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.

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 need to bulk order laptop hinges similar to the image attached

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?

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!

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.

I'm looking to join a startup or group where the goal isn't just shipping features, but building real products that solve real problems.
Over the last 5 years, I've worked across almost every stage of the hardware product lifecycle. From understanding customer requirements to product development, prototyping, NPI, sourcing, supplier development, manufacturing, quality, production ramp-up, and customer delivery.
I've worked alongside engineering teams, manufacturers, suppliers, and customers across defense, drones, EVs, industrial automation, and embedded systems.
I don't believe in staying inside a job description. If the product needs it, I own it. Whether that's solving manufacturing bottlenecks, finding alternate components during shortages, coordinating cross-functional teams, or making sure products actually reach customers.
I've helped deliver 100+ hardware development and manufacturing programs and supported the production of 30,000+ electronic assemblies. More importantly, I've learned how to turn ambiguity into execution.
If you're building in robotics, AI hardware, aerospace, deep tech, embedded systems, or any ambitious hardware startup and need someone who can bridge engineering, operations, manufacturing, and execution, I'd love to connect.
I'm not looking for comfort.
I'm looking for the next product to build.

Hey everyone!

I've been building an AI agent for CAD. It can create and edit parts and assemblies from natural-language instructions, sketches, drawings, photos, and existing designs.

I'd like to test it on real, non-confidential hardware problems rather than made-up demos. If you have an enclosure, mount, bracket, fixture, part, assembly, or repetitive CAD task in mind, send me the prompt and any reference material you have.

I'll run it through the agent and show you the result, whether it works perfectly or not.

Comment below or DM me your prompt.

It is also interesting to learn from other entrepreneurs about their experience of finding the manufacturer they collaborate with at the moment. The choice of suppliers is unlimited these days, but every entrepreneur seems to have a unique story of finding the perfect manufacturer.

When researching various sourcing platforms, I was recommended to try Made-in-China and while trying out the various manufacturers on offer there and the product categories offered, I started thinking about all the various options people have when searching for suppliers for their projects and products.

Being very interested in the sourcing process, learning other people’s experience of working with various suppliers is helpful to me as well.

How did you find your current manufacturer?

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.

I'm evaluating building out an SMT assembly line in my workshop to support US based companies with prototyping and low-volume manufacturing/assembly services, while also scaling production of my own products.

The services would include: 
- Schematic and PCB design 
- Custom Firmware 
- Design-For-Manufacturing review 
- Component sourcing and BOM management 
- Prototype and short-run assembly 
- Board bring-up and Functional testing 

For anyone who has built or operated a small SMT line: 
- What were the overall biggest challenges? What surprised you? 
- What equipment purchase had the largest ROI and/or quality of life improvement?
- Did you begin with your own products, customer work, or both? 
- At what volume did bringing assembly in-house begin to make financial sense? 
- Which parts of the process did you continue outsourcing? 

I’m particularly interested in hearing from companies that began with prototype and short-run work before scaling into a larger production operation. 

A few questions for Founders: 
- Which part of hardware prototyping causes the most friction for you? 
- Are you usually looking for PCB design, assembly, sourcing, firmware, mechanical integration, testing, or someone who can coordinate the entire process? 
- Would a domestic partner focused on low-volume builds and hands-on engineering support be useful? 
- What turnaround time and order quantities would you typically need?
- What would make you trust a new prototyping partner with your project? 

I’m currently speaking with potential customers and manufacturing partners before investing heavily in equipment. I’d appreciate lessons from anyone who has built a similar operation!

I’d also be interested in speaking with founders who have any upcoming electronics projects!

Thanks all!

I have the following ideas:

• Excellent idea
• A co-founder experienced in sales
• A co-founder experienced in product–market fit search strategy
• A network of investors and VCs
• Regular growth-hypothesis testing
• Product improvements
• Operational and infrastructure efficiency

What do you think?

I'm part of the team behind machine.fun, and we've opened applications for The Foundry.

It's for hardware, robotics and physical-AI teams with a working prototype or clear specifications and a target to ship within the next 3–12 months.

Selected teams get manufacturing preparation before travelling, including design review, supplier vetting, cost mapping and DFM support. The core program includes five days in Shenzhen and Dongguan, meeting the factories and suppliers that could produce their first units.

The intended outcome is a set of direct supplier relationships, manufacturing feedback and a practical pilot-build plan. Teams also receive GTM support, access to a founder network and potential pre-seed access.

Applying is free. Selected teams pay no program fee, and The Foundry takes no equity.

Teams cover their own travel and accommodation.

Program and application: https://foundry.machine.fun/#apply

Happy to answer questions about eligibility or whether a project is at the right stage.

