CE Certification and FCC Compliance: seeking a vendor to approve some Parallax parts
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,386
Hello,
Selling to our European customers requires us to obtain CE certification and FCC compliance. I'm looking for a supplier who could approve the Propeller 2 products (P2-EC, eval boards) and the cyber:bot. It's been a while since I've been through this process.
Could anybody recommend a supplier of such services?
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
Comments
Only CE is needed in europe, FCC is not needed.. and as i remember it, you don't need CE if item is for development or experimental use.
It is correct that the responsible of CE declaration must have address in Europe.
Anyone can make a CE declaration easy an cheap, its praticaly "just" a peace of paper. The expencive part is the EMC test to ensure no radio interferences comming in or out of equipment. I did that with an propeller project year ago, and it was more expensive than the R&D cost.
For what it is worth - You may want to contact the ARRL - American Radio Relay League. They have one of the most complete (private) radio electronics testing facilities in the US.
Hey Ken,
Had a Zoom today with a customer whom you know and asked him who they used for CE testing. It was these folks:
His comments about them included the words "expensive" and "thorough."
-Phil
At least one-half of the description sounds very inviting: thorough.
I'm actually looking into self-certification as a possibility in the meantime.
Ken Gracey
Back in 2010 I found Eric Friesen here on the forums who had a product FCC tested by someone who had after-hours access Lexmark labs in KY for a low price.
Does that ring any bells? I only have the most basic of email chain for this, as I never followed through myself.
-j
Many FCC test labs to choose from, prices range from $1k-$2k, just search FCC test labs.
The issue is when the board fails emi. A good lab and techs can help resolve in minimal time where a lab that just tests will cost a fortune each test round. I used to go to the lab for prelim testing armed with parts ready to tweek anything necessary.
When we did the P1 (used 3x P1 chips) we had to do a number of things as the P1 was noisy. Had to tweek the pwm outputs (LCD backlight and ???).
Cluso99: The issue is when the board fails emi.
There's also EMS (electro-magnetic susceptability). Based on my limited experience, this one might be harder to pass, since they blast the target board with RF in a whole spectrum of frequencies approaching the EMP you might expect from a nuclear blast. (Okay, that might be a little overstated, but you get the idea.)
-Phil
With Brexit we're now in a 1 year grace period for the UK, before they have their own certification requirement next year