I have a product that I'd like to develop, but my circuitry skills are pretty limited. I wonder how much it would cost to have a circuit designed and built and how I would go about doing so. My need is fairly simple:

1. Real-time clock
2. Simple alarm feature
3. Buttons for setting the time and the alarm
4. Display
5. Able to be powered by two or three lithium-ion cells (or a single cell with a boost circuit)
6. One output for a speaker (alarm will sound for one minute)
7. Second output for 9-12V power/direct feed from battery source (activates 10 minutes after the alarm and stays active indefinitely
8. If possible, it would be great for the circuit to be flexible, but not necessarily a requirement

That's basically it. If such a thing already exists, I've been unable to find it online - I'd certainly be interested in using something that already exists.

Thanks for your help!

 

The minimum development cost to design and manufacture a prototype run of say 50 pieces should be in the range of about $12,000.00, if you are really good at defining your requirements. If not you can add about $3000.00 for specification development. How does $15,000.00 grab you?

 

Honestly, a tad more than I expected, but not unreasonable. Where would I go to get something like this built? Are there companies that do this sort of thing? Of course, the alternative is continuing to search to find something that already exists. I'm now on friggin Alibaba looking at time delay relays, but most are just countdown timers - ugh!

 

Where are you located? I'm familiar with companies located in the American midwest.

 

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Too bad you didn't ask for this in 1978. National semiconductor was still making modules and had this for sale - everything you asked for.

 

1 through 5 are covered by a simple travel alarm clock from RS or Wal-Mart. 6 would require a modification. 7 is the problem. Can you share more details about it?

ak

 

Travel alarm clocks don't sound indefinitely. The only one that does is called the Screaming Meanie (found at truck stops - I've owned several). I'm thinking I'm going to go a slightly different route for the moment and gather some off the shelf things like a delay timer relay module just to get moving. It's not an RTC, but it will work for a prototype.

All that aside, who would I approach to build a custom circuit once I get to that point? I have no idea...

 

On this site you have fora for Electronics Resources, Embedded Systems, and Marketplace. Plus, there are other sites such as Electronics Point and Electro-Tech Online.

Once you have a few buttons and a display, the project screams for a microcontroller. My hardware skills are MIL-grade, but I'm a heavy amateur or lite professional at firmware.

ak

 

Yeah, I was looking at this project using a MSP430, though that's not something I've ever used:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=6592

Thanks for the help and advice!

 

If you do decide to tackle this design on your own you can count on help when you need it here.