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HomeCircuit Design

Our proficiency with circuit design software and the associated manufacturing workflow allows us to design novelty and decorative items. This includes ornaments, business cards, packaging, board games and educational toys.

Our circuit designs are known for using easy to source components, being easy to construct and being easy to maintain over a long period of deployment; typically 10 years or more. Our circuit designs are also known for being minimalist, idiot proofed and extensively documented. For example, our 64 channel anologue servo controller can be wired and programmed without reference to the manual.

We are happy to perform confidential work for hire or contribute to community projects at your direction. An example of our community work is the extension to the Nintendo joypad protocol which allows typing keyboards, musical keyboards, mice and other input peripherals to be used with a range of historical and contemporary computer equipment. Documentation inspired and aimed at novices extends to 2000 words.

We specialise in 1980s style, 8 bit, 5 volt, digital hardware and this includes a strong preference for DIP scale, through hole soldering and two layer circuit board design. We are not living in the past and therefore we are able to design eight layer boards festooned with surface mount FPGAs if strictly required. However, unless you have very specific requirements, such a design is likely to be a dis-service to you, your client and your client's clients due to the fiddly construction and maintenance requirements.

Much of our work is compatible with 6502, Z80, AVR/ARM Arduino or Raspberry Pi. This maximises value and allows you to draw from the largest pool of talent before, during and after deployment of your project. Where required, we also provide a re-implementation of the Arduino run-time library which is smaller, faster, better documented and generally higher quality. Most significantly, it is not subject to copyleft linking requirements. This allows you to extend and enhance your project without advantaging your competitors.

Some of our designs are available for a nominal fee. For example, we are willing to post our 5*6 hexagon keyboard tiles globally at a cost of £4 per unit plus a flat rate of £4 for postage. (You might have noticed that we like hexagons.) Our circuit design service is £288 per hour, billed by the minute and capped at an estimated limit. As an example, if we expect a project to take 10 hours but it only requires six hours of work then we will only bill you for six hours. However, if we expect a project to take 10 hours but it requires 25 hours to complete then we will not bill you for more than the agreed 10 hours. Our under-estimate should not be your concern. In particular, we believe in a virtuous cycle in which we maximise each of your successes while allowing you to control costs.

Our work (schematic and layout) is usually provided in a format suitable for KiCAD 5.1.x and is developed on a (relatively) air-gapped work-station. To ensure confidentiality, we are happy to take further security measures with your project. In particular, we never out-source design work, we restrict sensitive manufacturing to domestic companies (who never out-source manufacturing) and we never share schematics with manufacturers. Where required, we are willing to purchase a dedicated workstation for your project (£200 including setup which may include removing the BlueTooth and WiFi drivers), transfer encrypted files via courier or omit your work from our long-term archive.

To maximise your investment, we provide circuit CAD training at £30 per hour per student with a tutor:student ratio which never exceeds 1:6. However, pre-requisites for the course are quite steep. NVQ1 in graphic design is the absolute minimum pre-requisite and such a student may struggle.


Games | Services | Fun Stuff | Links | About Us )

Design Services | Filming | Hygge Consultant | Training )

Circuit Design | Gadget Design | Prop Design | Database Design | Graphic Design | Web Design )

UK company

EMail: info@shinyhexagons.com
URL: www.shinyhexagons.com

Games | Services | Fun Stuff | Links | About Us )

Design Services | Filming | Hygge Consultant | Training )

Circuit Design | Gadget Design | Prop Design | Database Design | Graphic Design | Web Design )

UK company

EMail: info@shinyhexagons.com
URL: www.shinyhexagons.com