Brainstorming ideas to coral a few EEs for electronics work in some ventures.

[fastline]

It it honestly coming to a head that we do not have the experience to be proficient enough with some circuit designs. We have about 50 different ideas and projects that can go places, but my agenda becomes instantly full with just handing the hard parts design, and everything else. I just don't have time to get down to the components and programming of things.

Most of our project ideas hover around PWM, variable motor control, wireless comms with either web based or app based functionality. All things that are the norm today.

You pretty much just need to live in that world to stay ahead of the curve!

I am looking for ideas of how to find the right guy(s)? I think one good one can probably do it, but I have heard of businesses going down quick because an EE did not get a design right and cost the company everything in warranty and liability claims.

I was thinking about universities but I really need someone with real experience. Like someone that has taken a concept and taken it to a production PCB and beyond.

Intellectual and proprietary theft is huge right now in the digital age so locking things down and having someone I could possibly trust is huge. Its the sole reason I have not brought anyone into our web!!

I have no less than 50 ideas that we can drive forward at a staggering pace, but I need help! It's simply not enough to recommend an IC or mosfet, I need someone that knows how to do the job with a reduced parts count, know when the parts HAVE to be there, where to obtain them at the best deal, and handle the electronics side.

 

[DrG]

Sounds like you want to hire someone. Why not come up with the formal job description and compensation and advertise?

Here is a start on the formal job description:

I want someone who will take my "ideas", which I may or may not have thought out thoroughly, and turn them into something really great that I can sell for a lot of money. The person needs to be really smart and build it really cheaply. Also, they can't steal any of my ideas and they can't build something that will end up hurting somebody. Finally, they need to work for me for next to nothing.

Get what I am saying? People that "make it happen" cost a lot of money. People who make it happen and do so really cheaply, cost even more. People who take ideas that have not been thoroughly developed, and tell you they will make just exactly what you want, cost the most, but they leave after the first project.

I am trying to say that you are describing something and someone that is much more difficult than a "magic bullet" guy. Maybe take one of the ideas and follow it through all the way to one product, first - have you ever done that?

 

[gophert]

I am trying to say that you are describing something and someone that is much more difficult than a "magic bullet" guy. Maybe take one of the ideas and follow it through all the way to one product, first - have you ever done that?

Every guy that has posted something similar here has never run a soup-to-nuts project but seem to think people are available to do such a thing and should work for free and get all 50 projects done in the next few months (apparently with all optimizations included in the first design).

People who have done this level of product conceptualization, design, mechanical integration and manufacturing are rare. - either hobbyists or entrepreneurs. I would need a pretty nice offer to look into it.

 

[fastline]

Not quite sure which part of my post lit the fire for some good flaming???? Also, I don't recall saying anything about free.

As for 'soup to nuts', I have actually developed a product, manufactured it, and still selling them. I don't do the DIY PCBs, and always looking for the most professional product. Mine was thru hole PCB and potted. I manufactured the mechanicals in our machine shop as well.

So being on a payroll is not enough? Paid to do a job is not enough? Is that what Seimens does? I think so..... No, I am not Seimens, lets don;t throw that comparison. Just asking "what jobs are EEs typically doing?"

Nearly any job is about delegation of segments. Home building, car building, etc, etc. I can probably stab my way through this stuff, but someone experienced in it can probably cut the clock by quite a margin.

I might consider some level of further education into the EE sectors I really need, but not sure where to turn. Not like my state college will allow me to just "take some classes". maybe a votech but not sure I can really get the meaty stuff there. I don;t need to learn about how relays work.

 

[Pommie]

To take your comparison of home building, are we talking rabbit hutch or empire state?

Mike.

 

[fastline]

I might say a 1 story, small commercial building. As I might have mentioned, the majority of these projects hover around the same circuits so its really a matter of getting the design going, them implement into the other devices. Basic functions were listed as well, but also include simple things like sensor selection and value displays.

 

[DrG]

Not quite sure which part of my post lit the fire for some good flaming???? Also, I don't recall saying anything about free.

