Embedded engineering
We develop the electronics inside your device, all from a single source: circuit, circuit board and firmware — the program that runs on the device. And we build the update path right in: new firmware reaches your device in the field remotely, with no service visit. Mains or battery, with a display or without: both are our everyday work. And you always talk to the person who also does the engineering.
Hardware Firmware Embedded Engineering
References
Devices in daily clinical use exposed to moisture and cleaning agents, a controller taken over together with its running series, studies that settle whether an idea holds before you invest — each card a different starting problem.
Ongoing project
The controller of a running device series was left without its engineer. keiltronic took over the hardware and firmware: understand what someone else had in mind, document the production state — and only then continue development.
Series product
A sensor module on the mop holder: it recognises location, motion and orientation and sends its data over cellular — updates reached the field over the same connection. The goal: documented cleanliness in hospitals and care facilities.
In-house development
A wearable device that recognises hand disinfection and guides the wearer through the prescribed thirty seconds — from the first idea to deployment on hospital wards. Data and updates travel through the base station built for it.
Standalone product
When wearable devices cannot reach the network themselves, the counterpart takes over: Ethernet to the network, Bluetooth to the devices. It collects the fleet's readings and distributes new firmware — developed from circuit to firmware, operated in clinical use.
System component
A coin-cell Bluetooth transmitter for rooms and corridors: its radio ID tells the wearable devices where they currently are — and they switch their measurement parameters by location. Circuit, layout and firmware from a single source.
Research project
Eight stepper motors in parallel, run in a closed loop: an FPGA card that translates control signals into step frequencies. Built at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, where controllers like this move the precision mechanics of telescope instruments.
Concept study
Bins that report their own stock: an in-house concept study for small-parts logistics — a load cell per box, BLE to a gateway, an e-paper label with NFC, stock data in the cloud. Worked out from use case to system architecture.
Feasibility study
Can an unobtrusive sensor in a room tell whether alcohol is involved? A proof of concept commissioned by a client, for addiction clinics and correctional facilities: gas sensing in a neutral enclosure, measurement runs with real-world interference, the data chain through to the dashboard.
A similar problem on your desk? Tell us about it
Services
You have a product in mind but no electronics department in house. These are our core fields — and how a project gets from the first call to series production is shown step by step on how a development runs.
Circuit and PCB: the schematic, the EMC-compliant layout, components chosen for long-term availability — and production documents an assembly house can work with.
The program inside the device: bare metal or with Zephyr and FreeRTOS, written in ANSI C following MISRA guidelines — every state under version control, every change with a reason.
Hardware and firmware thought through as one: microcontrollers from PIC32 through ARM Cortex-M to nRF9160, interfaces from RS-485 to USB — circuit and code from the same hand.
From sensor to reliable reading: gas sensing, load cells with 24-bit converters, motion and orientation detection — evaluated right on the device. Proven in measurement runs with real-world interference, not just at the desk.
Devices that deliver their data: Bluetooth and BLE at close range, NB-IoT and LTE-M over the cellular network — designed around the device's energy budget. On a battery device, the choice of protocol determines the runtime.
The device side towards your backend: MQTT, HTTP or CoAP, encrypted with TLS, the payload kept lean — with Protobuf, for instance. We do not operate the servers themselves — that stays with your IT, and we help coordinate.
Operate and read out via smartphone: an Android app talking directly to the device — over Bluetooth, BLE or the device's own Wi-Fi hotspot, without user accounts and without data leaving the building.
The update path from the headline: remote updates — implemented twice, over cellular and via a dedicated base station. Signed in series production: the device verifies authenticity before installing. Often retrofittable, too.
After the series release we stay on board: incorporating changes, documenting the production state, reacting in time to component discontinuations. That is how a series we took over runs with us today.
Services
Secure in the field
Most developments end with the series release. Then the device sits at the customer's site — and the first fault nobody foresaw becomes a recall. We develop devices that can be updated remotely: implemented twice, over cellular in series production and via a dedicated base station in clinical use — both projects are shown above under the references.
