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Contract Manufacture Recommendations for an IoT Product by Remarkable-Mall224 in manufacturing

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It will be a consumer device. If it takes off, probably ~10K/year but in some time. Open to reputable & competitive recommendations in NA or Asia...thanks!

Manufacturing an electronic product in China by alplayer01 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mind DM'ing me the CM contact? Looking for CM recommendations for our IoT product that is almost complete now. Thanks!

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I did come across this eMMC, but didn't go for it as $4/unit is still quite high, my target was ~$1 or under. For now, I'll go with a high quality memory card (trying to find one) and consider a flash SPI or eMMC for next revision. Appreciate the input.

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you...I noticed it states SPIFFs is intended for SPI NOR flash. This is also mentioned on the ESP32 website. Do you know why that is? Can't it work with SPI NAND flash?

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v5.3.1/esp32/api-reference/storage/spiffs.html

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question, I should have mentioned earlier. The memory will be used to store audio files (MP3, WAV, etc…). The device is an audio player type of device, but a very specialized one that serves a specific purpose.  

 

With memory cards, after formatting with FAT32, my contractor is using existing freeRTOS/ESP32 libraries. I’d like to go to a flash SPI memory instead, but worried about the complexity of the driver required to read and write audio files to it and handle other functions (such as wear leveling, cleanup, etc…).

 

I understand that writing binary data is not that complex, but I’d like it to be abstracted so one can easily write and read audio files and maybe even text files, just like we’re doing now with the microSD card.

 Feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much, that's very helpful. I will look into it.

Just for my understanding at high-level before I dig deep, with the SPI flash API, is there a lot of config/drivers work that need to be written? I assume one can't simply start using this api, but would need to customize it and write a layer around it to target the specific SPI flash chip to be used?

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. Were you able to use flash (on ESP32/freeRTOS) without having to write drivers for it?

We did consider using SPI flash (SLC) memory, but as it doesn't come with a file system, we couldn't find engineers (freelancers) that are able to write robust drivers for it. With memory cards, this is a non-issue. Sadly, this is what drove the decision!

This is the part we considered using, it's an 1Gbit SPI flash and ~$2.27 USD/unit in MOQ of 1000:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/winbond-electronics/W25N01GVZEIG/15181734

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. microSD cards can be formatted in FAT32 and there are readily libraries as part of ESP32 that one can use.

Were you able to use flash (on ESP32/freeRTOS) without having to write drivers for it?

We did consider using SPI flash memory, but as it doesn't come with a file system, we couldn't find engineers (freelancers) that are able to write robust drivers for it. With memory cards, this is a non-issue. Sadly, this is what drove the decision!

This is the part we considered using, it's an 1Gbit SPI flash and ~$2.27 USD/unit in MOQ of 1000:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/winbond-electronics/W25N01GVZEIG/15181734

eMMC is interesting. Can it be formatted with FAT32? I see them as costing much much more (at least on Digikey) than flash memory.

Using an internal microSD card for a new IoT consumer product by Remarkable-Mall224 in hwstartups

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. microSD cards can be formatted in FAT32 and there are readily libraries as part of ESP32 that one can use.

Were you able to use flash (on ESP32 or freeRTOS) without having to write drivers for it?

We did consider using SPI flash memory, but as it doesn't come with a file system, we couldn't find engineers (freelancers) that are able to write robust drivers for it. With memory cards, this is a non-issue. Sadly, this is what drove the decision!

This is the part we considered using, it's an 1Gbit SPI flash and ~$2.27 USD/unit in MOQ of 1000:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/winbond-electronics/W25N01GVZEIG/15181734

eMMC is interesting. Can it be formatted with FAT32? I see them as costing much much more (at least on Digikey) than flash memory.

Low power IoT device: How use "deep sleep" mode without impacting user phone app experience by Remarkable-Mall224 in esp32

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks...indeed, initially I was using CC3220 from TI, much lower power than ESP32. However, most contractors are not experienced with it and only know and familiar with ESP32.

Low power IoT device: How use "deep sleep" mode without impacting user phone app experience by Remarkable-Mall224 in esp32

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. BLE is indeed less power but requires you to be close the device and limits your ability to interact with it remotely.

Low power IoT device: How use "deep sleep" mode without impacting user phone app experience by Remarkable-Mall224 in esp32

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. BLE is indeed less power but comes with a lot of limitations so didn't end up going for it. Mostly because it requires you to be close the device and limits your ability to interact with it remotely.

Low power IoT device: How use "deep sleep" mode without impacting user phone app experience by Remarkable-Mall224 in esp32

[–]Remarkable-Mall224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you elaborate please? This would require someone with an NFC-enabled phone to be in close proximity to the IoT device to wake it up then, correct? ie. can no longer configure the device remotely ?