The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast: Standardizing Manufacturing with Pete Staples

Welcome Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices!

• Blue Clover Devices (BCD) is “The IOT ODM“
• ODMs are a flavor of CM where they do more of the design work
• Busy EEs use their services to take on more of the design work
• Most products are on a 9 month cycle. Some smaller designs (like a recent SiFive dev board) are shorter timelines.
• Facilities:
  • Started in LA
  • Shenzhen
  • Now have an SF office (where Pete is located)
• They reluctantly started mfg in China, because CMs wouldn’t take on the work.
• The factory started with “Screwdriver work” (assembly), but have moved on to PCBA and precision cable
• Core of workers help to mentor younger workers
• Pete took an MBA class in operations but he didn’t expect the difficulties with manufacturing
• Container party
• Taking stuff to china: comes down to economics. Doing it for products making less than $1M per year doesn’t make much sense.
• Learn manufacturing locally first.
• Pete checked out CMs in the bay area and didn’t think they could add much value otherwise.
• Devices like the LPKF and Nano Dimension Dragon Fly aren’t good substitutes for a PCB house
• BCD’s flagship product is the PLT
  • PLT200 – targets IoT devices like nRF52 (described in Embedded.fm episode)
  • PLT300 – targets Linux devices
• The PLT acts as a bridge between developers and factory
• Programming and testing devices on a line
• Internally:
  • Programmable power supply
  • Souped up JLink
  • DMM
    • Volage
    • Current
    • Freq counter
  • Linux computer
  • UART interaction as well
  • CAN bus
• Many test stands are Labview based, so they are tied to that location
• With the PLT, can have one in the US and one in the factory
• Revision control and using CI/CD
• Not built for design validation (like NI or test equipment mfg)
• How does PLT talk back?
  • PLT cloud – a portal to manage devices
  • Needs to be a secure connection
  • Slack app integration
• The PLT hooks to the ICT (In Circuit Tester)
• Supports 48 digital and 45 analog test points
• The cassette is custom, but can be used again with future designs
• Webhooks allow for pulling serial numbers
• Box is enrolled to an organization
• PLTs used in China
  • Not blocked, but network isn’t always reliable
  • Needs internet to work
• YAML test script
• Different steps might be connecting up to the PLT
• Test Plan Reference
• Scanner / label printer works at a lower level than Jan was talking about on the show
• Release can be Zebra label format
• How is data being used?
• Example: product with 3 circuit boards
• Gage R&R
• PLT running Zephyr and linux
• Trends: things are going up market and have more Linux in them. There will still be a separation due to power, cost.
• Blue Clover is working on having less environmental impact after the pandemic
  • Working with people in the climate neutral community
  • Food and apparel have talked about sourcing their materials
• Check out bcdevices.com for more info
• Twitter @petestaples
• To get a free USB cable: email pete@bcdevices.com