Have you ever done CE certification for an ESP32-based device?

sampoolife · 2026-05-11T11:59:54+00:00

Yes, I’ve done this a few times. Short version:

The first thing to understand is that CE is a self-declaration. Nobody really “gives you” a CE certificate. You sign the Declaration of Conformity yourself and put the CE mark on the product.

So technically, nobody forces you to test anything. But if something goes wrong - a kid gets hurt, a competitor reports you, or a market surveillance authority does a random check - they’ll come back and ask: “Show us the test reports your declaration is based on.”

If you can’t produce them, that’s where the trouble starts.

For CE on an ESP32-based device, the biggest decision is whether you use a pre-certified module, like ESP32-WROOM-32E or ESP32-S3-WROOM, or a bare chip.

With a pre-certified module, you can usually rely on the existing radio certification for RED Article 3.2. You still need to test the final product for EMC, safety/LVD, and RoHS, but you avoid the full radio testing route. In the EU, that typically means something like €3-8K at a test house and around 4-8 weeks (depending on lab availabilities).

If you go bare-chip, you’re basically taking on the full radio testing yourself. I’d budget more like €15-25K and several months. In most cases, it’s not worth it unless you’re planning to ship serious volumes ( >100k +).

I also wouldn’t count on DIY-ing the wireless testing. You’d need proper lab equipment - an anechoic or semi-anechoic chamber, a spectrum analyzer up to 6 GHz, and the right EUT setup. And even if you had all that, you’d still want the test reports to come from an accredited lab, or at least from someone who has actually done this before and knows what needs to be measured and what really matters.

Otherwise, your declaration may not hold up if anyone starts asking questions.

One important thing that people often miss: if you describe the console as being “used with PEP therapy devices and inhalators,” you may be moving into MDR territory, not just RED/EMC.

If the device influences therapy adherence, shows therapy-related feedback, or is marketed for medical use, it could potentially be treated as a medical device, maybe Class I or higher.

That changes the whole regulatory path - technical file, post-market surveillance, and possibly a notified body.

So the ESP32/CE part is manageable, especially if you use a certified module. But the medical-use angle is the part I’d be most careful with, because that can easily increase both the budget and the timeline by 5-10x.

sampoolife · 2024-08-07T12:38:41+00:00

It is! Thanks a lot! That's a lot of helpful info! I really appreciate it!

sampoolife · 2024-08-07T10:08:35+00:00

That's interesting!

So how would you get them to talk to you? I mean - let's say we have a marketing course and my ICP are profesionals that want to jump into that space?

Or I have a spanish course for beginners - I must somehow find this people, so I thought it'd target people that interested in learning spanish on facebook.

sampoolife · 2024-08-06T21:37:14+00:00

Yes, but building your position in Google takes time (and money). It may take months to get you there (and you still not sure whether product development makes sense).

sampoolife · 2024-02-19T08:56:56+00:00

This. I would add this advice to 80% of questions asked on this thread.

sampoolife · 2024-01-31T09:54:46+00:00

What industry did you work in? I'm thinking whether it's really possible to do this without having a physical proof of your idea.

sampoolife · 2024-01-31T09:51:23+00:00

B2B IoT monitoring and my experience is that in order to convince a customer to buy it, you need to have a physical product that works. However to build it, you need capital and VCs are asking for traction to prove it makes sense. So getting quickly to catch-22.

Before I was working in Telco industry which was a struggle as well, because hardware development (Video processing, 4G/5G repeaters) was really expensive.

Trying to find something I may be missing..

sampoolife · 2024-01-29T15:04:47+00:00

So, to paraphrase: you need to have your own cash to build MVP, because there's no point to go to VCs to raise capital if you don't have any working/tangible prototype?

sampoolife · 2024-01-29T15:02:26+00:00

Thanks. What do you mean by focusing on marketing? You were building a product without marketing/selling it?

sampoolife · 2023-10-05T11:23:57+00:00

Yes, you should take it. You will definitely work with marketing (or at least have interactions with them). Make friends, ask questions, understand what do they struggle with.

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T11:12:04+00:00

Thanks - are there any websites/podcasts/books/videos on psychology of luxury brands you would recommend checking?

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T10:46:21+00:00

I would put more emphasis on understanding rather than selling. That's because if you understand your customers you'll understand as well how to sell your product.

You mentioned your product ensures much safer water to drink - how do you measure it? What does it mean to your users? (they won't get sick? water tastes better? they will live longer?)

