Due to the postponement of a batch build we now have spare capacity in our production department at a reduced rate available to existing customers only. Find out more.
Due to the postponement of a batch build we now have spare capacity in our production department at a reduced rate available to existing customers only. Find out more.
We are delighted to have been shortlisted for SME Manufacturing Company of the Year (Turnover below £25m) at the Insider Media Ltd Made in the South West Awards.
In the past year, we've seen huge growth in the development of wearable technology and IoT, but what’s next? Here are 6 trends we expect to see more of in 2016.
Cubik Innovation are proud to announce that it has recently become a business support provider of the West of England Growth Hub, helping our local business community to grow sustainably.
As our lives and homes become dominated by smart devices, testing processes and procedures for software and hardware are set for disruption. We explore some of the ways IoT is shaking up the market.
As we head into a new year, we reflect on 12 months of growth and positive change at Cubik HQ. We take a look at some of the highlights of 2016.
We catch up with our latest intern, Ryan Smith, a robotics student from the University of Plymouth to find out what he learned during his year long placement at Cubik.
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded Start Up Business of the Year 2015 at the Bristol Post Awards.
With the latest instalment of the Star Wars saga due to be released, we look at some of The Empire's biggest engineering failings. From lack of prototyping to poor quality management, and more.
Target Darts is a leader in darts equipment and sponsors some of the biggest names in the game including Luke Littler and Rob Cross. Their latest product creates a new category of connected IoT devices bringing the skill and excitement of the game to homes at the touch of a button.
The Virt Camera is a two-way camera system that allows users to play competitive darts against a global online community. It's front facing camera lets you opponent watch your throw, while the dartboard facing camera allows them to see your dart land in real time, high-definition video.
Target Darts approached Cubik with a prototype of their new product and asked us to conduct a design review that focussed on design for manufacture and supply. The Virt needed to stream two live video feeds to a remote server and an app that would configure and score the game. The biggest challenge was fitting the amount of tech needed into a sleek, compact design whilst maintaining a high-quality video feed.
As part of the design review, we produced a low volume build of the existing prototype to test and analyse. Using the output, we made design recommendations to improve performance and streamline the manufacturability of the product.
Getting the camera tech right was a big piece of the puzzle. Our team carried out extensive research and testing to select the best camera component. We then designed and built a bespoke PCB that enabled the camera to interact with off the shelf components to bring the whole system together.
With a refreshed design that employed design for manufacture principles, we went on to successfully support Target Darts through the regulatory certification process and achieved CE, UKCA and FCC approval.
The result, a market ready product that is now available to purchase: https://bit.ly/40fuW5k
The IZLID is a compact, lightweight infrared laser device used by the military as a command pointer for target marking and communicating with aircraft. It is small enough to fit into the user’s pocket, or attach to their belt for quick access, offering swift guidance to ground personnel over a range of 39km.
Close Air Solutions (CAS) asked Cubik to design a simulator that replicated the look and feel of the IZLID’s aesthetics, ergonomics and user functions, without the infrared beam. The IZLID simulator needed to connect to CAS simulation system via a single USB lead and return data back to the simulation system.
The IZLID simulator is used in classroom based military training to help soldiers gain knowledge and experience of how it would behave in a real-world application. Simulation is a critical part of military training allowing soldiers to experience realistic scenarios in a virtual world, improving their decision making and readiness for combat situations.
The Reskube offers a simple solution providing access to both continuous power and uninterruptible internet connectivity for itself and any connected devices during a power outage. It’s sleek and portable design means that it can be used in a wide range of settings from powering a home office to life saving medical equipment. This intelligent device has the capability to detect and resolve issues before they become a problem.
With our friends at Bang Creations delivering the mechanical design, we were brought on board to design and build the system architecture and support the product through regulatory certification. We worked closely with Bang to ensure the electronic system fit the custom enclosure without compromising on quality and performance.
Designed with critical remote workers in mind the Reskube gives users the confidence to work from any location without fear of disruption. Outside of the home, Reskube maintains continuous operations during outages for small sites such as retail stores, construction sites, doctor's surgeries, and primary schools, ensuring that critical systems and equipment remain operational. Additionally, it offers the added benefit of remote monitoring and management. In global regions where power outages are commonplace the Reskube offers a source of reliability and resilience in an environment with unpredictable connectivity.
