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Find at least 10 Mechatronics development services within 100 miles of San Francisco Bay area.
Hi there! Thanks for your request for a list of mechatronics development services within 100 miles of the Bay Area. I've found 8 organizations (including Simplexity, APROE, and Synapse), and 2 individuals that can assist you with this, as well as 3 additional providers that fall just outside of your search criteria but may still be helpful. Please read on for a deep dive of my findings and how I reached them.
METHODOLOGY
To find vendors that fit your criteria, I searched for companies within a 100-mile radius of the Bay Area that offer mechatronics development and prototyping services, including/especially those that mentioned 3D printing and Arduino on their websites. (While my search did turn up a number of companies with "Mechatronics" in their name, these tended to be large manufacturers' representatives that catered to a larger-scale industrial automation market. Since this didn't seem relevant to your purpose, I excluded them.) This yielded a solid list of 11 vendors within the requested service area (both organizations and individuals) that appear to offer the services you require.
The major limitation of these findings is that almost none of these companies publicly discloses the costs of their services, so it was not possible to search by or rank these results by cost-effectiveness. However, some of the vendors listed exhibit characteristics that suggest they might be lower-cost than other providers. I call these out in my notes below.
COMPANIES
640 Bryant St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 361-5088
info@synapse.com
Synapse offers end-to-end product design, development, and prototyping. Their team's expertise appears to include all areas you're looking for (including programming, hardware design, and electrical engineering), so it's very likely they would be able to help with your project. Products they've helped develop include Valve's Steam Link, Nike's FuelBand, and the Sonicare AirFloss device.
1250 Borregas Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (~50 miles from San Francisco)
(650) 300-6310
info@simplexitypd.com
Simplexity offers a dedicated mechatronics product design service that explicitly includes arduino and 3D printing capabilities.
They tend to focus on development of mid- to high-volume products, so if you're only planning on a very limited run, they might not be the best fit. Products they've helped develop include a DVD rental kiosk, the Microsoft Band, and a vertical-axis wind turbine. Of the organizations I found in my research, Simplexity is the only one that explicitly mentions cost assessment.
701 Alabama Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 660-9945
info@aproe.com
APROE offers end-to-end mechatronic development, design, and prototyping. Their capabilities include circuitry and software, as well as 3D printing. Key prototyping clients include Blue Bottle Coffee, Naked Labs, and Autodesk.
926 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 263-9161
info.sf@techshop.com
While TechShop is primarily marketed as an open-access creative and instructional space, they also provide product development consultation and prototyping services (that include the use of their equipment and facilities) with one of their Dream Consultants at a cost of $95 per hour (two-hour minimum; membership required). They claim to offer "every conceivable tool and machine that [members] would need to build, hack, fix or create just about any kind of project." This includes electrical equipment and 3D printing capabilities.
1240 Pennsylvania Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 702-5085
contact@motive.ai
Motive provides mechatronic design and rapid prototyping, and are able to integrate firmware, software, PCBs, and 3D printing into that process. Clients include Google and Stanford University.
25 Kearny St.
Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 813-1200
info@mindtribe.com
Mindtribe offers end-to-end product design, development, and rapid prototyping. They appear to have all the capabilities you require, including electrical engineering, application software development, and manufacturing support. Products they have helped develop include the Square Reader, the Jawbone mobile headset, and one of Sonos's wireless speaker models.
7. Stanford Product Realization Lab
447 Santa Teresa
Building 610
Stanford, CA 94305 (~40 miles from San Francisco)
Frances Yang, Administrative Manager:
(650) 724-3586
francesy@stanford.edu
This suggestion may be a little left-field, but bear with me! The Stanford Product Realization Lab offers facilities in which students can essentially do what you're looking to accomplish: design, develop, and manufacture a product, including electronics and 3D-printed materials. While I could not find evidence that the SPRL offers their services to non-students, you may find it worthwhile to contact their lab and/or their faculty leadership. They may be willing to work arrange something with you, or to put you in contact with students who can do the work at a lower cost than the vendors I've listed above.
(Web-based)
(805) 870-5450
info@magzor.com
This is another slightly left-field suggestion, but still one that may be worth exploring. Magzor is an entirely web-based rapid prototyping engine that essentially allows you to develop your product by dragging and dropping pictures of the components you want. It will also suggest additional components you may need based on the ones you've already selected, and will automatically configure the associated electronics and software. When you're finished, the platform will generate a "BOM, components build map, assembly instructions, and software" to provide to a designer and/or manufacturer. This may not provide the level and extent of service you need, but could be another cost-saving solution.
INDIVIDUALS
In addition to the above organizations, I found two individuals who are skilled in the areas you need and may be available to work with you.
Jean lives in the Bay Area and currently works for Apple as a product designer. She has interest and experience in mechatronics, prototyping, electronics, and additive manufacturing, and has previously worked for Intel and Sandia Labs. Her LinkedIn profile lists several mechatronic-associated projects and patents. Her website indicates that she prefers to be contacted via LinkedIn.
syed.reza.ali@gmail.com
Reza lives in the Bay Area. While he is listed as self-employed on his LinkedIn, his personal website says he now works for Google Daydream. He has interest and experience in digital design and fabrication, circuit design, manufacturing, 3D printing, and electrical and mechanical engineering, among others. He has previously been artist-in-residence for companies including Autodesk and Famo.us, and previous freelance clients include Samsung, Razorfish, Nokia, and Dolby Laboratories.
ADDITIONAL ALTERNATIVES
In the course of my research, I found two more options that are just outside of your search criteria, but might still be of interest.
CSU Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0789
(530) 898-5660
info@mechatronicscenter.com
Like the Stanford Product Realization Lab, the Mechatronics Center at CSU Chico is based out of an educational institution. However, unlike the SPRL, the CSU Mechatronics Center specifically services paid external clients. Pricing begins at $1,000 for the first phase of development; additional fees apply depending on the level of assistance required. While the center is technically located outside of your preferred search radius, they note that they are willing to visit clients.
201 N Westmoreland Ave, #128
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(213) 291-3299
contact@thebuildshop.org
Similar to local-to-SF vendors like Simplexity and APROE, The Build Shop offers end-to-end mechatronic design, development, and prototyping. While located significantly outside your search radius, I included this option for your consideration in case you also have operations or business activity in the LA area.
479 Jessie St
San Francisco, CA 94103
makeit@hax.co
The service HAX provides is probably more than you need, but I included it here for your consideration in case it's of interest. Rather than just offering development and prototyping a la carte, they provide this as part of a startup accelerator service. (The prototypes are produced at their Shenzhen facility.) If by chance you happen to need seed capital and bootstrapping in addition to product development and promotion, this would be worth considering!
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, I've found 8 organizations (including Simplexity, APROE, and Synapse), and 2 individuals in the Bay Area that can assist you with mechatronic product design, development, and prototyping, as well as 3 additional providers that fall just outside of your search criteria but may still be helpful.
Thanks for using Wonder, and best of luck with your drone project! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!