# Crab Labs - Electronics Engineering Consultancy
# https://crablabs.io

## Overview
Crab Labs is a direct-access engineering consultancy based in Long Beach, CA. We are a team of 5 senior electronics engineers (30+ years combined experience) specializing in embedded systems, PCB design, and regulatory compliance for medical, robotics, scientific, and industrial devices. No project managers or salespeople. Clients work directly with the engineers building their product.

## Key Stats
- **Founded:** 2024
- **Team:** 5 Senior Engineers
- **Location:** Long Beach, CA
- **Focus:** ~40% Medical, ~25% Robotics/Industrial, ~35% Scientific & Industrial
- **Business Model:** Fixed-price projects ($1k - $100k)
- **Quality system:** Pursuing ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 quality-system certification (not yet certified)

## Services
1. **Design Review & Feasibility ($1k+):** Independent assessment of your schematic, layout, or firmware to find problems before they cost you, or a focused sprint to prove critical technical decisions before committing to a full program.
2. **Product Development ($10k+):** Concept-to-production engineering, prototype-to-production release, or recovery of a stalled or failing design, developed as one controlled body of work: hardware, firmware, prototypes, records, manufacturing files, DFM/DFT review, and pre-compliance EMC/environmental testing in our in-house lab (8 GHz scopes, spectrum analyzers, EMC tent).
3. **Team Augmentation ($175/hr):** Senior engineers embedded in your team, using your tools and workflow.

## Technical Capabilities
### Hardware
- **PCB Design:** Altium Designer, KiCad. High-speed digital, precision analog, power electronics.
- **Processors:** Nordic nRF52/53/54, STM32, ESP32, TI MSP430/C2000.
- **Sensors:** Precision instrumentation, medical sensors, industrial IoT.

### Firmware & Software
- **Languages:** C, Rust.
- **RTOS:** FreeRTOS, Zephyr, bare metal.

## Featured Case Studies

### Medical

**Ultrasound Positioning Controller** (6 months)
5-axis motor controller for medical imaging. Replaced a failed design from another firm that used five separate driver boards with complicated custom interconnects. Consolidated everything onto a single 6-layer PCB with TI motor drivers for all five axes and a TI C2000-series MCU for real-time control; USB-C provides power and communication. Result: +/-0.1mm positioning accuracy, eliminated spurious emissions and passed both radiated and conducted emissions testing, passed IEC 60601 medical pre-compliance on first attempt, 3x smaller and 10x cheaper than the original.
Platform: TI C2000

**Neonatal Biomarker Patch** (4 months)
Rechargeable wearable for long-term neonatal monitoring studies. Ultra-compact board (~1" square, 1.5cm tall) with a multi-sensor front-end including ECG and PPG. An nRF54 handles BLE connectivity; sleep-mode management and sensor-specific power controls maximize battery life. Achieved 24-hour continuous operation and 1-year standby. Used successfully in the client's pilot study.
Platform: Nordic nRF54

### Industrial

**GaN Motor Controller** (6 months)
4kW brushless motor driver in a compact form factor. EPC gallium-nitride transistors for high switching efficiency; a TI C2000-series MCU runs the field-oriented control loop; PCB and heatsink integration optimized for thermal performance. Achieved 98% efficiency at 3kW, 40% smaller and 50% lighter than the predecessor, lower acoustic noise, compact enough to mount directly on the motor housing.
Platform: TI C2000 + GaN

### Scientific

**Gravimeter Modernization** (4 months)
Digital retrofit for LaCoste-Romberg gravity meters (precision instruments with no manufacturer support). Two-part system: an internal ESP32-based module with a 16-bit ADC (oversampled), OLED display, and expansion interface, plus a wired external data logger with GPS-tagged automated capture over WiFi and BLE. Improved noise floor, drift, accuracy, and precision over the original; extended the life of instruments that would otherwise be scrapped.
Platform: ESP32

## Differentiators
- **No Middlemen:** You speak directly to the engineer doing the work.
- **Peer Review:** Every design gets a second senior engineer's eyes before it ships.
- **In-House Lab:** We own our test equipment (up to 8 GHz), allowing faster iteration than outsourcing to test houses.
- **IP Ownership:** Clients own 100% of the design files, firmware source code, and documentation upon delivery.
- **Compliance Experience:** Design experience with FCC, CE, and medical device (IEC 60601, IEC 62304) requirements. Pursuing ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 quality-system certification.
- **Warranty:** 30 days of post-delivery support plus a 90-day warranty that the design meets agreed specs.

## Contact
- **Website:** https://crablabs.io
- **Quote Request:** https://crablabs.io/quote
- **Email:** contact@crablabs.io
- **Phone:** +1-424-271-5569