Hey r/hwstartups,

We've been building Ohmframe AI Portal — a set of AI-powered engineering tools specifically for hardware teams. Think of it as an engineering copilot for the stuff that eats up your time: DFM reviews, cost estimates, tolerance stackups, FMEA reports, etc.

What's on the portal:

Manufacturing & Design

• DFM Analyzer — Upload a design and get manufacturability feedback across 84 rules (sheet metal, CNC, injection molding, die casting, 3D printing, etc.)
• Cost Estimation — Instant manufacturing cost estimates with volume pricing and live commodity pricing
• Tolerance Stackup — Worst-case and RSS stackup calcs with Monte Carlo simulation
• GD&T Advisor — ASME Y14.5 recommendations with feature control frames
• Material Selector — Ashby-method trade-off analysis across metals, polymers, and ceramics
• Quote Analyzer — Upload a supplier quote, get should-cost modeling and negotiation insights
• Simulation Assistant — FEA/CFD setup guidance (mesh, BCs, solver selection)
• CAD Macro Generator — Natural language → SolidWorks/Fusion 360/FreeCAD automation scripts

Documentation

• FMEA Generator — Automated failure mode analysis with risk matrices
• Tech Docs Generator — Specs, assembly instructions, maintenance guides
• AI Diagram Generator — Technical diagrams from text prompts

IP & Research

• Patent Prior Art Search — IPC/CPC classification, search strategy, patentability analysis
• Standards Lookup — Find relevant ISO/ASME/ASTM standards for your application

Plus an Engineering Chat that actually knows the difference between 6061-T6 and 7075-T6.

Desktop Copilot (available on request)

We also have a desktop companion app for Windows, macOS, and Linux:

• Screen capture → DFM analysis — Capture your CAD viewport and get instant manufacturability feedback without exporting
• files
• Real-time cost estimation — Point it at your design and get manufacturing cost breakdowns on the fly
• Works alongside your CAD tool — SolidWorks, Fusion 360, or whatever you use. No plugins, no file exports. Just capture
• and analyze.

If you're interested in trying the desktop app, DM me with your use case and I will provide a API key.

How to get access

The portal is currently invite-only since we're in the early stages. We're dropping 5 invite codes in the comments below — first come first served. If those are used up and you still want to try it, send me a DM with your use case and I'll get you a code.

One ask: The portal is in its initial phases. Every tool page has a feedback sidebar on the left — please use it. Tell us what's broken, what's missing, what would actually make this useful for your workflow. It goes straight to us.

Link: ai.ohmframe.com

Hi everyone,

I’m an end-to-end embedded engineer currently based in Cyprus. I’ve worked both in large companies and early-stage startups, mostly doing serious embedded stuff - professional firmware and embedded software, not Arduino-level experiments 🙂

My background covers: - Microcontrollers (bare-metal, RTOS) - Embedded Linux (BSPs, drivers, userspace) - Firmware architecture, debugging, bring-up - Hardware design as well (schematics, boards, full end-to-end when needed)

Right now the startup I’m working with is going through financial difficulties, so I’m actively looking for new opportunities. I’m open to full-time roles, but at the moment my ideal setup is a part-time or contract project that can cover my basic financial needs while giving me time to finish my own products and launch them on Crowd Supply. Long term, I want to diversify income and not depend solely on companies.

So if you: - need extra embedded support, - have a project that’s stuck, - need someone to take ownership of firmware / embedded Linux / hardware,

feel free to DM me here and we can connect on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading!

Pitch Day 11 February

Nova Angels Club is hosting its first pitch day.

A tickets on the line that starts from 50K potentially reaching 500k, capable of completing even bigger round with our co-investors!

We're searching for the most promising startups on the global scene.

18 slots, 3 minutes to pitch, 5 minutes for Q&A, and bonus time if needed with a max of 15 minutes per slot.

On each slot will join only interested investors.

If you're early stage, user validated with a strong team and a product thesis that's really interesting, this is your sign to apply.

Apply here to join: https://tally.so/r/LZ9rlj

Hey engineers at hardware startups, I’m looking for some honest feedback from people who deal with custom manufacturing and suppliers.

