Bring-up
Board bring-up. First power-on to working.
New boards back from assembly and something's wrong, or you'd rather not find out the hard way. We power up safely, check every rail and clock, find the fault, and tell you exactly what to change.
// What this is
Getting a new design to work.
Bring-up is where a design meets reality: a regulator that won't start, a clock that doesn't oscillate, a part that gets hot, a chip that won't program. We work through it methodically and document what we find.
Squidtronic brings up and debugs boards at its bench in Austin, Texas. Engineers in the Austin area can visit by appointment; everyone else ships boards to us from anywhere in the US.
If the fault is in the design, you get the root cause, a rework fix so your current boards keep moving, and the change to make in the next revision. If the board was simply damaged, that's repair work, and we do that too.
Board damaged rather than misdesigned? Lifted pads, cut traces and failed parts are repair work.
See Repair & Rework// Capabilities
How we bring a board up.
| Power-on | Current-limited first power-up from a programmable bench supply |
|---|---|
| Power | Rail voltages, sequencing and ripple checked against the design |
| Clocks and reset | Oscillators, PLLs and reset behaviour verified |
| Programming | SWD and JTAG debug access established and the first image flashed |
| Peripherals | Each interface checked with an oscilloscope and logic analyzer |
| Thermal | Thermal camera to find hot spots and shorts |
| Fixes | Rework fixes on your boards: component swaps, bodge wires, BGA rework |
| Deliverable | Written bring-up report: what was tested, what failed, the root cause and the design change |
// Process
From dead board to known-good.
Send boards and files
Two boards if you can, so one stays untouched as a reference, plus the schematic, layout and BOM.
Inspect before power
Visual and microscope inspection, then resistance checks on every rail to catch shorts.
Power up safely
Current-limited, one rail at a time, watching for heat with the thermal camera.
Debug
Clocks, reset, programming access, then each peripheral, until every function is proven.
Report and fix
Root cause, a rework fix for the boards you have, and the change for the next revision.
// Pricing
Quote-only.
Bring-up is quoted per project, usually as a fixed-price first pass with any further debugging priced before we start it.
// FAQ
Common questions.
How many boards should I send?
What if the problem is in my design?
Can you write the test firmware too?
Can you work on boards you didn't design?
Boards back and not behaving?
Send photos, the schematic and what you see. We'll come back with a plan and a fixed price for the first pass.
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