Custom Hardware & Firmware

When the right part doesn't exist yet

PCB design, embedded firmware, BLE and wireless, edge devices. We design and build hardware for energy and IoT — from the first scrappy prototype to the unit that ships and then has to keep working long after we've gone home.

PCB designEmbedded firmwareBLE & wirelessProduction
$20
unit cost on a custom IoT sensor
Self-install
no electrician required
Award
2024 IoT Impact Award nominee

Custom hardware isn't hard. Knowing when to build it is

Off-the-shelf is almost always the right answer, and we'll tell you so even though it's the cheaper advice to give. But every so often a problem genuinely has no catalogue part — wrong price, wrong size, wrong sensor, wrong way of installing it. That's when bespoke earns its place, and the real trick isn't the design; it's hitting the cost target and then building something that shrugs off a decade in a plant room, not just a tidy afternoon on the bench.

“Designing the device is the easy part. The discipline is judging when bespoke is worth it — and then hitting a price the field can actually afford.”

From brief to working outcome

01

Define

Pin down the real constraints: cost target, environment, range, power and who installs it.

02

Prototype

Breadboard to first PCB. Prove the concept against the actual problem, fast.

03

Firmware

Embedded firmware with data integrity, power management and field-update paths.

04

Field-test

Iterate against real pilot feedback — the field always finds what the bench misses.

05

Productionise

Design for manufacture, certification and scale.

Full-spectrum capabilities

Electronics & PCB

  • Schematic capture & PCB layout
  • Sensor & signal-conditioning design
  • Low-power & battery design
  • Design for manufacture

Embedded firmware

  • Bare-metal & RTOS firmware
  • Data integrity (CRC) & buffering
  • Adaptive power-saving algorithms
  • Over-the-air / field updates

Wireless & connectivity

  • Bluetooth 5.1 (BLE, CTE, channel sounding)
  • LoRa & long-range radio
  • Cellular (4G) & powerline
  • NFC & QR field tooling

From pilot to production

  • Rapid hardware prototyping
  • Pilot deployment & iteration
  • Certification support
  • Manufacturing & supply chain

Where we've done this for real

Devices we designed, built and put in the field.

IoT sensor · USA

The Lighting Logger

A $20 IoT illumination sensor that non-technical staff magnetically self-install in minutes — replacing certified-electrician CT metering and cutting install cost 30%.

View project →
Positioning · Ireland

Indoor positioning systems

Bluetooth 5.1 CTE direction-finding with custom tags and anchors to locate individual interior components for circular-economy reuse.

View project →
Metering · Ireland

Custom metering gateway

Bespoke revenue-grade meter and gateway hardware behind one of Ireland's most successful energy-conservation programmes.

View project →
Shipping · Ireland

Bridge-mounted fuel display

A simple red/amber/green efficiency display, engineered for the bridge, that drove 10%+ fuel savings at the controls.

View project →

Frequently asked questions

When should we build custom hardware instead of buying off-the-shelf?

Only when the problem genuinely demands it — a cost target, form factor, sensor or installation model that no catalogue part meets. We'll tell you honestly when off-the-shelf is the better call.

Can you hit an aggressive unit-cost target?

Yes — cost is a design input from day one. The Lighting Logger, for example, was engineered to a $20 unit price specifically so it could scale, with self-installation removing the electrician from every deployment.

Do you take it all the way to production?

Yes. We go from first prototype through pilot iteration to design-for-manufacture, certification support and supply chain — not just a bench demo.

What wireless technologies do you work with?

Bluetooth 5.1 (including CTE direction-finding and channel sounding), LoRa, cellular, powerline and NFC/QR field tooling — chosen to fit the range, power and cost of the job.

Get started

Need a device that doesn't exist yet?

From first prototype to production-ready unit — designed to hit a real cost target and survive the field.

Talk to us →All capabilities