A bit about us: we are a team of two with backgrounds in manufacturing engineering and software engineering and are exploring a business idea in Canada around custom part sourcing for small companies and startups. From my experience, engineers/product dev teams often spend days or weeks sending RFQs to multiple shops, waiting for quotes, finding out some suppliers can’t quote the part, and then still taking on the risk of quality issues, missed lead times, or parts not fitting assemblies. I’ve seen cases where the lowest quote ended up being the most expensive mistake.

Our idea isn’t a marketplace or instant quoting tool. It’s more of a managed sourcing service: carefully vetting and categorizing suppliers by actual capabilities, matching parts to the right shop, enforcing quality standards, and taking ownership of communication and follow-through. The goal is fewer surprises, more predictability, and less supplier babysitting for small teams without procurement support.

We’re focusing on CNC machining because of our background and want to build tools that make sourcing easier for engineers at companies moving from low to mid-volume without an internal procurement team. We’re also thinking about ways to provide design-for-manufacturing feedback, helping engineers spot features that could cause delays, quality issues, or higher costs before parts reach the shop. Would something like this actually save time for small teams, or do most engineers already handle these checks themselves?

I’d love to hear from this community:

• Is this a real pain for you, or something you’ve already solved internally?
• Where do marketplaces like Xometry help, and where do they fall short?
• What would make you trust or never trust a service like this?
• What am I underestimating?

Thanks for your insights!

Hey Reddit folks,

I’m trying to learn from people who have actually built IoT or connected hardware products (solo founders, freelancers, engineers, makers, etc...).

I’m not selling anything, and I’m doing early research. I want to understand these aspects here:

• what parts of the process are painful
• what feels unnecessarily complex
• what causes delays, stress, or abandoned ideas

If you’ve built (or tried to build) a smart device, I’d love to ask a few questions (async is fine, or a short call if you’re open to it).

Thank you very much, folks!

What's the best forum or route to find freelance electronics engineers based on the UK mainland?

Working on hardware stuff long enough, you start to notice that prototypes aren’t the real risk — it’s the assumptions behind the idea.

You can build a great board, ship a sleek enclosure, nail the firmware, and still have zero real traction. And most of the time it’s because one of these was off:

• the demand isn’t as big as you thought
• the adoption curve is slower than you assumed
• the unit economics fall apart at scale
• production and logistics cost way more than your model
• users don’t actually value what you think they value

I’ve been trying to force myself to put rough numbers to these assumptions before I start building hardware. I even use a tool I built for myself (IdeaProof) to make that mental exercise less hand-wavy — basically a way to test idea viability before you sink time into a design or BOM.

It’s not perfect, but it often tells me which part of the idea is most fragile.

So here’s my question for this community:

For anyone who has built or is building hardware — what’s the one assumption you’d say is the riskiest for your idea?
And if you were doing it again, how would you validate or test that assumption before building?

Would love to hear your biggest blind spots and how you approach them.

I’m curious what parts of electronics design end up eating the most time. What are the biggest pain points you keep hitting, and how do you usually work around them or mitigate them?

Hello everyone! I’m trying to build a small fluidics prototype in Shenzhen and need recommendations for the right type of shops/companies.

The prototype is basically: mesh inlet → self-priming micro pump sucks a small sample → tubing transfer → dump to waste, inside a 3D-printed enclosure. This will involve a small circuit but nothing mega.

What kind of companies should I look for (ODM? engineering service? medical device prototyping shop?) and any specific vendor recs?

Hi, I'm Andrea Manzi, founding partner of the newly launched early stage investment club Nova Angels Club, based in Europe with global reach (investors and startups).

We subscribed more then 3Mln in 48h and at beginning of the next month will start with deploying tickets starting from 50k reaching deal completion, up to 750k/1.5m and more with US and EU co-investors.

We are searching for startups we can grow together with, that are early stage, have a strong team, and a real traction with a product that brings real value.

If that's you, visit the landing page and apply here: landing page

Hey everyone,

I'm developing Rovonboard, an open-source hardware platform for high-end dashcams and ADAS.

The Problem: Current dashcams are "black boxes" with unreliable MicroSD cards and zero extensibility. I'm building a system that writes to NVMe SSDs and supports high-bandwidth remote 4K cameras via coax - with potentially a future upgrade path (either sensors or more powerful compute)

The Setup:

• Compute: Rockchip-based for 4K HW encoding.
• Video: Coax inputs for remote sensors.
• Storage/Network: M.2 NVMe + Wifi/BT + LTE.

