[sdiy] Advice for selling gear: FCC part 15 certification?

[Jay Schwichtenberg]

When I got our sound cards thru FCC a few years back it was an expensive and
time consumming process. But we were putting a card in a PC which had cables
comming out the back which compounded problems. Barry Klein's hit most of
the items.

At that time we never did FCC certification but CE. CE had (maybe still has)
tighter specs so if you passed it you got FCC. The company that did
certification for us would then just print out the FCC forms and we'd call
it good.

Barry's idea about selling a kit or partial kit is a good work around. I
THINK (better verify this for sure!) that you can get away with having
everything done except the final assembly. Then the customer can do that.
Check it out!

Also there is the issue of UL approval. If you're going to put your own
power supply into something you have to do this too. A work a round for this
is go and get a pre-made power supply that has UL approval. That is one of
the reasons there are so many wall warts out there.

Jay

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Tim Ressel
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 1:57 PM
> To: Bret Truchan; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Advice for selling gear: FCC part 15 certification?
>
>
> Yo,
>
> For CE, you can skip all testing and just claim you
> pass. But if anyone complains, the powers that be will
> grab a bunch of your product out of your wahehouse and
> test it. If it fails AND you have done no testing,
> you're busted. And in jail. If you fail but have
> documented tests, then its a slap on the wrist.
>
> As far as I know, its about the same in the US. No
> policing except if complaints come in. But don't claim
> FCC if you haven't done the testing.
>
> Lab time is quite expensive. The very nice at HP
> charged $500/Hr for the 10 meter chamber, and $150/Hr
> for all other lab time.
>
> --Tr
>
>
> --- Bret Truchan <clone45 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello again!
> >
> > You all rule!  Thanks for being so friendly!
> >
> > Eric, of Metasonix, was kind enough to warn me that,
> > if I ever want to sell
> > my creations legally, I'll need FCC part 15
> > certification.  I was wondering
> > if anyone has any more inforamation about going
> > through the certification
> > process.  It looks expensive!!  If I'm probably
> > going to sell less than 50
> > units, and they don't cost much,  how can I break
> > even?
> >
> > One piece of music gear that I'm thinking of making
> > uses a microcontroller
> > -- and that's about it.  If the microcontroller
> > already has passed FCC
> > approval, do I also need to have my unit approved?
> > If my gear is entirely
> > composed of off-the-shelf components, do I still
> > need certification?
> >
> > Thanks a ton for any advice!
> > - Bret
> >
> >
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