Engineering house — Johannesburg

We build the hardware
other companies are afraid to.

Engineers Republic designs and manufactures purpose-built hardware — custom PCBs, embedded systems, and the physical layer beneath software that has to work in the real world.

Start an inquiry Our capability
Origin
Spun out of KSE Labs' hardware division
Focus
Custom PCBs, firmware, embedded systems
Proof
Access control hardware, deployed and live
§ 01

Thesis

Software companies bolt hardware on. We design it in from the first sketch.

A PCB isn't a component to source — it's a decision that shapes everything built on top of it. Treat it as the last problem and you get a device that works in the demo and disappoints in the hand.

We start the other way round. The board, the firmware and the enclosure are one design problem with one owner, because that is how the person holding the finished unit will experience it. Every constraint that matters — thermal, mechanical, electrical, manufacturable — is on the table in the first week, not discovered in the third revision.

§ 02

Documentation

An engineering log, not a portfolio.

Originally engineered under KSE Labs for the KeeLess access control platform. Engineers Republic now carries that hardware discipline forward as its own dedicated practice.

Fig. 00

DC Converter — v1.0

5V · 3A output
DC Converter v1.0 held in a palm, silkscreen side up, reading KeeLess Technologies, DC Converter v1.0, 5V 3A
DC Converter v1.0 component side, showing the inductor, screw terminals and the board ID 9513968A_Y10_250401
DC Converter v1.0 flat in a palm, regulator and IN/OUT terminal blocks visible
The first board built for KeeLess — a standalone step-down converter, proven before it was ever integrated into a larger design.
Fig. 01

Access Controller — Main Board

In service
Access Controller main board, full overhead view, showing the converter section, screw-terminal I/O and board-to-board connectors
Input
4–40 VDC
Protection
SMBJ5.0A-TR
Rails
Reader PWR
I/O
Custom terminal
The Fig. 00 converter, integrated: reader power regulation, terminal I/O and surge protection on a single custom board.

Log This section grows as boards do. New revisions are added as Fig. 02, 03 — same format, same detail.

§ 03

Process

How the work actually happens.

Mechanical and enclosure design is done in Fusion 360. Schematics and PCB layout are done in KiCAD. Enclosure prototypes and short-run parts come off our own 3D printers, which means a fit problem found on a Tuesday is a revised part in hand on a Wednesday rather than a purchase order and a two-week wait.

The loop between drawing something and holding it is short on purpose. It is the only reliable way we know to find the problems that don't show up in CAD.

Enclosure prototyping, in-house.
  • Fusion 360 Mechanical · enclosure
  • KiCAD Schematic · PCB layout
  • In-house FDM Prototypes · short runs
§ 04

Contact

We take on a small number of briefs at a time. Tell us what the device has to do, and what happens if it doesn't.

Direct hello@engineersrepublic.org