Xentronics Pty Ltd

The journey as a sole founder is unlike any other.

Today, I celebrate that journey with 3 years in business, and moving into our first office all to ourselves.

As much of a challenge as it is, and as much pride as I take in my work and effort I've put in the last 3 years, it wouldn't be possible without our amazing clients, staff, partners, suppliers, and family.

Thanks everyone for the support.

It's been a surreal last few months for the team at Xentronics.
We've had heads-down, bums-up, and have ticked off some awesome milestones.

1. Among many others, we delivered our first full-service project, providing bespoke Electrical System, Electronic Design, Embedded Firmware, and Cloud Software services to MyModular for their new R&D project.

2. Moved into our biggest office yet, and brought on board our Program Manager, Tony Ooi, to help improve client satisfaction, transparency, project management, processes, and support future growth.

3. Sat down as a team to reflect on the last 12 month of work, discuss what we are proud of and what we would do better next time, talk about career growth and KPIs, and what the road ahead for our business looks like.

Couldn't be prouder of the team - Sean, Sayali, Mariano, and Tony - for their hard work as we tackle some challenging, innovative, and unique projects lately, but very excited for what's to come with such a versatile and passionate team.

Awesome to be at the coal face at Entech Electronics in Adelaide to supervise, oversee, and support a high-volume manufacturing run for our client.

Over 4,000 Printed Circuit Assemblies are being made right here in Australia, soon to be exported and deployed in major airports all around the world - and I feel very privileged that Xentronics gets to be a part of that.

To date, 100% of clients have retained our services as their product moves into mass production, due to our rich understanding of (a) their design we have developed, (b) the electronics manufacturing process, and (c) our comprehensive network of suppliers and vendors we can put forward as options for them.

Thanks Jason, Xavier, Yaser, Andrew, Adrian, and the rest of the Entech team for always being a great partner for our common customer.

What an incredible start to the year.

New office, new shirts, new clients, new projects, new processes, new prototypes, and a new perspective.

It's been a lot of work moving in here; from building the workbench, deciding on a storage solution, moving all my tools and equipment from my home office, etc.

But, it's absolutely fantastic that we can now have our own collaborative space to focus, improve productivity, and build/debug/rework prototypes - and at the same time, still be based in Cremorne surrounded by the small business, like-minded, and startup communities.

It's a bit different from 30% of my bedroom in a small Brisbane apartment, so I'm certainly happy about that!

                             

Welcome to the team, Sean!

Sean has just joined Xentronics as a Software Engineer/Full Stack Developer, helping us complete the circle for the electronics product design process.

Whether it's an IoT product that needs an API or Dashboard to beautifully display data, a full-blown operating system inside an embedded product, or even a simple iPhone/Android/Windows/Mac application to talk to a device, Sean will enable us to provide these deliverables to clients all inhouse now.

His extensive background in IT, server management, software stacks, and application operations will bring a unique edge and perspective to the advice we provide clients, and the systems we put together.

Saying a device "will have a simple Bluetooth app", or "data will push to the cloud", are big terms to throw around - especially if you are making a scalable, mass-market, custom product. These sort of tasks take time, effort, and expertise - and that's something we can offer now.

Exciting times ahead.

It takes something special for a client to make you feel a part of their business, journey, and venture into product development.

I was very humbled Adam and Ben credited Xentronics as an Electronics Design Consultancy a few weeks ago for their Australia Award.

But I am even more grateful being surprised with my own trophy and certificate in person when I visited them last week.

I cannot wait to get this back to our office in Melbourne and add some inspiration and motivation to the new team I’m growing.

Our goal should never to be to win awards; it’s to get products to market, PCBs into mass production, and bring value to clients. But it’s great to have recognition, especially as an Electronics-focused Consultancy where design principles and quality are often undervalued.

Fantastic opportunity to travel to Sydney and see SiteHive’s new office, understand better the amazing work they’re doing, and do some workshops to roadmap and plan the next phase of their IoT Hardware R&D.

