Nowadays, engineers are under increasing pressure to bring products to market as quickly as possible. They are therefore trying to speed up the process without compromising the quality of the product or driving its cost to unacceptable levels.

From a distributor's perspective, it is therefore crucial that products and components reach the customer as quickly as possible. However, it is at least as important to be aware of changes in the development process and to adapt product lines and product ranges accordingly. Only in this way can distributors be sure that they can support the customer in every phase of the process.

Development kits (devkits) have long been a part of the development cycle. A survey shows that 89% of engineers surveyed use devkits to experiment with new systems. However, devkits are not only used for test devices. Together with single-board computers (SBCs), they are increasingly a driving force for private hobbyists and masterminds. These independent groups develop solutions that serve niche markets and are often overlooked by suppliers. With the proliferation of open source-based and hobbyist-oriented SBCs such as Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone or Arduino boards, the use of single-board computers for the development process is increasing.

Single-board computers are everywhere

By using SBCs as part of their end product, small and medium-sized companies in particular can significantly reduce time-to-market and simplify the development process. While large companies can negotiate special prices for components, smaller competitors have to pay more and order more if they want to offset their production costs. By using an SBC, however, companies benefit from the mass production advantages of manufacturers. This reduces costs and therefore the price of the end product. Single-board computers, for example, help start-ups and talented hobbyists to finally put their good ideas into commercial practice. Established SBCs such as the Raspberry Pi also guarantee a level of stability that newer devkits cannot compete with and which further improves time-to-market.

However, SBCs are not always automatically suitable for integration into finished products. This is why new services for customized models offer developers and hobbyists other options. Developers no longer have to worry about every little detail of the prototype, as engineers can customize their boards to their exact specifications using open source software. This plays a fundamental role in shortening time-to-market, especially in particularly popular technology sectors such as the Internet of Things, which is based primarily on connectivity.

Since the first Raspberry Pi B board was launched in 2012, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charity behind the development of the Raspberry, has been inundated with requests to customize certain aspects, particularly from engineers looking to integrate the Pi into commercial products.

Individual single-board computers

That's why Farnell element14 and Raspberry Pi are now offering a customization service for the mini computer, enabling OEM customers and engineers to create bespoke designs based on the Raspberry Pi platform, and on a much larger scale. Of the seven million Raspberry Pi mini PCs sold worldwide since 2012, a large proportion have gone to manufacturers rather than hobbyists - and the new service will take the market to another level. This is especially true for smaller companies, which can now order a customized version of the Raspberry Pi and significantly reduce their production costs.

Raspberry for commercial purposes

At the heart of the EnOcean TCP/IP gateway is a Raspberry Pi 2, which is used together with the battery-free EnOcean Pi wireless module as a wireless gateway for smart home applications.

© Farnell element14

In the past, there have already been companies that have used the Raspberry Pi for commercial purposes. The company Digital Concepts from Stuttgart recently developed and manufactured the world's first EnOcean TCP/IP gateway. The main task of such a gateway is to control wireless sensors, thermostats and switches for the automated control of lighting, heating/ventilation/air conditioning and shading, all with an efficient energy requirement. Instead of developing a completely new product, Digital Concepts relied on the Raspberry Pi 2 and matching Pi accessories.

Although the standard version of the Raspberry Pi 2 has many functions and interfaces that the manufacturers did not need for the gateway, they were able to develop and manufacture cost-effectively. This is exactly where the Custom Pi initiative comes in: In future, Farnell element14 customers will be able to assemble exactly the Raspberry Pi that has only the features they need for their project, thereby saving on material costs.

The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

Customization of the Raspberry Pi can include all possible aspects. From changing the board layout to increasing the memory and rearranging the interfaces, countless modifications are possible in which various functions are either added or removed. This gives OEMs the flexibility to customize their boards to optimize them for a specific design.

SBCs are not suitable for every design and no Raspberry Pi will ever be the basis for a connector-sized IoT device, but there is already a lot of interest in the possibilities of SBCs in the media, automation and IoT sectors. For example, millions of Raspberry Pi mini PCs are already being used as hubs for home automation products or as media libraries. This shows the clear advantage of an SBC over a product that has to be developed from scratch.

Two things that have held SBCs back so far are form factor and components, because if the final design has to have special connectivity solutions or fit into a small housing, then computers like the Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone would not be suitable. Customization now allows engineers to add or remove individual components and adapt the SBC to make it perfect for the final product.

Learning from the customer

The responsibility for developing new devkits no longer lies solely with the big companies - a trend that is likely to carry over to SBCs. A growing number of engineers are now defining for themselves what a devkit needs to do for their purposes so that they can simplify their designs and bring their ideas to life.

The Custom Pi initiative is still in its infancy, but we can already expect some consistency in terms of the redesign requests coming in. It may well be that a number of reference designs based on popular SBCs will come onto the market over the next few years, driven by the demands of engineers and the needs of the market. Especially for applications in vertical markets, SBCs can serve a whole range of niches without having to invest a lot of money in elaborate product development for a small market. It is in such areas that SBCs bring about a real change in the design process.

Keep up the pace

Developing the components needed to realize these designs was once expensive and time-consuming, but thanks to the availability of low-cost SBCs, the demand for additional software and design services from engineers has also increased. Meeting this demand is the job of distributors and other parties involved in the production cycle.

It will be interesting to see how engineers and OEMs will take advantage of these new trends and services. If the Raspberry Pi has taught us one thing over the past few years, it's this: engineers and hobbyists will continue to surprise us with what they can do and with what they develop.

Author:
Richard Curtin is Senior Director of Strategic Supplier Development at Farnell element14.