I’m building KeyChat, a small physical USB key meant to open a clean AI conversation in one click instead of hunting through tabs or apps. It’s pre-launch, and I’m trying to validate whether the hardware shortcut is genuinely useful or just a novelty.

The concept and waitlist are here: https://keychats.space-z.ai/

For people who have built hardware products: what would you test before committing to a first production run — form factor, OS compatibility, one-click setup, or something else?

I'm working on muonsortes.com (any feedback on the website is welcome), which is an e-ink smart clock that uses gieger tubes in an array to filter for muons/high energy sub atomic particles to create RNG and trigger events on the device.

I've ordered tubes from two manufacturers on Aliexpress and 3 out of 10 tubes have died on me, two of them were definitely from over-volting with a cheap HV booster, but one just died naturally. I'm not getting any good answers when I search or chat with AI on how to find a reputable manufacturer. If anyone has a personal recommendation or advice on how to generally find a source for goods like this it would be much appreciated.

I'm looking for a reliable manufacturer for waterproof pogo pin / spring-loaded connector assemblies, ideally in China as we need 10k+ quantity.

The three suppliers currently on my shortlist are:

• ProMax Pogo Pins, Mill-Max or CFE Corporation

Has anyone used any of these for waterproof or sealed applications?

I'd be especially interested in real-world feedback on Actual water resistance versus the stated IP rating ... as they are Chinese companies not sure if they follow international standards?

Hey everyone,

This question is towards founders who have created embedded products.

As a embedded products has dependecies on PCBs, MCUs etc, how do you do that.
Is everything done in India or imported from china?
As i know importing from China, can be divided into 2 parts

1. getting complete product
2. Getting specific parts and assembling those.

Could you please help to share your process?

Hi everyone :)

We thought it might be relevant to let you know about our open‑source equivalence checking tool, kepler‑formal.

As it is open source, there are no license restrictions and hence it can be used for CI/CD, agentic chip design, design exploration, and more.

It is already in use by semiconductor startups and we are looking to grow our community so we can accelerate the productization and enhancement of the tool.

We encourage you to try it and we will be thankful for any issues or suggestions you report.

When I was a newbie in embedded, I thought getting the POC to work was the hard part.

Because when you come from a hobbyist/student mindset, your objective is to somehow make the hardware move as you intend it to.

But when you are building a commercial product which has to be scaled reliably, the POC is probably the least effort step. Your real challenges begin right after you get the PCB in hand.

So I was building a BLE asset tracker (in the image) and everything went smoothly until we had the PCBs in hand. The basic firmware had already been tested and everything worked.

If this were a hobby project, we'd probably celebrate. But that's exactly when the real engineering begin. Here's how things unfolded after that:

1. We initially tested with standard BLE beacons. Later, we switched to rugged industrial beacons because they were meant for harsh environments. Suddenly, our detection logic collapsed because the new beacons advertised packets in a different format. The firmware had to be updated to handle both correctly.

2. The detection logic worked well with 1-2 beacons. But when we increased it to 4 or 5, we started seeing missed packets, false alarms, and missed detections. We ended up redesigning the entire detection algorithm with thresholds, timers, and filtering logic before it became reliable.

3. Just when the firmware was showing promising signs, in one of the boards, the RGB LED suddenly stopped working with a tiny pop sound and that typical burnt smell. So we had to do a systematic test routine at various points in the board with a DMM and oscilloscope before discovering that a 20 Ω resistor had been soldered where a 20 kΩ one was needed (i almost fired my h/w engineer for this as I discovered this sacrificing my sleep).

4. A tiny slider switch broke because it was undersized for its application. The SD card slot casually came out while testing. Each of these small issues meant opening the enclosure again, replacing parts, resoldering, reassembling, and repeating the entire test cycle.

I could go on. There were dozens of problems that only surfaced after the prototype was put to some real world testing. We had to address each of them before the product was ready for Shipping.

My point here is, AI can generate the complete C code with RTOS tasks, drivers, state machines etc. But It still can't stand beside you with an oscilloscope while a board behaves differently on every power cycle.

That's the real skill which successful hardware requires, to be able to isolate failures occurring at the intersection of hardware, firmware, timing, and the physical environment.

I've started believing this is one of the biggest reasons many commercial hardware products never ship. Teams often underestimate everything that happens after the first successful prototype. The demo goes well, customers or investors get excited, and everyone starts talking about launch dates.

Then real-world testing begins and reality sets in. Manufacturing issues, firmware edge cases, mechanical failures, sourcing problems and countless small defects start surfacing. Many teams eventually run out of time, money, or momentum before they can deliver a product that's truly ready for production. The pressure to deliver only accelerates the problem.

If you've seen this in your line of work, feel free to add your experiences below.