Desert Mango Firmware Handoff Package
The engineer who wrote your firmware is gone. The instrument still has to work.
A fixed-price, remote engagement that turns firmware only one person understood into a system your own team can build, flash, and run.
You already know whether this is you.
- The device runs, but nobody left can rebuild the code from source.
- The toolchain lived on a laptop that walked out the door.
- Calibration is a procedure one person did from memory.
- Field season is three months away and the instrument is a black box.
Rewriting working firmware costs more than documenting it. Hiring takes months. The cheaper move is to make what you have legible, once, at a fixed price.
Fixed before the work starts.
Each step up buys a bigger outcome. Core: a team member can reproduce old results today. Standard: new engineers can get caught up and operate with minimal friction. Site: anyone on your team can ask a question and get the answer.
Someone can build the code again.
- 1 codebase, 1 board
- Reproducible build
- Architecture map
- Known-issues register
Your new engineer can run the whole device.
- Everything in Core
- Bring-up guide
- Operating procedures
- Recorded handoff session
Your docs become a site anyone can ask.
- Everything in Standard
- Hosted docs site with AI helper
- Up to 3 codebases, repo cleanup
- 2 sessions, 30 days of Q&A
Hosting, AI helper updates as your code changes, small doc fixes, replies within a day. Stop anytime. First month free with Site.
Prices are USD. Half paid on start date, and the other half only after someone on your team passes the acceptance test. The number in your quote is the number you pay. Nothing is added later.
Ready? Book the 30-minute scoping call
Not included, quoted separately
- Fixing the bugs found
- New features
- Extra codebases or boards
- Firmware with no source
- PCB or mechanical redesign
- Test suites and CI
- Certification docs
- On-site work
NDAs signed before access. Nothing about your system is published without written permission.
Five documents, a session, and a site.
Core and Standard land as files in your GitHub, owned by you. Site adds a hosted, searchable home on top.
A reproducible build Core · Standard · Site
Every tool at the exact version, proven on a clean machine.
An architecture map Core · Standard · Site
How the firmware works, and why the odd parts are the way they are.
A known-issues register Core · Standard · Site
Every defect found, with steps to reproduce. Verified on hardware, or merely compiles.
A bring-up guide Standard · Site
Bare board to running system, step by step.
Operating procedures Standard · Site
Calibration, configuration, deployment, data retrieval.
A recorded handoff session Standard · Site
A live walkthrough with your engineer. Recorded, so the next hire gets it too.
A documentation site with an AI helper Site
Everything above as a website your team can search. Ask in plain words, like "how is the oxygen sensor calibrated?", and it answers from your docs. See the one built for Hippocampus Robotics at TUHH.
Acceptance Test
The bar is not "the docs exist." The bar is your person doing it without help.
Done means someone on your team, on a machine that has never built the project, installs the toolchain, builds the firmware, flashes a board, and runs one procedure end to end, using only the documents, while Kyle watches on a video call.
If a step fails, the documents get fixed and the test runs again. That loop is included.
Kyle Nelson
Mechanical Engineering @ UC Berkeley | coursework toward a minor in EECS. Embedded systems and robotics engineer. Custom AI tooling reads whole codebases fast. Kyle decides what matters, checks each claim on real hardware, and writes for the person who will actually run the device.
- Hippocampus Robotics, TUHH Research on the HippoCampus micro-AUV: RL controller trained in simulation, IMU based localization, and temperature based path planning in ROS 2 and Gazebo. Assisted creating two brand new Hippocampus micro-AUV's from scratch.94 scattered repositories became 15 clear projects with one docs site you can ask questions of. The Site tier is built from this work.
- SCALUP, WHOI Machine Lab, under Dr. Matt Long A solar-powered water-quality sensor, about 90% cheaper than commercial equivalent. July 2026, firmware was handed off to WHOI engineers who continue development today.Docs: fully documented GitHub page, CAD design documentation, electronics schematics, user guides.
- Ocean drone swarm, TAF Lab, UC Berkeley The XBee / DigiMesh radio network that passed data between drones and shore with no WiFi or satellite.Docs: 90 pages of manuals, build documentation, debugging guides. 11 feature-specific YouTube guides. 15 slide presentations.
- C-Zero Thirteen high-temperature control boxes for pilot-scale hydrogen systems. Ceramic Adhesive research for pilot reactors.In charge of lab organization and engineering file management systems.
More detail: kyle-nelson-berkeley.vercel.app
Stop depending on one person. Start with one call.
Book the 30-minute scoping callOr write to kyle-nelson@desert-mango.com
Prepare: put every file you want covered into one zip or GitHub repo. If that is not how your files work, have them ready separately.
- Scoping call30 minutes. Not a fit? You hear it on the call, not in a proposal.
- Fixed quote in writingOne number, valid 30 days. Never hourly.
- Half to scheduleWork starts the day it lands. The other half only after your engineer passes the acceptance test.