Board bring-up without heroics
Reduce bring-up risk with a reproducible workflow, instrumentation, and clear boundaries between hardware and firmware. Get to a stable baseline your team can maintain.
Typical deliverables
- Bring-up checklist + reproducible commands/scripts
- Full BSP for custom MCUs (e.g. Artery AT32F435) without locking you into vendor SDKs
- Instrumentation strategy (logs, tracing, fault capture)
- Stability baseline: boot flow, power modes, reset behavior
- Clear handoff points: what’s firmware vs hardware vs test
In a recent engagement, two custom boards were brought up in a single month.
Why bring-up gets stuck (and how we unblock it)
- Unclear boundaries: we make it obvious what is firmware vs hardware vs test and what to try next
- Non-reproducible workflows: we standardize flash/debug commands and document the baseline
- Hidden instability: we add instrumentation and tighten error messages so issues become diagnosable
- Patch debt: we replace one-off patches with proper early init and upstream-aligned configuration
What we need to start
- Repo access + build/flash instructions
- Hardware context (schematics/BOM if available)
- One hour to align scope, priorities, and “done”