I’m really excited to share this now we are out of lockdown.

1. I’ve hired my first ever employee! I never imagined doing this - not for many years, at least. But something clicked one day, and I decided it’s time to build a team, share my knowledge with others, and help more clients develop more projects at once. Mariano has joined the team Part-Time as a Senior Firmware Engineer, and it’s been a great first few months working together. I stopped offering Firmware Development as a service a long time ago, as I lost focus on this part of electronics design to become an expert in hardware - but now we can give that more “rounded” and complete design service to clients once again moving forward. He’s already diving into some great automotive, mining, and industrial projects my clients have needed support with for a while.

2. We’ve moved into The Commons Cremorne, right in the heart of Melbourne’s Tech & Startup Hub. It’s incredible to both be surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs and small businesses, but also stand out and be that unique company doing real, hands-on Electronics Design, Product Development, and Firmware/Software in a coworking space. Thank you Shannon and the team for making us so welcome - the beer taps and rooftop terrace are certainly what won me over!

3. We’ve hired our second employee! Sayali has recently joined as a Hardware Engineer and will be taking on exciting responsibility for end-to-end Hardware Development - from Schematic & PCB Design for new projects, through to EMC Testing and Production Support for existing clients. I hope to teach her everything I know, and more, and help her grow as an engineer into the future. 

Thank you to to all our followers for the support over the last 2 years. We would not have come this far, grown as much, or be here today at all without you.

Prototyping.

It used to be my favourite time in the design process.

Seeing your creation come to life.
Building it up components-by-component yourself, or getting that package from your manufacturer with a handful of built units.

Sadly, with the electronics component supply chain issues happening at the moment, prototyping is now my least favourite time.

Anxiety about if parts will be available, stress if you managed to get enough parts for the prototype but there is not enough for production when the device is ready to scale, and pressure from clients to make magic happen.

There are several strategies to counteract this. Dual- or tri-footprints, choosing overly generic parts, extreme modular design techniques, hoarding stock early in the design process as some examples.

But none of them are perfect and all come with extra man-hours, cost to me and/or our client, design risk, and design complexity for no extra functional value.

Let’s hope this improves in the next 2-3 years. I have a feeling it won’t be any less than that.

A very proud moment for me and my business.

For 3 months straight, Xentronics has been the top non-ad result on Google for "electronics design melbourne".

This comes after a huge revamp of my website, some small effort into Search Engine Optimisation, and lots of ongoing traffic.

(Obviously, results may vary depending on your Google account/history/cookies, but this is on all devices I have tested and friends, family, clients, and in incognito mode)

I thank all my followers, clients, suppliers, and network for the ongoing support. It has been a great 1.5 years so far and things are looking very busy, very fun, and very innovative for me and my clientele!

And, I have some exciting news soon I will share. So keep an eye out.

No better feeling than giving back.

Last month I had the privilege to host 2 guest lectures at The University of Queensland, my old uni, giving students an insight into electronics, product development, and PCB design.

I still remember being in Uni - just getting accepted into the Telstra Graduate Program after about 15 interviews and workshops - but not even realising that “Electrical” Engineering jobs at Telstra don’t involve PCB Design. I needed to pursue “Electronics” Engineering instead. So I quit the job before I even started and never looked back.

Hopefully my advice, guidance, and show-and-tell can inspire and help students choose the right career path.

Thanks Matthew D’Souza, Joshua Lai, and the MARS society for hosting me.

Couldn't be happier with my latest toy!

With the acquisition of the renowned Omicron Lab Bode 100, my lab is basically complete.

This is a powerful 1Hz - 50MHz VNA, capable of measuring:

• Gain, phase, impedance, and admittance of 2-port networks
• Stability of active control circuits (including DC-DC converters)
• Parasitics and full-characteristics of components and filters
• PCB power plane capacitance
• PCBA power distribution network (PDN) impedance
•

You know it's a good Friday when your client texts you "Yippeeee!".

