Lab, Procurement, and Initial Budget
Initial laboratory, hardware, legal, and specialist procurement waves with budget ranges, safety controls, and inventory requirements.
Lab, Procurement, and Initial Budget
Initial laboratory, hardware, legal, and specialist procurement waves with budget ranges, safety controls, and inventory requirements.
Table of Contents
- Purchase Principles
- Purchase Waves
- Lean and Full Options
- First Purchase List
- Safety and Calibration
- Inventory Control
- Acceptance Evidence
- Planning Reference Anchors
Purchase Principles
Buy hardware in waves tied to evidence gates. Duplicate inexpensive critical targets; keep one known-good unit for comparison; verify exact SKU and unlockability before premium-phone purchase; and avoid specialized camera, RF, or JTAG instruments until a concrete experiment requires them. All amounts are planning envelopes in USD before tax, shipping, duties, and regional availability.
Purchase Waves
| Wave | Timing | Contents | Planning range |
|---|---|---|---|
| W0: Build and debug | Days 0–14 | 32-core/128 GB/4 TB build workstation or equivalent, CI runner, serial adapters, USB hubs, basic logic analyzer, power meter, cables, storage | $8,000–18,000 |
| W1: Core targets | Days 0–30 | two documented-board families, two RK3588 boards, displays/touch, eMMC/NVMe, two PinePhone Pro-class units, two unlockable Pixel 9 units, one Fairphone-class comparator | $6,000–14,000 |
| W2: Power/camera lab | Days 15–60 | programmable supply, source-measure or quality power analyzer, oscilloscope, thermal camera, lighting, charts, mounts, UVC and raw camera modules, microphones/speakers | $8,000–22,000 |
| W3: Automation | Days 45–90 | controllable relays, USB switching, fixture boards, remote serial, network isolation, storage duplicators, safety equipment | $3,000–8,000 |
| W4: Legal and specialists | Days 0–90 | trademark/search counsel, reverse-engineering/open-source counsel, initial camera/telephony consultations | $15,000–30,000 |
| Contingency | Whole period | replacements, imports, second revisions, unexpected adapters | $5,000–12,000 |
Lean and Full Options
A lean setup reuses existing compute, buys one of each non-critical board, uses low-cost USB instruments, and rents or borrows camera/RF equipment. A full setup duplicates every target, adds professional power analysis, oscilloscope and protocol tools, a controlled camera bench, environmental fixtures, and paid specialist reviews. The canonical procurement.csv records both estimates and purchase gates.
First Purchase List
Priority purchases are a build/CI host, two selected documented boards after the document audit, two RK3588 boards, serial and recovery accessories, two exact-SKU Pixel 9 research units, one Fairphone Gen. 6 comparator, two PinePhone Pro units or spare mainboard access, programmable power, current measurement, thermal camera, a basic oscilloscope, camera targets/lighting, one UVC smart camera, and two raw MIPI modules matched to documented boards.
Safety and Calibration
The lab requires ESD protection, current-limited supplies, battery-safe enclosures, fire-resistant charging area, appropriate fuses, ventilation, optical safety for bright lighting, RF legal restrictions, calibrated meters, and documented instrument calibration dates. Battery puncture, modem RF modification, and mains-powered fixtures require trained operators and risk assessment.
Inventory Control
Every asset has an ID, exact revision, serial, purchase source, cost, location, custodian, firmware/boot state, repair history, calibration date, and permitted use. Research devices store no personal accounts or live credentials. Known-good images and recovery procedures are tested before destructive work.
Acceptance Evidence
- Procurement rows name the experiment or gate enabled.
- Premium devices are checked for exact unlockable SKU before payment.
- Critical targets have recovery accessories and replacement strategy.
- Instruments have safety and calibration records.
- Actual spend and commitments are reported against the approved envelope.
Planning Reference Anchors
These fine-grained anchors give the execution plan stable links into this specification. They are normative pointers: the linked canonical section remains the full requirement source.
Budget Scenarios
For planning, conformance, and task cross-references, Budget Scenarios denotes the part of this specification governed primarily by Lean and Full Options. Implementations using this label MUST apply the requirements, failure behavior, evidence obligations, and portability or security boundaries of that section together with any narrower task acceptance criteria.
Camera Lab
For planning, conformance, and task cross-references, Camera Lab denotes the part of this specification governed primarily by Safety and Calibration. Implementations using this label MUST apply the requirements, failure behavior, evidence obligations, and portability or security boundaries of that section together with any narrower task acceptance criteria.
First Order
For planning, conformance, and task cross-references, First Order denotes the part of this specification governed primarily by First Purchase List. Implementations using this label MUST apply the requirements, failure behavior, evidence obligations, and portability or security boundaries of that section together with any narrower task acceptance criteria.
Laboratory Equipment
For planning, conformance, and task cross-references, Laboratory Equipment denotes the part of this specification governed primarily by First Purchase List. Implementations using this label MUST apply the requirements, failure behavior, evidence obligations, and portability or security boundaries of that section together with any narrower task acceptance criteria.
Procurement Controls
For planning, conformance, and task cross-references, Procurement Controls denotes the part of this specification governed primarily by Purchase Principles. Implementations using this label MUST apply the requirements, failure behavior, evidence obligations, and portability or security boundaries of that section together with any narrower task acceptance criteria.