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P0 · Product Development with Forge — Custom Design · Lesson 6 of 6

Capstone — design your own product

~14 min

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Slide 1

Your capstone brief

Time to put all three levels together on a product of your own.

Your capstone: take one product from idea to buildable. Pick the suggested bench instrument, or — better — your own idea. Something with an input, a brain, an output, and power.

The steps:

  1. Requirements — write the short list: function, power + budget, size, cost target, environment (Lesson 1).
  2. Circuit + BOM — describe it in Forge Design and get the parts list; read it critically and trade where needed (Lesson 2).
  3. Enclosure — take it to the 3D part designer; size it inside-out from the parts (Lesson 3).
  4. Manufacture & assembly — sanity-check it against the print/assembly rules (Lesson 4).
  5. Iterate — refine at least once and compare versions (Lesson 5).

Don't aim for perfect — aim for complete: a BOM you could order and a model you could print. The next slide gives you a checklist to grade your own work before the K-Check.

Slide 2

Capstone — take a product end to end

This is your capstone exercise. Start in Forge Design with the brief below — or replace it with your own product idea (keep the constraints: what it does, its power, and a naira budget).

Work it end to end:

  1. Get the circuit + BOM here in Forge Design.
  2. Open the 3D part designer and generate a fitted enclosure for it.
  3. Refine once — adjust a cutout, a size, a feature.

Then head to the next slide and run yourself through the self-review checklist. Take your time — this is the whole course in one exercise.

Hands-on — try it in Forge

This is your capstone — swap in your OWN product idea if you have one. Get the circuit + BOM in Forge Design, then open the 3D part designer for a fitted enclosure. Iterate once. Then run yourself through the checklist on the next slide.

The prompt

A bench multimeter-style desk instrument that measures battery voltage and current, shows readings on an OLED, runs on a rechargeable battery, target around 20,000 NGN.

Open in Forge Design

Opens in a new tab so you keep this lesson open. Nothing to buy — this is just to see how Forge reasons. This step isn't graded.

Slide 3

Build the bench meter for real

You designed it — now you could actually build it.

Below are the core parts for the suggested bench-meter build, straight from Microscale's catalog with live prices and stock: an ESP32 reading a voltage sensor and a current sensor, showing both on an OLED, running on a rechargeable cell. Add them to your cart in one click.

If you designed your own product instead, treat this as the pattern — take your BOM from Forge Design and order those parts the same way. Buying is optional, but this is the whole point of the course: a design you can hold in your hand.

Build it for real — components

The core parts for the suggested bench-meter build — an ESP32 reading a voltage sensor and a current sensor, showing both on an OLED, running on a rechargeable cell. Prices and stock are live.

  • ESP32 Development board (38 pins)KIT-2626

    The brain — reads the sensors and drives the display

    ×1
    ₦10,500
  • Voltage sensor ModulePW-3215

    Measures the battery voltage

    ×1
    ₦800
  • ACS712 5A current sensorPW-2424

    ACS712 — measures the current draw

    ×1
    ₦2,500
  • OLED display 0.96 inchMDL-2882

    0.96" OLED — shows the readings

    ×1
    ₦4,500
  • Lithium-Ion Rechargeable 18650 Battery – 3200mAh with NTCMSC-2782

    Rechargeable 18650 cell — the power

    ×1
    ₦4,500
  • lipo charger module TP4056APW-2776

    TP4056 — charges the cell safely over USB

    ×1
    ₦1,400
Add all to cart· ₦24,200

Opens the Microscale cart in a new tab — prices and stock are live. Optional; buying isn't required to finish the module.

Slide 4

Self-review checklist — and you're certified

Grade your own capstone against this checklist — the same questions a Microscale engineer would ask:

  • Requirements met? Does the design actually do what your brief said?
  • Power sane? Right power path for the source, and a battery sized for the runtime you wanted?
  • BOM honest? Every part needed, nothing missing, and within your cost target?
  • Enclosure fits? Sized from the parts inside, with clearances and openings where the connectors are?
  • Printable? Reasonable walls, no unsupported steep overhangs, a sensible orientation?
  • Assembles? Multi-part pieces have mate clearance and a way to close up?

If you can answer yes down the list — or name exactly what you'd change — you've done real product development.

You're at the finish

You've gone from "every product is a circuit and a body" (BWF1), through composing with Forge's library (BWF2), to custom design end to end (BWF3). Pass the K-Check and you've completed Product Development with Forge.

From here, the real next step is to build one for real — order the BOM, print the enclosure, and put it together. That's what all of this was for.