Case Study
Firmware Development for an ID Cards Solution
About the client
Chrome Roads is a game-changing solution to outdated and underpowered identity cards. The company develops an innovative ID card with multiple uses that can be programmed and customized for a variety of needs like a pass card, fingerprint access, a student card, etc. Any industry, including education, finances, technology, corporate, healthcare, or government can adapt these cards according to their needs.
Challenge
Chrome Roads had many different business needs and requirements they wanted to fulfill with the help of a tech vendor. The client's requirements were hardware audit and firmware development for their multi-purpose ID card solution. The client preferred to hire one vendor to fulfill the full scope of their development requirements to organize the communication and management process efficiently. Therefore, they needed a company that could build a team with cross-domain expertise and chose Lemberg Solutions as their partner.
Delivered value
Lemberg Solutions' embedded engineering team delivered ready-to-use firmware for an innovative ID card solution according to the client's requirements. Having a large-scope project, Chrome Roads was able to fulfill their hardware audit and firmware development needs with Lemberg Solutions and benefit from our flexible approach.
Process
The client provided us with a demo version of the firmware for the ID card that was based on demo libraries from the vendor delivering the hardware components. The demo version was lacking custom functionalities required by the client. Thus, the client's initial requirement was to build a Zephyr RTOS firmware that would be easily transferable to FreeRTOS.
After examining the demo firmware, our embedded team estimated porting to determine the delivery timeframes. Then, together with the client, we split the estimate into priorities and scopes.
One of the core stages of the development process was introducing the following features to the firmware: wireless BLE communication (based on nRF5340 chip), fingerprint driver, external flash driver, microphone, vibration motor, LVGL and display driver, and touch display driver.
Also, throughout the firmware development process, we advised the client on the technologies that would be the most appropriate for the project.
As a result of the firmware development process, we rebuilt the codebase and created a market-ready Zephyr OS firmware with an extended number of features that can be integrated into the client's device.
Besides the firmware development, we also performed a hardware audit and prototype design evaluation. We tested the device's electrical circuit and provided recommendations on how to improve the wiring of the board.
We're looking forward to further collaboration with Chrome Roads. The project keeps growing, and we're excited to introduce even more features and functionalities to this innovative ID card solution.
Technologies
Zephyr
LVGL
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
C
Nordic nRF5 SDK
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How it works
Andrew and his team bring a lot of talent on the embedded software side as well as electrical engineering expertise that was useful. They have a good process and are great about keeping things moving. They hit all of their deadlines and we are thrilled with the outcome.
The quality of the code was excellent. It was clean, nicely documented and the project was structured properly.
Definitely we will be working with Lemberg Solutions as the Chrome Roads technology rolls forward.
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