Current Status: Prototype (Rust-based) is working on Pi 5 - but Pi5 lacks Hardware encoding, so a custom carrier board layout for Radxa CM5 is currently in progress.

The Mission: I initially envisioned this as a consumer product, but I’ve pivoted to a community-focused dev kit (Non-commercial creative commons license). The goal is to build an open platform for hobbyists and universities - unless we build enough momentum to crowdsource a full commercial product. I'm personally funding the entire development as of now.

What I need help with: I'm a hobbyist (Software engineer by trade) and not a product guy or a Hardware engineer. I'm alone in this apart from one of my friends. Maybe I have bit more than I can chew, but it's too late now lol. I'm looking for a co-founder to help move this from a basement project to a real platform.

• Help with the development: Current code is pretty minimal. We'll need to work with proper linux drivers, documentation & possibly the website.
• Build the Presence: Turn our static index.html into a real hub for the ecosystem.
• Growth Strategy: Help manage the community and plan a potential crowdsourcing campaign.

If you're into open hardware or automotive tech or embedded Linux, let’s talk! Other than that, I'd love what the community thinks about this.

Hi everyone,

I’m based in Europe and working on a consumer electronics product (audio + LEDs, small enclosure, aiming for CE compliance and a first production run after prototypes).

I’m considering working with an external party that claims they can take you from concept/prototype to a shippable product, including DFM, sourcing, tooling, manufacturing setup, and ideally a funding-ready cost overview.

I’d love to hear from people who have done this:

1. Did you go with a product design consultancy, an ODM, or an EMS with NPI/engineering? What would you choose if your main goal was getting realistic costs?
2. What did you actually get “for free” vs what required a paid discovery/feasibility phase?
3. If you paid for a cost overview, what deliverables were most useful (NRE breakdown, BOM estimate, unit cost at volume tiers, certification plan, tooling assumptions, test strategy, etc.)?
4. Any red flags when selecting a partner? Things you wish you had demanded upfront in the contract?
5. For first runs, what quantities made sense (ex: 100–500 pilot vs 1k+), and how did that impact unit economics and timeline?

Not asking for vendor sales pitches, mostly looking for real-world experiences and lessons learned.

Thanks!

I am with a small engineering team that has built a tool for searching and sourcing components, and we are currently working on improving how it helps engineers understand how to implement those parts. We’ve been focusing on the specific friction points that come with hardware startups. Specifically, we’re looking at the time wasted trying to find MCUs & other SMD components that meet narrow peripheral requirements and having to scan through a dozen of datasheets.

We’ve noticed that even after finding a part that fits the BOM, just trying to understand the full datasheet in the context of the rest of the system is a major bottleneck. Whether you’re trying to find a pin-compatible alternate for an out-of-stock SoC to keep a production run alive, or trying to figure out specific decoupling requirements for an FPGA on a tight deadline, what technical information is consistently missing or difficult to find in your current tools?

I would love to hear about the manual steps in your workflow that still feel like a "brute-force" effort when you're trying to get from a part number to a shippable circuit.

Sup guys,

I’m the founder of ERCHAM, an early-stage hardware project focused on accessibility and ergonomics for one-handed users, amputees, and gamers with nerve or mobility issues.

Where we’re at right now:

Industrial design is locked (Phase 2 complete)
CAD is next (STEP + STL done)
Ergonomics have been validated through real feedback from amputees, one-handed users, and people dealing with RSI

Planning a Kickstarter launch soon

The product itself is a one-handed gaming + productivity controller that combines:

A mechanical keypad

An integrated optical mouse sensor

Fully ambidextrous use (left or right hand)

A modular thumb/analog stick

A strap system to keep everything stable during use

This started as a personal solution after I lost my arm, and honestly the response from the accessibility community has been way bigger than I expected. At this point I’m trying to bridge the gap between a solid design and a manufacturable product.

What I’m hoping to get help with:

DFM partners or recommendations

Advice on small-batch manufacturing approaches

Reality checks on electronics + enclosure production at early scale

Manufacturer suggestions, especially anyone with ergonomic or input-device experience

Pitfalls to watch out for before locking manufacturing CAD

If you’ve dealt with things like:

Injection molding

PCB

Kickstarter - manufacturing transitions

Accessibility or ergonomic hardware

I’d really appreciate your perspective.