Bristol & London based company, Switchee Ltd developed a smart thermostat solution aimed at reducing energy bills in social housing. The intelligent device learns the routine of the household, detects when the house is not occupied and turns the heating on or off accordingly. The device allows valuable data to be gathered remotely reducing the requirement for complex interaction or configuration from the user.
Switchee approached Cubik for help with the development of the software drivers which allow the operating system to communicate with the hardware. This quickly evolved into a larger scheme of work that incorporated the printed circuit board (PCB) design, prototype manufacture and firmware development.
Switchee is the first internet-connect device in social housing. It delivers real-time data that gives housing providers the insights and tools they need to proactively support residents and manage homes.
With a Switchee device installed, energy efficiency can be optimised on a case-by-case basis reducing energy waste, lowering heating bills and cutting carbon emissions.
This summer our industry celebrated National Women in Engineering Day which champions the work women do within the industry as well as promoting the excellent career prospects available.
To celebrate, the Engineering Innovation South-West Network launched a Dragon’s Den inspired competition ‘Women with Bright Ideas 2014’. Seven finalists were tasked with creating a commercial and manufactural concept to pitch to panel members and investors and ask for help with the development of their idea.
Paul Mullen was selected to join the panel team to judge and scrutinise the ideas brought to the table by the budding entrepreneurs. The team comprised of industry leads included Jessica Bent(Withy King Solicitors), Angela Hobbs (Triteq), Peter Stirling (Stirling Dynamics), Ali Hadavizadeh (University of Bath), Lynn Elvins (Design Wales),Ian Weston (NT CAD CAM) and Haydn Earl (EI-SW).
After a series of pitches, and careful consideration by the panel, it was agreed that two of the designs were of equal quality and innovation resulting in a joint first place.
Catherine Dodd and Rose Phelps of Doddl Cutlery pioneered a revolutionary, ergonomic set of children’s cutlery which is designed to make mealtimes a stress free experience by giving children tools that allow them to eat more independently and progress to using adult cutlery quicker.
Also sharing first place is Chloe Meinick, a brilliant designer and inventor based in the Pervasive Media studio at Bristol’s Watershed Centre. A recent graduate, with an impressive CV of awards and appointments, Chloe has been developing her ‘Musical Memory Box’ aimed at helping Dementia sufferers. The beautifully upholstered box involves objects that are placed into the box, triggering a pre-assigned audio which is then played back to the user. This unique product incorporates a striking design, innovative electronic design, and a genuine mindfulness of user experience.
The competition process was valuable to all who attended. As a business, we took great pleasure in being involved in such an important event for our industry and the women who make it great and are excited by the possibility of assisting with the development of some of finalist’s projects.
In 2013, we visited the University of the West of England (UWE) to attend Venturefest South West, a trade show for technology start-ups, entrepreneurs and inventors to showcase their innovations, encouraging business growth and collaboration. Armed with our manufacturing equipment and a few of our own creations, we built a stand hoping to expand the growing network of connections and collaborators we’ve built within the South-West technology hub. There, we met Joel Gibbard from Open Bionics.
Joel had a well developed idea and a venture that was already underway. He had pioneered a revolutionary, world first; a prototype of a prosthetic arm with a robotic hand that had been manufactured almost entirely using 3D printing and scanning. The product is completely unprecedented in terms of technology. The Open Hand project is largely financed via Indie Go-Go crowd-funding and uses open source information to allow for key collaboration and to ensure a reasonable cost when the finished product eventually goes to market.
We were so delighted by the prospect of assisting on a project of this nature, which not only uses new technology, but has a profound mission to make a difference, we awarded Joel with a £1000 voucher worth to use towards design consultation and PCB manufacture services with Cubik.
Shortly after, Joel arrived at Cubik HQ with stacks of electronic designs and layouts for the team to unpack and examine. After hours of planning and deliberating, two design reviews and several pots of coffee, we were ready to manufacture. Joel was impressed with the design and the resulting PCBs, saying:
“Without Cubik’s advice we would never have had a design anywhere near the quality it is. The experts at Cubik gave us a really clear idea of our electronic hardware options and their design consultation enabled us to create reliable and high quality PCBs.”
Everyone involved was delighted to play their part in the project. Cubik’s Giles Sanders said:
“Being involved in a project that is so ground breaking, with the potential to change the lives of hundreds of people was an honour and a privilege. Joel’s creation and design is inspiring.”