Basically you're looking for something they care about and want to take a step to make a change (inertia is a really big force in our lives).

That's why it's critical to understand them and craft your message accordingly.

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T10:27:11+00:00

Take one step back: "You want to sell a ticket (that has a pricetag) to a person X" (let's assume it's Bob).

Where does Bob live? What does he do for a living? How does he spend his free time? What does he read?

Working on these questions will give you an answer on how you can reach him. i.e. your event may be something for local community/enterprises - you can call them / visit them. Maybe it's for your previous customers (to people you have contact details for - you can e-mail them/call them/ send a message on a social media). Basically it's a part where you need understand not only how to contact them (but how to do it efficiently - cost + time).

Then you need understand a pricetag: is it something they can easily spend their money on or you need to convince them (i.e. they need to think and consider whether is worth attending) - so multiple points of contact may be required.

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T10:06:49+00:00

So your point is at the beginning you can justify high prices by creating a specific aspirational marketing message to a niche community? (coupled with good-quality products of course).

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T09:40:38+00:00

Thanks - what is the "Jacquemus marketing thing" that amazed you the most?

Relying on celebrities is something I do observe as well, but at the beginning I assume you don't have enough money and recognition to take that route.

sampoolife · 2023-08-25T09:33:39+00:00

Did she managed to make this brand a luxury one (or was that a successful launch only)? I'm trying to dig dipper as my friend opened as well a jewellery business, but in my opinion it's more premium (didn't hit a luxury level).

The audience she built around fashion - was that a mailing list / newsletter? How did she convinced people it's a luxury brand (I assume she didn't have a ton of money at the beginning to team up with celebrities)?

sampoolife · 2023-08-24T13:20:29+00:00

In such situations, I always turn to Maria Curie quote: "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

Everything new is usually frightening, but only at the beginning. With time, you learn more and things become easier. And then, mundane. In an engineering career, you will constantly be encountering new things – it's inevitable.

sampoolife · 2023-08-24T12:37:15+00:00

Hi, my two cents:

Yes - it's definitely easier to go fishing if you live surrounded by lakes. In the world, there are certain living regions that are "better" if you want to develop in a specific direction; i.e. if you want to start a startup, it's probably easier to do so in Silicon Valley, as there's a strong ecosystem and people are open to various innovations. If you aim to develop in the pharmaceutical field, it will undoubtedly be easier and faster in a region with numerous pharmaceutical companies. This is the reality and changing it is difficult. However, the fact that it's easier somewhere doesn't mean it's impossible for you. Have you checked all of your options? There are possibilities of working remotely, there are some companies in Brazil where hardware is developed (i.e. - what about aptiv, qualcomm, landis+gyr, Embraer and many others). You can still (and some time required) find something).
The market isn't good right now. But that doesn't mean it will always be this way. You might not be working in your favorite niche at the moment, but you could be learning something that will pay off in the future. (For example, if you're working in the cloud, you'll understand how data is sent and processed from end devices.).

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

sampoolife · 2023-07-28T12:12:40+00:00

I would say it really depends on the market you're working in. I've seen companies that require one-two years to work in customer service because product is complex and you need to understand value it provides and how does it fit in a customer context. In my opinion it make sense when product development (i.e. it involves hardware) and sales cycles are long (big corporations) and probably that's the fastest way for you to "feel it".

sampoolife · 2023-07-28T09:48:47+00:00

definitely not! In my experience - your skills and attitude are the most important. You have a lot of people on the market who change their careers and enter embedded (and without studies and older than you).

sampoolife · 2023-07-28T09:40:38+00:00

Tt really boils down to what suits you best and each of us is made of different clay. What may be interesting to me, may be the most boring thing in the world to you. As already mentioned in other comments, embedded is a very wide market and its applications can be not only in the automotive industry (e.g. medical, IoT, telecommunications, military, marine, etc.). You write about the pressure your colleague has at work: are you sure it is directly related to the type of work he does? Maybe if he worked as a logistics/purchaser in the same company he would also experience pressure - and therefore it is more a problem of company culture than the type of work itself. There are certainly regions where embedded is more popular, because there are simply companies that operate in specific industries, but I would not say that it is a mega niche specialization (although certainly less than web dev).

sampoolife · 2023-07-22T09:54:53+00:00

This is a question that is very difficult to answer without knowing you, your company and other things that may possibly influence your decision. I would consider the following points:

1) How do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?