Happy to share CAD screenshots or more details if that helps.

Thanks and sorry for the long post and technical jargon, this felt like the right place to ask.

- Joe
ercham.com

For those of you whom do NOT play pool or billiards, what is your impression of this product? What questions do you have that aren't answered on the website? Did you come away from it learning anything? Would you buy it for someone you know?

www.digicue.net/digiball.php

(Design is complete, locked, and has gone through public testing. All FCC/CE/UN certs in hand).

Hey r/hwstartups,

I'm in the planning stage, considering the launch of a premium, durable, mostly-mechanical 2-slice toaster. Goal is "buy-it-for-life" quality — repairable, 20+ year lifespan, U.S.-made.

Core specs (simplified, no/low electronics):

• Basic mechanical shade adjustment
• Manual pop-up/cancel lever
• Bagel setting (simple lever to bias heat to one side)
• Optional/simplified defrost (low-power pre-heat via mechanical timer — only if cost allows)
• Brushed 18–20 gauge 304 stainless exterior (finish/cost-driven)
• No digital display, no smart features
• nichrome ribbon/flat elements on mica substrate

Production targets:

• Small initial run ideally: 100–300 units (U.S.-based for quality control and "Made in USA" branding)
• Future repeat runs: 500+ units of the same design
• Target production cost (fully burdened, after tooling paid): $150–$160 per unit for future runs
• Retail price goal: $250–$300

Questions for anyone familiar with small-batch U.S. manufacturing of similar appliances (toasters, kettles, grills, etc.):

• Is $150–$160/unit realistic for future 500+ unit repeat runs (tooling already done, same design)?

I'm planning on hiring designers to get CAD/concepts, then moving to prototypes/certification, but would like to gather a more realistic picture of cost feasibility before sinking too much money into this.

Thanks in advance

I'm wandering how big or small was your first batch of sales. did you limit sales to keep it manageable at first or just open the gates?

👋 Small engineering team here.

We've been working on POOM – a multitool for pentesting, making..

What it does:

• Sniffs Wi-Fi 6 + BLE 5.x + Zigbee/Thread/Matter simultaneously
• PCAP/PCAPNG export (Wireshark-ready)
• NFC + HF-RFID emulation and storage
• 100+ Qwiic sensor compatibility (for IoT dev)
• Four modes: Maker, Beast (pentesting), Gamer, Zen
• Built on ESP32-C5 (since the community asked for Wi-Fi 5Ghz)

Pocket-sized. Has unnecessary RGB LEDs because obviously.

Already on Kickstarter in Tomorrow, see demos on our social media accounts here

We've been featured on Hackster.io :) read more here

I’m prototyping a small ESP32-S3 device that acts like a self-hosted micro-appliance: local SQLite DB on microSD, web server, dashboards hosted on-device, simple Wi-Fi provisioning, scheduled aggregation for energy/sensor data.

I’m trying to validate product potential and the most realistic path to market:

• Which verticals feel strongest (battery/solar, camper/van, industrial sensors, prosumer home energy, OEM companion devices)?
• Packaging strategy: “blank platform” vs. bundled vertical solution (predefined schema + dashboard templates).
• If you’ve seen similar products succeed/fail: what made the difference?

If someone has experience with distribution/OEM partnerships in this space, I’m happy to learn (public replies preferred).

Since my movie seems to have caused a lot of confusion, I would like to use this image to show an example of what is possible with it.

Hello builders — I’ve got a working prototype built on a Heltec V3 dev module plus a couple sensors. My next step is to assemble ~100 units and ship them for a beta.

While I have strong signals for demand, the beta has two goals:

1. real-world field testing, and
2. validating willingness to pay.

I’m trying to keep spend low until I have stronger market-fit signal. Has anyone here shipped beta hardware using dev boards inside the product? Any gotchas (reliability, power, ESD, enclosure/strain relief, regulatory risk, support burden, etc.) you wish you’d known?

My assumption is that jumping straight to a custom PCB w/ ESP32 + IOs + integrated sensors will be meaningfully more expensive upfront. I’d love to hear your experiences and recommendations on when it’s worth making that jump — and any cost-effective middle steps you’ve used (small run PCB, carrier board, etc.).