Frequently Asked Questions

This varies per project and depends on complexity, scope, and specific requirements. For a small project, think around €5,000, while a more complex design can cost €10,000 to €20,000. Want to know for sure? After a no-obligation intake meeting, we provide a quote with the exact costs.

A typical PCB design process, from concept to production-ready files, takes 4 to 8 weeks. Then it takes about 3 to 6 weeks before we have the first prototypes in hand. We then test and improve the design if needed. Simpler designs can be faster, complex projects with multiple iterations take longer. This excludes firmware and software development that may run in parallel. We provide a realistic timeline at the start of the project.

There is no difference. PCB is the English abbreviation for Printed Circuit Board. 'Printplaat' is the Dutch term for the same thing. The name refers to the manufacturing process, where the circuit is 'printed' as a pattern of copper traces on the board.

PCBA stands for Printed Circuit Board Assembly. This is a printed circuit board where all electronic components, chips, and connectors are mounted. Strictly speaking, a PCB is just the bare printed circuit board without components. These terms are often used interchangeably.

A PCB design agency like Jitter B.V. designs the schematic and layout of your circuit board: the engineering. A manufacturer (PCB fabrication, PCBA factory) produces the physical board based on the files we deliver. We do the thinking, the manufacturer does the production. We also guide you through the handover to manufacturing.

A clear picture of what your product needs to do is the most important thing. That can be a specification document, but also a sketch or a good conversation. Do you already have an existing design, schematic, or hardware reference? That helps. But it's not a requirement, we're happy to think along from the start.

We work with fixed pricing per project phase. That gives you budget certainty and avoids surprises. After an intake meeting, we provide a clear quote per phase. Sometimes we suggest starting with a preliminary study to explore feasibility or to better define the specifications.

If you already have a schematic, we can work with that. However, we will first do a thorough review to ensure we can deliver on our guarantee of always delivering a working product. Sometimes it's actually faster if we redraw the schematic based on our own building blocks.

Yes. We also do redesigns, improvements, and extensions of existing designs. Check out our service Modernizing existing systems.

We design with CE certification in mind from the start: grounding, filtering, shielding, and layout choices that prevent problems later. Do we design the entire product? Then we guarantee successful certification.

All project-specific designs, development files and manufacturing files are yours, and you can continue with them on your own. For our generic building blocks (proven circuits and modules we also use in other projects) you get the right to use them in your product. We keep ownership of the hardware designs of those building blocks so we can keep developing them. You get proven technology without paying the full development cost.

Yes. When the design is ready for series production, we help with the handover to the manufacturer: bills of materials, fabrication files, test procedures, and contact with the factory. We can also guide the scaling from prototype to larger volumes.

sensor-link is our set of proven building blocks for connected equipment, in three layers: the device (4G-connected electronics and firmware in Rust), the server (secure data ingestion, storage and remote updates) and the interface (database, API or web dashboard). We combine the building blocks with custom work for your application. You can use all three layers, or only the ones you need.

No. Each layer works independently. You can use our hardware with your own backend, or combine our backend and dashboard with your own devices. The layers are designed to work together but can be used separately.

With an off-the-shelf IoT platform you pay a subscription per device and your data sits with a third party. With sensor-link the server runs on your side, the data stays yours and there are no monthly fees per device. Because we develop every layer ourselves, we can adapt all of it to your product.

We have proven frontends for vibration (accelerometer), tilt (inclinometer), and crack width measurement. We also support MODBUS and analog sensor inputs. Need something different? We design custom sensor frontends for your specific measurement needs.

The application-specific code and changes we make for you are yours. The software of the building blocks (firmware and server) is open source (MIT/Apache-2.0) and available on GitHub. For each device produced you pay a small one-time contribution to the ongoing development of the building blocks, such as security updates and support for new hardware. That lets us keep improving them without you needing a subscription.

That depends on the complexity and scope of your project. A simple firmware project starts around €5,000, while more complex projects with multiple interfaces, protocols, or certification requirements can cost €15,000 to €40,000 or more. After a no-obligation intake meeting, we provide a quote per project phase, so you know upfront what to expect.

A small firmware project can sometimes be done within 1 to 2 weeks. Larger projects with multiple iterations, hardware integration, and field testing can take 3 to 6 months. Firmware development often runs in parallel with PCB design. We provide a realistic timeline at the start.

Rust prevents entire categories of bugs at the compiler level that are common in C: null pointers, buffer overflows, race conditions, and use-after-free. That means less debugging, more stable firmware, and faster turnaround. Rust also offers modern tooling for dependency management, testing, and CI. We've been working with Rust on embedded for over five years and are more productive in it than in C.

Yes, that's an explicit goal. We document the architecture, the build environment, and the development workflows. The code is readable and structured so your own team can continue with it. If desired, we also offer guidance and knowledge transfer.

Yes. We have extensive experience with C on embedded. Do you have an existing C codebase that you want to extend or maintain? Then C is often the logical choice. For new projects, we recommend Rust for its higher quality and productivity, but the choice is yours.

OTA (Over-The-Air) updates make it possible to update firmware remotely, without needing physical access to the device. We implement this with a secure bootloader that verifies the integrity of the update before applying it.

Firmware is software that runs directly on a microcontroller or processor, close to the hardware. It controls sensors, communication interfaces, actuators, and other peripherals. Unlike 'regular' software on a computer or phone, firmware has direct control over the hardware and often runs without an operating system.