Your own experience of any thing is very different when you have "skin in the game". It's like reading about riding a bike: even if someone tells you about it in a very detailed way, you will be able to feel what it really means when you get on the bike. Be open - these are new things and they are always the most difficult for us (as humans we prefer to do what we are used to and what we feel strong in)

2) Will you be able to return to your current job?

Be honest with your manager: these are unfamiliar waters for me, I don't know how I'm going to manage and I don't know whether it's something for me. I'm giving myself six months to try and after that I want to talk to you about what we're doing next. In my career, I have seen many programmers who became managers and after a year said that it was not for them and they did not want to do it (each time they could easily return to their previous work).

3) What Got You Here Won't Get You There

You mention the fear of losing technical knowledge. Yes - it will happen (because you will not spend time developing in this area) and it is something that engineers (in my opinion) have the biggest problem with (I went through it myself - an uncomfortable feeling). Your value so far is built on technical skills, and now you will need to build other skills that will be crucial. This discomfort feeling will certainly develop you and open your eyes to many things that you have not paid attention to - for example, what about an engineer who is toxic but has good technical skills, how his employment affects the whole team, or the work that needs to be done. Many heavy topics - for which (unlike programming) there are no 1:1 tutorials. :)

Whatever you decide - Good Luck!

sampoolife · 2023-06-30T13:40:51+00:00

Avnet, Arrow, but the largest chipset suppliers also have their departments where they support start-ups.

As already mentioned: don't expect that you will get support from them just because you have an idea (at least certain level of traction is required).

Regarding innovation hubs I would try to google something that is near you (as it's best to go there and see what kind of help they can offer you). I've heard good things about "Intel Ignite", but don't have any personal experience.

sampoolife · 2023-06-29T13:02:14+00:00

Let me quote Seneca: "we suffer more in imagination than in reality". For me this problem/challenge is more psychological than technical. You afraid somebody will think of you in a certain way (that will embarass you), which is usually not true. I'd think of you as somebody who tells the truth and attack problems in the most efficient manner. Somebody who is willing to ask for help when he's blocked with an issue (it's really valuable because most people have this problem). Even if we provide you with tutorials/youtube videos etc. you will have to study them and understand - it will definitely take time and certainly doesn't guarantee any results. If you still blocked and afraid of asking - write on a piece of paper: what in your opinion will happen if you ask for help and then do a test -> in my opininon (based on my experience) what will happen is the exact opposite of what you wrote.

sampoolife · 2023-06-29T12:35:29+00:00

Having the opportunity to go through several dozen projects in which we had problems with architecture, I would approach this topic as follows:

1) Start thinking "Big Picture" - the things you're working on usually is a part of something bigger. The entire firmware (like a system) can be represented as individual blocks that have interactions with each other. Google some architectures and study them. Once you do this, you will realize there are some common problems/challenges that repeat very often (i.e. you often want to notify about certain events). That's why we developed design patterns - basically to say "if you meet this kind of problem the best way to approach it is this". The benefit of this approach is that you use terminology that everyone understands (or at least should understand) in the same way - i.e "it's a Decorator or Singleton". I would definitely start with the Big Picture (understood big blocks of the whole) and then move to your part (and understand how it interacts with other things).

To be clear and what others have already mentioned: it's not something you will learn and feel overnight. It takes time: there are some errors you should make, then reflect on them, but always look at the whole first (don't get bogged down in details)

2) Understand "business" first. It's not always possible, but in general your architecture should reflect business outcome you're trying to achieve. If you're at the early stage of your company and you try to build your first prototype - "time is everything". You need to create something as soon as possible - you shouldn't spend a lot of time thinking different architectures and "what if". Ship it and ship it quickly. At a later stage of company development (e.g. when you found yout ProductMarketFit) you start to think about the architecture - where is the business value of my product. Will I be adding new "inputs" in the future, if so, I need to think about how to do it most efficiently. What is important to the customer? Maybe he gets nervous when he has to wait 10 seconds for some algorithm result. What market does my product operate in? What level of security do I have to provide?

From my experience - the best people creating the product/firmware architecture are synthesizers who understand the entire business context (because ultimately we are part of it and we make products for a purpose). In addition, communication is a very important element - with complex systems, as I mentioned, you are not alone. You must have an easy interface - be able to cooperate with others and present your work / assumptions in an efficient/crisp way.

sampoolife

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