FirstLight FL-1 · Autonomous hardware bring-up
One platform that brings your board to life.
Insert the assembled PCB. Press start. FL-1 powers it up, probes it, and gives you an evidence-based diagnosis of exactly what works and what failed. One machine that grows with your lab, not a product line you outgrow.
One platform
You buy one machine. You never outgrow it.
FL-1 is a single platform with a precision gantry, a tool changer, and a full instrument suite built in. You expand it over time with tool heads and software packs, rather than replacing the machine. The arm picks up the tool it needs from a dock along the wall, so the base you buy today runs every upgrade that comes later.
One arm. A growing library of tools. A machine that gets more capable every year you own it.
The FL-1 base
Everything you need for bring-up, test, and validation. Standard.
Bring-up
Safe power sequencing, rail validation, current limiting, automated startup.
Firmware
Automatic flashing, boot verification, recovery, and production programming.
Validation
Functional tests, bus and sensor checks, and full power validation.
Production test
Calibration, serial programming, traceability, and manufacturing reports.
Plus an AI layer that does root-cause analysis, writes the failure report, and explains what to fix in plain English. That alone replaces most of a manual bring-up bench, before you add a single module.
Standard tool heads
One arm, the right tool for each job.
Vision
Locates the board, reads fiducials, and aligns the PCB.
Microscope
Inspects solder joints, component orientation, IC markings, and bridges.
Probe
Measures voltage, current, and analog signals at precise test points.
Communications
JTAG, SWD, UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, USB, Ethernet. Flash, read, and debug.
Manipulation
Presses buttons, mates connectors, operates switches, light gripping.
Inside the machine
An entire instrument bench, built in.
- Programmable multi-rail power supply and electronic load
- Oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and function generator
- 6.5-digit digital multimeter and precision current monitoring
- Protected instrument-routing relay matrix
The instruments stay in the machine. Only the probes change. FL-1 decides what to measure next and what the results mean.
Grows with your lab
Add capability with hardware and software packs.
The base handles bring-up and test. As your needs grow, packs add new tool heads, instruments, and software to the same machine. Rolling out over time, in the order our customers ask for them.
RF Pack
RoadmapSpectrum analyzer, VNA, and RF probing. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, LoRa, cellular, UWB.
Power Electronics Pack
RoadmapHigh-current supply, differential probes, thermal camera. Motor drivers, inverters, DC/DC.
Battery Pack
RoadmapCharger, cycler, cell balancing. Capacity, internal resistance, safety, lifetime.
Optical Inspection Pack
RoadmapHigh-res microscope, thermal camera, structured light. AOI and 3D inspection.
Production Pack
RoadmapBarcode and label hardware, multi-board fixtures. MES, ERP, yield analytics, SPC.
Rework Pack
ResearchPrecision soldering, hot air, vacuum pickup. Automated component replacement and retest.
Why it belongs in your lab
A robotic test engineer, at a lab-instrument price.
Replaces a bench of instruments
A scope, logic analyzer, DMM, DAQ, electronic load, programmable supplies, a switch matrix, and a probe station is $40k to $80k of equipment that then sits idle between uses. FL-1 is one machine that does the work of all of them.
Replaces the expensive thing: engineer time
Board bring-up is days to weeks of a senior hardware engineer, per revision. A team doing regular spins burns a hundred engineer-days a year on it. FL-1 compresses each bring-up from weeks to hours.
Pays for itself in months
At a lab-instrument price, one machine offsets the instruments it replaces and the engineer time it frees on the first few board programs. Faster once you count the product launches it pulls forward.
The closed loop
Compose designs it. FL-1 proves it.
Compose generates the board and the test plan together, so every design arrives with the probe map, expected measurements, and pass/fail limits FL-1 needs. Design, build, validate, and improve, in one continuous loop that gets better with every board it runs.
See FirstLight ComposeReserve your FL-1
Hold your place in line for the first production units.
FL-1 is in engineering validation. A fully refundable $2,500 deposit reserves an early production slot and locks the founding price. The deposit is applied to your purchase and refundable any time before your unit ships.
Founding price from $49,500, including 12 months of Compose Team · expand with packs as you grow.