Firmware runs directly on the hardware (microcontroller) and has direct control over physical components like sensors and motors. Software runs on an operating system like Windows, Linux, or Android. The distinction isn't always clear-cut: embedded Linux systems sit somewhere in between. At Jitter, we use 'firmware' for anything that runs bare-metal or on an RTOS.

RTOS stands for Real-Time Operating System. It's a lightweight operating system for microcontrollers that can execute tasks with strict timing guarantees. Think of reading a sensor exactly every millisecond, or responding to an interrupt within a fixed deadline. Well-known examples are FreeRTOS and Zephyr. In our Rust projects, we often use RTIC or Embassy, async frameworks that offer similar functionality without the overhead of a traditional RTOS.

Bare-metal means the firmware runs directly on the microcontroller, without an operating system in between. Your code has full control over the hardware. This delivers the lowest latency and smallest memory footprint. For simpler systems, bare-metal is ideal. For more complex systems with many parallel tasks, we prefer an RTOS or async framework.

An embedded system is a computer built into a larger device that performs a specific task. Think of the electronics in a washing machine, a medical device, or an industrial sensor. Unlike a general-purpose computer, an embedded system is designed for a single purpose, with constraints on memory, processing power, and energy consumption.

Embedded systems development is the design and construction of electronic systems where hardware (PCB) and firmware (software on the microcontroller) form one integrated whole. Think of a sensor that measures, processes, and transmits data, or an industrial controller that operates a machine. At Jitter, we design both under one roof.

Firmware development focuses on the software running on a microcontroller. Embedded systems development also includes the hardware design: the PCB, component selection, power architecture, and interfaces and sometimes even the enclosure. In embedded systems development, hardware and firmware are designed together so they are optimally aligned.

When you want to build a physical product that measures, controls, or communicates, and you don't have a team that can design both the electronics and the firmware. Also when you have a prototype that isn't robust enough for production, or when the integration between hardware and firmware is causing problems, a specialized team can make the difference.

An embedded systems project with hardware and firmware typically starts around €15,000 for a simple design. More complex systems with multiple sensors, wireless communication, or certification requirements cost €25,000 to €60,000 or more. We work with fixed pricing per project phase. After a no-obligation intake meeting, you receive a clear quote.

A typical project from specification to working prototype takes 3 to 6 months. This includes hardware design, firmware development, PCB production, and integration testing. Simpler projects can be faster, complex systems with certification take longer. We provide a realistic timeline at the start.

When hardware and firmware are designed by the same team, choices like pin assignments, bus architecture, and power sequencing are aligned from the start. This prevents costly PCB respins, shortens integration time, and results in a more robust end product. The most common problems with embedded products arise at the boundary between hardware and firmware.

Especially for industrial devices and prototypes, we design enclosures. See for example our Frogwatch Sensors. For the consumer market, it is often better to involve an industrial designer.

Electronics and firmware start from €20,000 and a secure server costs €6,500, both indicative and excluding VAT. On top of that you pay a small one-time contribution per produced device towards the development of the building blocks, with no subscription. The budget calculator lets you put together your own estimate.

With a feasibility study. We find out whether your measuring principle can work, which technology fits and what it costs per device. You get a go/no-go with the reasoning behind it and a roadmap, before you invest in development.

Research and calculations before you start development. We find out whether your measuring principle can work, which technology fits and what it costs per device or per site. You get a go/no-go with the reasoning behind it, a development roadmap and a concrete proposal for the next step. We don't build hardware in this phase.

The study is made up of modules and you choose the ones you need. The kickoff, where we define the requirements together, is always the starting point and costs from €960. A complete study with all modules costs about €9,600. Prices are indicative and exclude VAT; you get a proposal with a fixed price per module up front.

A complete study with all modules takes 3 to 4 weeks. If you choose fewer modules, it takes less time.

That depends on where your devices will be installed and how they are powered: battery, solar or mains. In the system architecture module we compare the options side by side, with the risks and the cost per device or per site.

Measurements or a pilot follow as a separate next step. If you decide to build, the foundation is ready in our sensor-link building blocks, and the same people who did the study develop your product.

Yes. We connect a sensor-link module to your existing controller over Modbus, CAN or a serial link. Your equipment then sends its status and fault codes over 4G to your own server. Nothing changes in the controller itself.

We design a replacement board or module with components that will be available for years again. Same size and same connectors, so it fits your existing system. If the electronics are due for replacement anyway, we build in 4G, security and remote updates at the same time.

Yes. We start by analyzing and documenting your current system, and where needed we work out old protocols through reverse engineering. We only replace something once we know how it works. Everything we find out gets written down, so the knowledge doesn't get lost again.

No. We modernize step by step instead of replacing everything at once, so running installations keep working and downtime stays minimal.

That depends on your system and on what needs replacing. After an intake meeting and, where needed, an analysis of the current system, you get a fixed price per phase. If you want to make existing equipment connected, the budget calculator gives you a first estimate.

We stay involved with your product after the first delivery. We develop new versions and features, keep the firmware and security of devices in the field up to date, and keep servers and dashboards running. Our involvement scales with what you need: sometimes intensive, sometimes in the background.

It stays. We document and hand over knowledge so it remains accessible, whether you build your own team or stay with us. At Frogwatch, the same engineers who built the first version in 2017 still keep the system running today.

Yes. We deliver firmware and security updates for devices in the field, also years after the first delivery. What the CRA asks of connected products is explained in our article on the Cyber Resilience Act.

Yes. Besides electronics, firmware and software we do mechanical design and 3D modeling, and we design custom enclosures or select a standard one, including for IP67 and other protection ratings.