Firmware Development
Firmware Development for Embedded Devices
At Embedded Engineering Solutions, firmware is right at the heart of everything we do. It’s the specialized software that runs embedded devices, giving simple hardware the smarts to perform specific tasks. Think of firmware as the brains inside your product. It lets your device sense the world around it, crunch data, and control outputs so everything works smoothly.
What Firmware Development Actually Involves
Firmware development has a much wider scope than most people realize it does. From requirements analysis to driver development, from RTOS integration to power management, even prototyping and testing. Firmware development encompasses all that and more, and at EES, we handle the whole stack, not just whichever piece you are stuck on.
Custom Firmware for Complex Challenges
No two embedded systems are exactly alike. Off-the-shelf solutions rarely nail it when you’re dealing with real-world complexity. Whether you’re tracking sensors, handling button presses, running displays, or communicating wirelessly to the cloud, we build firmware designed specifically for your device and its quirks. We take your big ideas and translate them into lean, practical code, no filler, just efficient software tailored to your precise needs.
Our Firmware Development Process
- Assessment: a scoping conversation, or a firmware audit if code already exists, to understand your hardware, constraints, and timeline.
- Architecture: we define the right approach, bare metal versus RTOS, MCU selection, toolchain, before writing a line of code.
- Development: iterative builds. EES typically works in 2 week chunks, which allows for progress to be closely monitored. This means that issues are spotted faster, and course corrections can be made to avoid wasting engineering time on something that is not going to work.
- Testing and validation: hardware-in-the-loop testing, edge case handling, and compliance prep where it applies.
- Handoff or ongoing support: clean, documented code. We transfer it to your team, or we stay on.
Firmware Development That Gets It Right
- Built for Control: We write most of our firmware in C. Why? Because it gives us tight control over the hardware without sacrificing the flexibility needed for bigger system integration.
- From Idea to Implementation: Whether it’s a medical device, an industrial controller, or something heading into the sky, we handle firmware from early specs all the way through final testing.
- We Dig Into the Problem: Most of our clients come to us with tough challenges. Our job is to unpack those—figure out what you actually need the product to do—and then write firmware that does just that.
What We Build Firmware For
IoT devices, medical hardware, industrial automation, consumer electronics, wearables, and RF or wireless products. On the platform side, we have done RTOS work in FreeRTOS, Zephyr, and ThreadX, and MCU families spanning STM32, Nordic nRF, NXP, TI, and ESP32. Across all those different projects, we always hold the same standard: building firmware that fits the hardware and making sure it does the job without extra weight.
Why Not Just Hire a Firmware Contractor Off a Freelance Site?
This is definitely possible, and certainly for a narrow and well-defined task it can be the right call. However, this becomes an increasingly risky proposition the larger and more ambitious your project becomes. The risks materialize in many forms. A junior engineer who can’t take responsibility for the whole project, or a contractor who has never seen your hardware, so they don’t know how the firmware actually needs to perform in situ. That’s where our engineers fill the gap. Our team has a hardware design background, so the person who will be writing your firmware actually understands the PCB they are writing for.
When you work with EES, you’re getting engineers who know the ropes, stay sharp, and actually enjoy solving the tricky stuff. We bring a solid process, a lot of experience, and a mindset that’s all about making the product work right. There is no fluff or purposely obscure code that will cause problems or confusion when someone needs to work on our code later on.
Our Firmware Services
Microcontroller Programming That Just Works
At EES, we’ve spent years deep in the weeds of microcontroller programming. Whether your device needs to spin a motor, talk to a sensor, or play nice with other components, we build the firmware to make it run smoothly and efficiently. We’re not interested in bloated code or guesswork—just clean, reliable solutions that fit the job.
Making the Most of Real-Time Operating Systems
At EES, we use Real-Time Operating Systems when a project calls for more muscle and coordination. If your device needs to juggle tasks like handling inputs, controlling outputs, and staying responsive all at once, an RTOS helps keep it all running smoothly.
Experience has shown that an RTOS is what brings structure to the chaos. It keeps things predictable, efficient, and under control, especially when timing matters. Whether it’s a complex industrial system or a smart connected device, we know how to put an RTOS to work the right way.
