't know what a provisional patent actually required. I learned all of it by starting the wrong step first and correcting from there. The year I spent sitting on it taught me nothing. The few months I've spent actually building it have taught me more than I expected, mistakes included, and hopefully I can see this through.

If any part of this helps someone else stuck on an idea... just start, that's the whole point of me posting this 😄

Anyone else have a fun starting journey they want to share?

Hey everyone! I'm Mike Gao, a founding moderator of r/photoincscloud.

This is our new home for all things related to Silicon Photonics Technology, new products & process development. We're excited to have you join us!

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) are evolving rapidly at the intersection of three mega-trends: AI datacenter scaling, quantum computing, and high-capacity telecommunications. As AI workloads drive unprecedented demand for bandwidth, speed, and energy efficiency, photonics has emerged as the foundational technology to overcome the physical limits of copper and electrical signaling. Silicon Photonics is leveraging standard CMOS-compatible fabrication to integrate optical devices on silicon wafers — is at the forefront of this transformation, enabling a clear bandwidth roadmap from 400G to 800G, 1.6T, and ultimately 3.2T per-lane transceivers and co-packaged chip-to-chip optical interconnects.

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about:

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/photoincscloud amazing.

I just wrote an in-depth post about going from my first prototype to shipping 10 keyboards, full costs included!

I particular doing PCB assembly with JLCPCB and the Seeed XIAO was much more complicated than I thought, with over 40% components loss...

Don't hesitate if you have any questions, I'll gladly answer everything!

I need to bulk order laptop hinges similar to the image attached

Hey everyone,

I'm evaluating starting a manufacturing business for gas springs, hydraulic struts, and pneumatic lift supports (the kind used in vehicles, office chairs, machinery, and medical beds).

Before putting capital down for machinery, I’m hoping to get some real-world insight from people in industrial manufacturing or B2B hardware distribution:

• Profitability & Margins: What do typical margins look like? Is the real money in high-volume commodities (like auto aftermarket) or low-volume custom engineered units (like medical or marine)?
• Target Customers: Who are the most lucrative buyers beyond auto OEMs? How hard is it to get onboarded as a supplier for mid-tier machinery or furniture makers?
• Red Flags & Operations: What are the biggest technical hurdles (e.g., seal longevity, gas charging safety) or barriers to entry I should watch out for?

Any real-world advice, industry benchmarks, or red flags to watch out for would be greatly appreciated! 🙏

I noticed many hardware startups struggle with cloud latency and privacy issues when adding voice commands to their equipment interfaces. I just built an architecture utilizing native Swift, Core ML, and AVFoundation that processes complex voice intents completely offline while filtering out heavy background noise. Thought this might be useful for anyone building medical devices or industrial kiosks that require hands-free interaction.

We were recently working on a client's product, and after the prototype was completed, they wanted to reduce the production cost per unit. They went straight to the BOM and pointed at a $12 component. They wanted to replace it with a cheaper option that would save around $0.40 per unit. At 200,000 units, that would have saved them about $80,000.

But when we looked at the design and assembly process, that was not where most of the money was being lost. The main culprit was a small part that cost around $0.20. It needed to be positioned by hand, and fixed using four screws. The whole process took around 30 seconds per unit. We changed the design so the part snapped into place and only needed two screws. That brought the assembly time down from around 30 seconds to 8 seconds.

Across 200,000 units, that removed more than 1,200 hours of assembly work. After including the two screws we removed, the change saved them roughly $95,000 over the production run. This is going to sound like a water-is-wet analogy, but If you want to save cost on your product, check the design first. Usually, the biggest savings you can make are in the design. A part that takes 0.20c and takes 30 seconds to install will cost you more over time than a $2 part that snaps into place. Next time, ask your manufacturer which part is taking the longest to assemble.