Type of device?
Power source?
Potential emissions ?
Quantity per year expected?
Country of origin?
Areas exporting to?
I am not the OP, but in contrast to you I have read his posts:
- Current deskew device
- Powered from USB-C or external 5V.
- Emissions: not much info, expecpt that he considers them unproblematic.
- Selling specialized lab equipment on Tindie or ebay, so probably a couple dozen.
- Country of origin Belgium
- Plans to sell to Europe only (for now)
Wow, i was not expecting so much feedback! Have been busy, sorry for lack of feedback.
I think adafruit got around the thing by selling 'kits'. So add the headers so it's required you alter the product, and that way the liability changes to the end user.
Since i can do emissions measurement and conducted measurements, i can provide data which only takes me some time.
It's true that full compliant measurements are in the order of 10K for a product to be tested. Here in belgium it's the Blueguide EMC lab, that can handle such things.
Normally you would do pre-compliance at home, to work out the kinks of the product. And then do a pre-compliance test (2K i think), before spending much more on the fully compliant tests.
It's a bit chicken and egg problem i think, you need to know your product sells (enough interest), and then you can be assured you will get the money back.
But producing a USB > UART converter like the CH340 boards you see everywhere, it's nearly impossible to make profit for this.
There is a 'low voltage directive' for sub 50V that is cheaper. So making the devices work with 24V or USB-C, will alleviate a lot of hassle.
I do have an LLC to put everything behind, with a good insurance when things do turn south.
The products are mostly for lab use, so one could assume that they know what they are doing, adding the hobbyist / prototype remark just wont cut it i assume.
I'm going to launch with a RF prototyping board, it's just a PCB with SMA connectors they can solder on.
Also some LED boards, which are just some leds on a PCB.
I think i can get away with not measuring them, because they are a 'sub-assembly'.
The current deskew device (which puts a fast square wave on a wire) will spew out a lot of EMI i guess.
But you need a fast rising edge, to actually measure the time deskew from your current probe. So the product is inherently a mess to get qualified i guess.
The radiation / conduction critical products i will test before launching (to be sure), and then maybe provide the measurements in the manual ?
It's the wild west out there, but making low cost hardware for DIY people is not really accounted for in the legislation, unless there are some excemptions for this ?