As for 'soup to nuts', I have actually developed a product, manufactured it, and still selling them. I don't do the DIY PCBs, and always looking for the most professional product. Mine was thru hole PCB and potted. I manufactured the mechanicals in our machine shop as well.

So being on a payroll is not enough? Paid to do a job is not enough? Is that what Seimens does? I think so..... No, I am not Seimens, lets don;t throw that comparison. Just asking "what jobs are EEs typically doing?"

Nearly any job is about delegation of segments. Home building, car building, etc, etc. I can probably stab my way through this stuff, but someone experienced in it can probably cut the clock by quite a margin.

I might consider some level of further education into the EE sectors I really need, but not sure where to turn. Not like my state college will allow me to just "take some classes". maybe a votech but not sure I can really get the meaty stuff there. I don;t need to learn about how relays work.

I did not mean to flame you and really didn't think that I did, but I was admittedly, a bit harsh. Now that you have given some background on your experience and have outright stated that you have gone from an idea to a product (that is still selling), I would stick with, at least some of what I wrote in my initial response...

Sounds like you want to hire someone. Why not come up with the formal job description and compensation and advertise?

You know that, so what is holding you back from that next step? Is it that you don't know where to advertise or what the salary is or that you don't know exactly how to describe the job dutoes or ?

As a tangent, I want to explain a bit about why I responded to your first post. I have worked on many multi-year projects over a period of decades, but not in the EE arena and the product was always knowledge/informational. Of course I have also done more than a few computer/electronic projects, but not as a stand alone profession.

For many of those multi-year projects, I went from idea to product with all of the proposal/protocol/reporting/instrumention/collection/analysis/reporting and so on. I think that there are common properties in almost all product management. I guess that I felt that your post was a bit nonspecific and boiled down to "a guy that will take my idea and turn it into a project". While I hate the idea of telling people what is impossible, I also hate to see people chase "get-rich-quick" schemes for a lifetime. I hope that clarifies it a bit. You don't need to hear either one of those lectures - sorry if that came across as a flame.

 

[fastline]

My self and my brother are both engineers. My bro carries a PE license. We come from aviation. I have brainstormed 5-6 different products for automotive engine performance, we have a full machine so those get made here, and they have all been selling for the last 15yrs. My thought process is never "copy the other guy", it is to innovate and bring something new or better. Every one of my products fit that mold. I also will NOT target being the "cheap guy" that makes crap that fails in 30 days. All my components were built to last a lifetime. I get no caller complaints, no bad Inet press, they just work.

However, I can straight have my agenda tied just trying to do structural work, manufacturing, etc.

As far as being vague, I sort of have to do that on the Inet and I hope you can understand. We have actually sat down with many 12 packs in the war room and painted up a white board with circuit diagrams. The main issue is uCs or ICs are are in constant development and I am just not up to speed on this stuff. my **** chats with TI are a bit painful because they can only ask "how many channels of what?", but I build for the future so if I know a controller can be bought with 4 more pins and channels, in several flavors, I might just want to keep that on the master PCB for expansion if ever needed.

There is also the BS with UL listing, CEC, etc, etc. It needs to be safe. Fire hazards put people out of business and that is not what I am about.

I would say finding "someone" is probably easy, but finding the "right guy" that has dabbled in about everything that we need, and can sort of "handle that area of the product" would be super. To be honest, I have no idea what they make, if we can afford them, if they want to moonlight on the side, or even where to find them. I can ask the university but they probably won't have too many people on the list. I just don't know where the EEs go around here. If I knew their local coffee house, I would be there.

 

[Pommie]

Another good starting point is to fill in your location in your profile. You never know, some here may use the coffee shop just around the corner.

Mike.

 

[shortbus=]

Here is a start on the formal job description:

I want someone who will take my "ideas", which I may or may not have thought out thoroughly, and turn them into something really great that I can sell for a lot of money. The person needs to be really smart and build it really cheaply. Also, they can't steal any of my ideas and they can't build something that will end up hurting somebody. Finally, they need to work for me for next to nothing.

That sounds familiar. Isn't that the model Edison used for his inventions?