A few weeks ago, I got a desperate call from an OEM in the Railway Industry.
Their product was failing compliance, and they needed help.

Unlike a lot of products that fail Radiated Emissions, this was failing Conducted Immunity, EFT, and Surge - various kinds of noise injected into the product was causing the product to freeze, fail, and even become damaged permanently.

Definitely not acceptable for railway.

I visited their office, took 1 look at the device, and said I know exactly what needs doing.

I had arguments with their internal engineers (who designed the product) about what I was going to do, and even did some basic explanations of physics to get my point across ("a transformer does not isolate transients!" - Me).

Fast-forward 1.5 weeks and only a few minor modifications to the product later, and their device (not shown for confidentiality) passed with flying colours at EMC Technologies Pty Ltd.

I may be a designer by trade, and designing PCBs is my main passion, but if you need help with EMC in YOUR design, never hesitate to reach out.

I am so excited to announce this.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is something I am very passionate about, and my favourite aspect of Electronics Design.

Please join myself (Xentronics), Yaser Darban (Entech Electronics), and Dr. Arun Gayen (EMC Technologies Pty Ltd) in this collaborative effort to discuss what you need to know about EMC, in an upcoming webinar.

We will discuss:

• What even is EMC, at a high-level and low-level
• Why you should care
• Design considerations you need to make
• What can cause delays to market, extra costs, and recalls
• How does it work, how do I become compliant?
• Compliance vs Standards vs Directives vs Tests
• Some great examples of real designs and projects

Whether you are a CEO of a startup, a project manager involved in product development, an Electronics Engineer who wants to learn, or even a Mechanical/Other Field Engineer or Designer who wants to understand such an important and overlooked concept, I think you will find this free educational event extremely valuable.

Thanks to IEEE for hosting our event we have put a lot of effort into.

You can register here (free):

https://lnkd.in/gDvaKWj

Today marks 1 year officially working for myself full-time.

What a journey, what a challenge, and what a year.

Very blessed to be my own boss, and make a living doing my passion: designing electronic systems and PCBs for companies, and bringing their products from an idea, to a prototype, to a mass-produced item.

I have learnt so much about running a business, managing projects & client relationships, and of course electronics design theory and practice.

It has been a huge effort; many late nights, times when I thought maybe I couldn’t handle such huge pressure and responsibility, and - obviously - a huge risk to even work for myself in the first place.

But I have delivered everything I promised my clients, stuck to my values, and closed out many projects.

I have too many people to thank; my old bosses and mentors Andrew Ward and Scott Foster, my clients, my friends and family, my suppliers and partner companies, and of course, my girlfriend.

I don’t ever plan to hire and grow my business outwards, but rather stay solo and focus more on being a high-value, high-skill, and high-reliability consultant and electronics designer.

But long term, anything is on the cards for this 24 year old 🤓

A major turning point for my business today as I wake up at 5am 😴

After almost 1 year of business, and well over a dozen clients and projects, I am now finally able to go on my first ever business trip and fly to visit 2 clients in person, in Brisbane this weekend 🥳✈️

It’s pretty rare a Design Engineer gets to travel for work in general - at a large company, it would always be the Project Manager, Engineering Manager, or Business Development Manager who would do the travelling, not the person behind the design, development, or meaty work done in a project.

Just one more of the reasons why I am in love with running my own business.

Safe to say, it seems Rosie is going to miss me 🐶❤️

One of the most funny prototyping issues I’ve ever had to solve.

Despite specifying this section of the PCB as a cutout, my bare PCB fabricator did not cut this small section of the board out.

When I came to assemble the prototype the shielded DC Power Jack could not be soldered to the board. This is because it is designed to sit recessed “within” the PCB cutout normally.

Nothing a Dremel won’t fix!

Needless to say, my client is very happy with this resolution as it means the prototype can push on with design verification and testing, without hassle or dodgy glueing + flywire soldering of the connector to the board.