A few months later, Joel and the Open Hand project team were ready to carry out their first physical test which took place at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Daniel Melville, 23 who was born without a right hand, was the first person to be fitted with the robotic hand prosthetic. Having seen Joel’s crowd funding campaign, Daniel was sold on the idea of robot prosthetics and contacted Joel. From an early age, Daniel he’d been attempting to park the less functional, cosmetic prosthetic and wished he’d had a “cool” robot hand. Daniel said:
“It would have been amazing when I was younger. I would have loved a 3D printed ‘Power Ranger’ hand - it would have made me feel a lot better about being different.”
Within twenty minutes, Daniel’s arm had been scanned with a 3D sensor to create a mesh. A 3D printer was then used to create the hand. The socket which took forty hours to print perfectly fitted first time.
Olly Mcbride, a Robotics student at UWE, who has been helping Joel with programming, said:
“The best part was seeing the excitement on Dan’s face as he went round trying to pick up everything he could. The whole process was heart warming.”
Joel and his team are delighted with the results but have vowed to create the ‘perfect solution’ aiming for the end product to be even more “light-weight, low-cost and creative” and available on the prosthetic market by the end of 2015. Open Bionics plan to stick to their original mission and open source all information on completion of their product, making it open to further developments.
Open Bionics went on to gain further success achieving the runners up position at the ‘Intel’s Make it Wearable’ competition and winning $200,000 to support further development of bionic hands. Joel and teammate, Sammy Payne visited California where they consulted with University of California, Berkeley and top Intel Business mentors. Giving his reaction to receiving the prize, Joel said:
“We believe this money will help revolutionise the prosthetics industry with the use of 3D scanning and 3D printing technology.”
We were honoured to be able to play a small but vital part in the process and continue to be inspired by the Open Bionics team who are focused and committed to their goal of delivering innovative, low cost technology as well as revolutionising the lives of amputees and differently abled people.
Speaking about Cubik, Joel said:
“Working with Cubik was invaluable to the initial successes we’ve had. They assisted us in creating our first run of electronics control boards for our robotic hand prototype.”
If you have a design in its early stages, an established idea or an existing project which needs mapping and is in either electronic design or production phases, please contact us to organise a telephone or face to face consultation. We specialise in helping inventors, entrepreneurs and organisations take their concept all the way to production and are always looking for exciting projects to work on.
For more information on Open Bionics and the development of their products please visit www.openbionics.com
In the engineering sector, a summer shut down, or at least a slowdown is a regular thing. The kids are on their holidays, projects are simmering away slowly, conferences are on hold and funding rounds at this time of year are few and far between.
At Cubik it has been anything but a shut down. It has been so busy that there hasn’t been much time to make a cup of tea! Okay, so maybe there has been time to make tea, but just what have we been up to? It’s been all change!
We have taken on our first apprentice, Shannon Cribb. After joining us for work experience last summer, Shannon decided that upon completing her A Levels she would like to start her career (and the allure of Cubik was of course too much!). She’s only been here a matter of weeks, but the team is already impressed with her enthusiasm and soldering skills.
Shannon will study a 3-year course in HNC in Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Wiltshire College and University Centre where she will have access to cutting edge laboratory facilities, equipment, and teachers. She will integrate the practical element of her course with her work at Cubik, gaining first hand experience in all areas of electronics before consolidating her learning into a formal qualification.
Dan Morgan joined us on placement from University of Plymouth where he is studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Dan was immediately put to work on one of our bigger projects and has been busy getting stuck in.
We have a long-standing relationship with University of Plymouth with several of our previous interns and team members having achieved their qualifications there. Each year we attend the end of year show and are always impressed with the projects they have been working on.
We were also joined by Ben Ezard who joined us for a summer internship. We met through a talk given by Paul at the University of the West of England (UWE) where Ben is studying a Computer Science and Creative Technologies course. Although not with us for long, Ben became a valued member of the team. We wish him the best of luck for the remainder of his studies and future career.
Sadly, Bhavin will be leaving us to study for a MSc in Digital Systems Engineering at the University of York. Bhavin joined us as a Graduate Electronics Engineer, and we will be sad to see him leave but suffice to say he is very excited about his next adventure!
We continually seek to integrate ourselves with the academic community and believe that to gain the best employees, delivering first-hand industry knowledge is key.
It’s been a year since our last birthday post and, wow – what a year it’s been!
Over the past year, we’ve grown from a team of 8 to a team of 14. We have moved to a larger design office and acquired a new laboratory space to accommodate our customers’ growing manufacturing requirements. We passed our external ISO 9001 audit with flying colours and acquired a new Slimline Environmental Testing Chamber which allows us to test products to temperatures between - 40°c to 180°c.