What is coming your way
Whoever discovers an actively exploited vulnerability in their own product from that day on must report it — to ENISA and the national CSIRT, as required by the Cyber Resilience Act. But reporting does not close the gap. For that, your device needs an update path into the field, and that is what we build: signed updates whose authenticity the device verifies before installing, and traceable versions. The keys come from your infrastructure — we have coordinated this in series production with a customer's cloud team.
What applies for years
Under the Cyber Resilience Act, shipping a product includes a support period: at least five years, with security updates kept available for ten. That takes an update path — and someone who maintains the versions over the years. We build the path right in, and take on the maintenance if you wish.
What that requires
Schematics, layout and firmware live under complete version control, with the reason recorded for every change. If a device shows problems years later, we can look up exactly which state was shipped — and the fix builds on that, not on guesswork.
Retrofitting works too: If your device is already in series production and has no update path so far, in many cases one can be retrofitted — depending on the microcontroller, free memory and interface. What is possible and what is not, we will tell you after a look at the existing firmware.
Lab and testing
We do EMC pre-compliance testing ourselves. That way we find problems in the lab instead of at the expensive test appointment. We have taken two products through TÜV certification — and we stay with you while the series is running. All engineering happens right here — in Osterburken, Germany: circuit, PCB layout and firmware never leave the house during development.
Oscilloscope, spectrum analyser and lab power supplies by Rohde & Schwarz, multimeters by Fluke, electronic load by Rigol.
Shielded tent, line impedance stabilisation network and measurement software by Tekbox — emissions are measured before they get expensive.
Battery simulator for devices without a fixed power supply — consumption is measured, not estimated.
Hot-air soldering station by ERSA, microscope, component stock. The first prototype is built here, not at a service provider.
Part of CE conformity: Without demonstrated electromagnetic compatibility, an electronic device may not be placed on the EU market. As a rule, the EMC Directive does not require an external test lab for this — the manufacturer declares conformity themselves, backed by their technical documentation. Pre-compliance testing in our own lab provides the measurement basis for exactly that: measured against the limits of the applicable standards, documented in our own test report. And if an accredited lab is to test after all, the pre-compliance run takes the surprises out of that appointment.
The measuring environment
The shielded tent blocks out the ambient radio noise — Wi-Fi, cellular, broadcast. Only inside does it become visible what really comes from the device under test: its emissions, measured in the TEM cell across all device orientations.
In both directions
The TEM cell couples interference out of the device under test — and, when needed, back in: with a signal generator and RF amplifier we test immunity while the device is running and its output is monitored live. For measurements in an open setup, the measuring antenna stands ready.
The evaluation
The test receiver records emissions across the frequency range, compared against the limit lines of the standard — such as EN 55014-1 or EN 55032, which the radio-equipment standard EN 301 489 refers to. Exceedances are fixed in the layout while the change costs hours, not a test appointment.
Expertise
It all started with stepper motors that had to move very precisely: my diploma thesis on closed-loop control, written at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Then seven years of power electronics and drive engineering — golf caddies, spreaders, an electrically opening bathtub door. Devices that must work when it is cold, wet and uncomfortable.
In 2012 I built up my own engineering business alongside my job. The first customer came with an idea for a device that reminds clinical staff of hand disinfection. It became a device in clinical use — and it mattered enough to me that I gave up my permanent position for it.
That side business grew into keiltronic engineering — an engineering firm founded by me, run as a GmbH, a German limited company. My name is Thomas Keilbach; I hold a German Dipl.-Ing. (FH) degree in electrical engineering with a focus on communications engineering and electronics. To this day the engineering here is done by me personally. That is exactly the reason for the short lines of communication.
Every station in detail — from the Max Planck Institute through seven years of power electronics to the own GmbH — is on the career page.
The intro call costs you nothing but half an hour. Afterwards you will know whether your product can be built the way you imagine it. If you prefer, we will sign a non-disclosure agreement beforehand.
Request an intro callkontakt@keiltronic.com · +49 6291 6484-225
This website uses no cookies, no tracking and no third-party services — your enquiry travels as a plain e-mail straight to the inbox.
Not quite there yet? The questions prospects ask us beforehand are answered openly on our FAQ page — from the what-if-you-are-unavailable risk to who owns the results.