Firmware development
Bare-metal and RTOS firmware for microcontroller platforms: device drivers, communication stacks, bootloaders and power management, developed against the hardware and validated on the bench.
Embedded systems engineering
Full cycle embedded systems development
We design the hardware, develop the firmware and build the tooling that puts it into production. More than ten years of it, for startups and product teams that need a proof of concept, a prototype or a low-volume run.
What we deliver
Every project ends with a complete handover package rather than a demonstration.
- Schematics, PCB layout, gerbers and a costed BOM
- Firmware sources, build scripts and a field update path
- Test fixtures and production documentation
Why BrainIOStream
One team across hardware and software
Most embedded projects fail late: at certification, in production, or in the field after launch. Those failures are usually created early, when the board and the firmware are specified by separate suppliers who never meet. We take responsibility for both.
You work directly with the engineers building your product. Requirements go to the people who implement them, with no account layer in between.
Focused on early-stage work
Proof of concept, prototype and low-volume production. This is our core business rather than overflow capacity from larger programmes.
Hardware and firmware
Schematic, layout and firmware are developed by one team, so integration issues get resolved instead of being assigned between vendors.
Designed for manufacturing
Test fixtures, programming and automated test are part of the development plan from the start, not a phase that begins after design freeze.
Capabilities
Core engineering capabilities
Firmware, embedded Linux, hardware design, wireless, automotive systems and production tooling.
Embedded Linux
Custom Linux distributions built with Yocto and Buildroot: bootloader, device tree, kernel drivers and the userspace applications above them, delivered as a reproducible build.
Hardware and PCB design
Schematic design, multilayer PCB layout and hardware bring-up. Analog front ends, power stages and battery charging, specified for the process that will manufacture them.
Wearables and wireless
Low-power wireless devices over BLE, ANT+, sub-GHz and proprietary 2.4 GHz links. Current consumption is measured on a profiler and verified against the battery specification.
Automotive and reverse engineering
CAN and LIN development against production vehicle equipment, retrofit electronics, and recovery of schematics and firmware from hardware supplied without documentation.
Read moreProduction tooling
Automated test equipment, production programmers and factory software. This is the work that determines whether unit 500 behaves identically to unit 5.
In-house product
P1LOT One
A USB interface between a PC and production automotive equipment. It drives real instrument clusters from simulator telemetry, and reads the vehicle's own switches and controls back to the PC.
Three clusters run today — BMW F30 and G30, and the Porsche Panamera 970 — alongside the F-series gear selector and the iDrive-type rotary controller.
We designed the board, developed the firmware and implemented the protocol. It is a working reference for the kind of work we deliver for clients.
Industries
Industries we work in
The silicon and the interfaces are broadly similar across domains. The requirements, the validation and the approvals are not. These are the ones we already know.
Medical and health
Devices subject to audit. Firmware, update paths and production test developed to fit an existing quality management system.
Automotive
CAN and LIN development against production vehicle equipment, retrofit electronics, and bench test systems.
Security and alarm
Long-life sub-GHz devices running from a single cell, and the production tooling required to build them in volume.
Industrial
Modbus, motor control, mains-borne signalling and analog instrumentation.
Sport and fitness
Connected equipment with sensor acquisition, wireless links and field updates.
Consumer wearables
Compact battery-powered devices with charging, low-power operation, pairing and mechanical constraints.
Selected work
Delivered projects
A sample of completed work. Some projects ran under NDA, so the client is not named.
P1LOT One
AutomotiveIn-house product
A USB interface that drives production car instrument clusters from PC telemetry and reads the vehicle's own switches and stalks back the other way. One connector carries two CAN buses, a LIN master and the power for whatever is on the end of it. We designed the board, developed the firmware, decoded the equipment's messages and wrote the manual. On sale, with support for further equipment added by firmware update.
STM32G4742× CANLIN masterUSB CDC and HIDcustom wire protocol
Electric scooter battery management
Automotive · MobilityA battery management board supplied with no documentation and no source. We traced the schematic back off the finished hardware, identified the parts whose markings had been removed from what they were wired to, and developed firmware that behaves like the original on the reconstructed design.
STM32G030schematic recoveryGhidracustom BMS firmware
Connected gym equipment
SportUnder NDA, via an engineering partner
The Linux application layer for commercial fitness machines: C++ services on an embedded Linux board talking to the machine's controller over CAN, and packaged as signed Debian builds so an installed fleet could be updated without a site visit.
Raspberry PiFalcon FX SDKCANC++LinuxDEB packaging
Process
How a project runs
Five stages, each producing something you can review. Technical risk is handled early, while changes are still inexpensive.
Requirements
A technical call, followed by a written scope: deliverables, acceptance criteria, and what is explicitly excluded.
Risk reduction
The highest-risk element is prototyped first, on development kits or a wired-up board, before hardware is committed.
Development
Schematic, layout, firmware and tests. Progress is reported as commits, measurements and bench photographs.
Integration and validation
Boards are brought up and instrumented. Current consumption, timing and every interface are measured and recorded.
Handover
Sources, schematics, gerbers, BOM, build scripts and test fixtures are delivered, and the build is verified on a clean machine.
Tell us what you are building
Send the requirements, the constraints and the timeline. You will get a technical assessment and a proposed plan from the engineers who would deliver the project.