My company is in the final stages of prototyping and we want to release our first product in the coming year (focusing on European and American markets). The next steps are to get all necessary certifications to sell the device. I'm seeking some guidance here trying to wrap my head around what exactly needs to be done.
It is a small device using the NRF51822 (will maybe move to NRF52832 for final product) using a balun matching network and a chip antenna. The device implements a custom GATT service, but also uses pre-defined services such as DFU OTA and BatteryLevel Service.
What I've gathered so far:
- We need FCC (USA), R&TTE (Europe), IC (Canada) and (of course) Bluetooth certification.
- My company will need to pay $2500 (we should qualify for the Innovation Incentive Program) to be allowed to market and sell the device as a Bluetooth device.
- Many posts and comments are recommending using a pre-certified module for faster time to market and lower initial cost. Since our device is very small, the flexibility of being able to design our own layout is very important.
- The Nordic chips and SoftDevices already have a QDID for the Bluetooth stack and the chips themselves.
My lingering questions:
- Is there any difference with Listing & Declaration fees if my product only uses BLE?
- For very low volume initial production (in the hundreds), will we still need to pay the Bluetooth SIG fee?
- Is the Listing & Declaration fee per-company, or per-product?
- What is the ballpark fee of getting FCC / R&TTE / IC for a custom design?
- What is the ballpark fee of getting FCC / R&TTE / IC for a desgin using a pre-certified module?
- Are there places that will do all certifications and testing, or will I need to get them from different places?
- Is RF-PHY included in regulatory certification?
- What do I have to shield to get certification? Is it enough to shield the radio part of the circuit, or will I also need to shield external crystals?
- The device contains a LiPo battery and charging circuitry. Is there anything extra needed to be done in that case?
- Do we need to pay SIG for a UUID for our custom BLE service, or can we just generate one to use?
- Does using pre-existing BLE services incur any fees?
I apologize in advance if any of this has been asked and answered before.