Firmware Optimization That Actually Improves Things
At EES, we fine-tune firmware to make it faster, leaner, and just plain better. Sometimes we’re optimizing our own work. Other times, we’re brought in to clean up code from another team that didn’t quite hit the mark. Either way, the goal is the same—make the system run smoother, use less power, and get the most out of the hardware.
We don’t just chase benchmarks. We focus on what your product actually needs to do, and we tailor the firmware so it does that as efficiently as possible.
Infinite Biomedical
Firmware for an innovative manufacturer of upper limb prosthetics.
Developed hardware and firmware solutions for a manufacturer of innovative prosthetic controls including BLE communication, power management, analog signal reading and complex mathematical manipulation of control signals.
Infinite Biomedical has been a client for over nine years and relies on EES for problem solving and idea validation.
FAQs
What does firmware development include for a custom embedded device?
Firmware is the code that makes the hardware behave like a product. It usually includes device drivers, sensor and actuator control, timing and state machines, communications, power management, and fault handling. If you are also deciding the system architecture and hardware partitioning, start with Embedded Systems Design.
Should my device use bare-metal firmware or an RTOS?
Bare-metal is often the right choice when the system is simple and timing is straightforward. An RTOS makes sense when you have multiple concurrent tasks, tighter responsiveness, or the product is likely to grow in scope over time. The decision should be driven by timing requirements, debugging approach, and long-term maintainability, not preference.
What programming language should embedded firmware be written in?
For most microcontroller-based products, C is still the default because it provides predictable control over memory, timing, and hardware. C++ can be a good fit when used with discipline and when the team will maintain it long term, but it can add complexity if patterns are inconsistent. The right answer depends on platform constraints and who will own the code after launch.
How do I make firmware reliable and maintainable for production?
Reliability comes from clear architecture, defensive error handling, and testing against real failure modes, including brownouts, intermittent peripherals, and noisy environments. Maintainability comes from readable code, consistent patterns, and build and debug tooling that a new engineer can use without tribal knowledge. Our typical delivery approach and handoff expectations are outlined on Our Process.
Can existing firmware be optimized to improve speed, stability, or battery life?
Yes, but optimization should start with measurement so you fix the real bottleneck. Common wins come from power strategy (sleep states and wake time), interrupt and scheduling behavior, and reducing unnecessary radio or sensor activity. If performance, power, or memory tuning is the primary goal, the more focused path Firmware Optimization.
Do you take on partially built firmware projects with limited documentation?
Yes, but expect an initial discovery phase to establish a baseline. The fastest path is usually to get the code building reliably, reproduce the key problems, add instrumentation, then decide whether to stabilize, refactor, or redesign. If you are evaluating a takeover effort, the starting checklist on Getting Started can reduce wasted cycles.
What information do I need to provide to estimate a firmware development project?
An accurate estimate usually needs the hardware details (MCU, key peripherals, interfaces), the product requirements, and a clear definition of "done" (prototype, pilot, production-ready). If code already exists, access to the repo, build instructions, and known failure cases improves estimate accuracy. For a broader engagement view, see Services and Our Process.
How long does firmware development typically take?
The answer to this question is heavily dependent on the scope of the project. A single driver or small feature additions can usually be completed in a few days. A full firmware build, on the other hand, can take months. Taking a new product from specs to production ready is not something to be rushed. At EES we give a specific estimate for each project once we have reviewed and understood the scope and requirements. We prefer to avoid giving a generic range that is bound to change as we learn more about the project.
Do you write firmware for existing hardware, or do you need to design the board too?
Either. We regularly write firmware for boards we didn't design, working from your existing schematics. If something in the hardware is going to make the firmware harder or less reliable than it needs to be, we'll flag it, but the choice to change it is yours.
Can you support certification requirements like FCC, CE, or medical device standards?
We design with compliance in mind and work alongside labs and certification bodies through the process. For regulated industries like medical, our documentation and process are built to support your compliance effort. The certification itself is handled by accredited labs and your regulatory team.
Ready to start, or want a second opinion on firmware you already have?
Talk to a senior engineer. Start with a free Engineering Reality Check if you’re still scoping the project, or a Firmware Flaw Finder audit ($499) if code already exists.