CE compliance testing

ROHS is easy to comply with if sourcing known components from reputable
companies.

If your project cant afford a test, then its unlikely that you will ever
get sued for not being within specs. You are just "noise" in the marked.


This is for a niche market, though any market has competitors who can play
informer to the authorities.

It's difficult to justify a cost of several £000s on a relatively small unit
where the maket may be just 100 per year.


On the other hand, be sure that nobody can get killed by touching your
product. And that it doesnt burn down the building if something fails.
Then you can put the CE mark on it and sleep well at nights.


I would put my hand up and say that good safe working practices have been
followed. Also the power supply will be a wall-wart, which will have its
own certification.

"Fredxx" <fredxx_at_spam.com> wrote:


"Nico Coesel" <nico_at_puntnl.niks> wrote in message
news:4c6c3aef.2204064734_at_news.planet.nl...
fredxx_at_spam.com> wrote:


I have a small electronic unit which needs some CE compliance testing.

Cost is a major issue and was wondering if anyone here can offer advice on
an affordable solution.

If you are located within Europe CE conformation is just a matter of
putting a CE sticker on your product. It really is simple as that. The
sticker says you take responsibility for the product.

If you really want compliance testing then it is advisable to find a
company with an EMC test setup to do some pre-compliance testing. This
will tell you where the problem areas are. Next you'll need a spectrum
analyzer to find the problem areas in your product.

This is a very cheap one but it does the job:
http://www.door2doorshop.com/wholesale/Atten-Spectrum-Analyzer-AT6011-213.html

If you shop on Ebay you can get these for half the price (new
ofcourse).

The last step is shopping around for a cheap EMC lab.


I am aware that you can self certify, but I wanted to collate some evidence
that it would actually pass the EMC requirements, especially for radiated
emissions. I'm very confident about the rest.

I can see the cost of a spectrum analyser is a fraction of the cost of any
assessment or testing by an EMC lab. Many thanks for the pointer and am
looking on eBay for suitable equipment.

One thing that does bother me still, is sourcing wideband aerials suitable
for measure field strength.

Don't bother. They will be more expensive than renting a lab to do
pre-compliance testing. Without a properly shielded cage (which is
difficult to construct anyway) it is difficult to test. For bench
testing a small pick-up loop is much more usefull to identify the
exact source of the excess radiation.

This is for a niche market, though any market has competitors who can play
informer to the authorities.

"Fredxx" <fredxx_at_spam.com> wrote in message
news:i4jh01$ukp$1_at_news.eternal-september.org...
This is for a niche market, though any market has competitors who can play
informer to the authorities.

I would not worry (I used to worry too). The authorities has a lot more
important work to do than chasing low qty products that has a tiny bit more
radiation than the papers allow.

In comp.arch.fpga,
Morten Leikvoll <mleikvol_at_yahoo.nospam> wrote:
"Fredxx" <fredxx_at_spam.com> wrote in message
news:i4jh01$ukp$1_at_news.eternal-september.org...
This is for a niche market, though any market has competitors who can play
informer to the authorities.

I would not worry (I used to worry too). The authorities has a lot more
important work to do than chasing low qty products that has a tiny bit more
radiation than the papers allow.

They may not actively chase for such products, but when a complaint is
made (by, for example, that competitor) they will have to follow that up.
And although it may not happen very often, I have seen it happen, twice.

And how do you know you're only 'a tiny bit' over the limits without
actually measuring your device? Take a simple oscillator chip and
connect it to the 'wrong' trace, emissions will go through the roof.

There is no requirement to actually do measurements, you just have to be
under the limits. How you make sure you are, is up to you. If you can
calculate and simulate everything, that may be enough proof you honestly
believe that your device is under the limits. I have not seen that happen,
just measuring is usually simpler.

And even good measurements are not a complete guarantee your device is
always under the limits. These measurements are just scans through the
required frequency range. And if your device produces short burst, they
may be missed in those scans. But at least you have evidence that you
did all you could to make sure your device is under the limits.

Stef <stef33d_at_yahooI-N-V-A-L-I-D.com.invalid> wrote:

And even good measurements are not a complete guarantee your device is
always under the limits. These measurements are just scans through the
required frequency range. And if your device produces short burst, they
may be missed in those scans. But at least you have evidence that you
did all you could to make sure your device is under the limits.

The tests are well specified. The measured values are averages, not
peak values. It often helps to use a spread-spectrum oscillator so the
peak is smeared out over a wider band.

I have a small electronic unit which needs some CE compliance testing.

Cost is a major issue and was wondering if anyone here can offer advice on
an affordable solution.

I have no idea if this is appropriate to your situation, but you might
avoid a lot of the CE compliance issues by using a wall-wart or somesuch
which is already CE marked. Then all the mains powered stuff is
pre-certified by someone else. Get one with a ferrite thingy near the DC
jack!