Particle Device OS

I just noticed this page, and was wondering about a few things:

I already have a working project, but I’d like to:

  • Reduce production cost
  • Swap/remove a few components (e.g. uFL to SMA antenna)
  • Re-arrange some components

I’m using the Particle Electron currently, and the Eagle schematics are open-source. So am I correct in thinking that I can have my own PCBs produced with this Electron schematic, and use the Particle Device OS to use them in the same way I’d use a regular Electron?

I suppose this would be a good middle ground between using the Electron, and work on an own embedded system with just the STM32 (which is more difficult and risk-prone)?

If you build a device with an off-the-shelf STM32 processor, the device ID will not be known to the Particle cloud and will not be granted access.

The same situation can occur with the P0 and P1; if you buy them directly from USI instead of through Particle or its distributors, the cost of cloud access is not included and would cost a couple dollars per device to enable Particle cloud access.

You should discuss this with your sales account executive.

Yes, that’s what I figured.

Isn’t the Device OS product meant though to register such “unknown” embedded systems that use STM32 with Particle? If not, is there another way to accomplish that, or is use of the Particle framework always limited to the purchase of their shelf products (e.g. Photon, Electron, E-Series)?

I will definitely discuss this with them too, I just want to make sure I understand the functionality of this product correctly. I like to make use of the Particle framework, I just see some advantages in having manual control over the HW design.

I also think that whatever you may save in production might get consumed multiple times by having to recertify your product.
If you are not selling thousands or charge considerable prices for each individual device, sticking with Particle’s own devices (that come with certification) should still be cheaper.

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