So how did the team celebrate this brilliant year and its second birthday? With a caterpillar cake of course! Oh, and balloons, lot of balloons. Steve was crowned winner of the balloon competition (heavily protected by Sam), before heading outside for an impromptu team photo.
Cubik’s MD, Paul Mullen, expressed his delight on the company’s second birthday:
“It has been a brilliant year for Cubik. The input from the team has been fantastic, they are a credit to themselves. We have been very fortunate to have been awarded the level of project work that we have and without our outstanding team this growth would not have been possible.”
Looking ahead to the next year there are some exciting and even more ambitious projects on the horizon.
We are looking for a new Senior Hardware Engineer and Office Coordinator to join the team. If you’re looking for an exciting new challenge do let us know.
At Cubik Innovation we are fortunate to have some exceptionally talented team members with brilliant personalities.
We often pop to the pub for a pint but last week it was agreed we should have our first Cubik day trip. So, where do 12 electronic engineers and designers go? Bletchley Park of course!
Having squashed into a minibus for a couple of hours we arrived at Bletchley Park on a lovely sunny day and headed straight for the enigma machines and the Alan Turing exhibition.
A truly fascinating exhibition it certainly stoked our inner spies and the team were eager to head off to the much-anticipated Colossus Computer.
Developed by code breakers during the Second World War, the Colossus Computer is the world’s first programmable computer designed to decrypt messages sent by enemy machines. Ten machines were built in total and were later dismantled with many parts destroyed after the war. Having the opportunity to see the machine working was something quite special.
Next, we were taken on a special tour of The National Museum of Computing. The museum staff talked us through the various computing technologies, beginning with the Harwell Dekatron (WITCH), through Mainframes to Sinclairs and Amstrads right up to present day computers, with a fascinating and entertaining take on emerging and colliding technologies.
Cubik’s director, Paul Mullen, gave a lecture to Computer Science and Creative Technologies students at The University of the West of England (UWE) this month. Invited by Associate Head of Department, Dr John Hunt, Paul spoke to students about his first hand experiences of running a start-up, as well as working for one.
Several of the students currently studying all levels of the course within the Faculty of Environment and Technology requested a local speaker to talk about the logistics of setting up, running, and maintaining the business through its start-up phase.
Cubik has seen a dramatic increase of inventors and entrepreneurs looking to develop electronic products, primarily due to easier market access provided by online crowd funding platforms. The talk was the perfect opportunity to address not only the highs of setting out on your own, but also the associated pit falls which can help shape the development of the business.
Paul summarised the value of running your own business beyond the day-to-day management:
‘Setting up on your own is daunting, it involves juggling a lot of balls in the air, but it is hugely rewarding. It can go beyond being just financially profitable into being a very gratifying lifestyle business.’
There were several questions posed by the students in attendance at the end of the lecture which not only demonstrate how engaged they are in their current studies, but also their forward-thinking attitude towards business.
It is hoped that one day Cubik Innovation will be able to do business with these future entrepreneurs.
A new year brings new contracts to Cubik.
Cubik and the team had a well-deserved Christmas and New Years break, on their return they were ready and raring to go!
So much so Cubik landed a new contract with Wessex Water, this contract alongside another will double the turnover of the business which is a fantastic start to the new year!
This is a very exciting time for the whole team and a massive step change to the company. It will not only secure the longevity of the business but also create new roles.
Cubik Innovation celebrated its first year in business this month with a celebratory slice of cake. Having taken up residence at Bristol and Bath Science Park in September 2012, Cubik has quickly grown to a team of eight employees and enjoys a rapidly expanding client list.
Assisting entrepreneurs, inventors and other small businesses in electronic product and prototype design, we specialise in helping clients bringing new products to market. We work across a variety of industry sectors including industrial, telecommunications and security.
With 20 years’ experience in the electronics industry, Managing Director Paul Mullen expressed his delight and ambitions for Cubik:
“We have had a great first year. The team has grown significantly this year, driven entirely by the requirements of our customers. We have delivered significant electronic product designs and in addition have shipped several thousand units of customer product, all manufactured at the science park. The cake isn’t bad either!”
Having successfully shipped the Science Park’s first products earlier in February, the business continues to go from strength to strength with its highly skilled team and on-site manufacturing facilities.
In November, we will be hosting a stand at this year’s Venturefest held at the UWE Conference Centre where we will be demonstrating our manufacturing capabilities.
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