For app-connected and remote-controlled toy brands

The “Pro” has a new board. It shipped under the old FCC ID.

Sideband keeps, model by model, how each radio toy is authorised — its own certification and FCC ID, a certified module, or a supplier’s declaration — with the grant date, TCB, test lab, label photo and manual statement. A variant records what changed and what the lab said, so the model that needs its own FCC ID is caught before it ships.

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Opens in this browser with an invented toy brand already in it. No account, no email address, nothing installed.

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The problem

Certified before it is marketed, not after.

A toy with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or a radio remote is an intentional radiator under FCC Part 15, and must be certified by a Telecommunication Certification Body before it is marketed — sold, advertised or shown for sale — with its FCC ID on it. The usual mistake is quiet: a new edition with a new board under the old FCC ID, or a product on sale a few weeks before its grant lands.

47 CFR 15.201

intentional radiators must be certified by a TCB before marketing, with a few using the supplier’s declaration.

47 CFR 15.201 →

Before marketing

means before it is sold, advertised or shown for sale — not before it ships.

New board

a variant’s changes may need a permissive change or a new FCC ID — the lab’s call.

Will not let a model ship on someone else’s grant.

No FCC ID or grant is a stop. On sale before the grant is a stop. A variant under the base model’s FCC ID with nobody having asked the lab is a stop, and so is one the lab says needs its own FCC ID still listed under the old one. Each label and statement is checked and a shipping label photo is expected.

How it works

Products, labels, the file

Record each model

Its radio, how it is authorised, grant, TCB, lab, Part 15B report, sale date, and for a variant what changed and what the lab said.

Check the labels

The FCC ID or “Contains FCC ID” text, the Part 15 statement, and a photo of the label as it ships.

Print the file

Every finding and every model with its authorisation, grant, TCB and lab.

What it will never do

It keeps the record. It certifies nothing.

What a change needs is the test lab’s and TCB’s call. Sideband records their answer.

No FCC link.Nothing is filed or looked up.

No testing.The lab tests; Sideband keeps the report.

It is not a lawyer.An FCC inquiry goes to one. Sideband is the record you take with you.

It never touches a payment.The subscription is for software.

Pricing

Priced per brand

Less than a lab’s hourly rate.

Most brands

One brand

$12/month

Every radio model one brand sells.

Grant, TCB and lab per model
Variant changes and the lab’s answer
Labels and statements checked

One brand, yearly

$120/year

The same, two months free.

Everything in One brand
Printable file
Export for your lab

Subscription. Your bank statement says Sideband Software. Refunded in full on request within 30 days. Your licence key is emailed to you within two working days of payment.

Checkout is our own bitcoin server, not a card processor — nobody we had to apply to and nobody who can close the account. The button takes you straight to it. Give your email address there — that is where your key is sent.

Questions

The ones we actually get asked

We used a certified module.

Then the toy carries “Contains FCC ID” with the module’s ID, and the module must be used within its grant’s limits. The finished toy still needs its Part 15B report.

Does a new colour need a new FCC ID?

A cosmetic change usually does not. A new board or antenna may. Ask the lab, and Sideband records the answer.

Where does the Part 15 statement go?

On the toy, or in the manual if the toy is too small.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is the record you wish you had kept.

What do I actually get when I pay?

The demo on this page is the whole program, running on invented records. Paying gets you a licence key — one line of text, emailed to the address you give at checkout within two working days. Paste it into the program and from then on it keeps your own records. Until then, nothing you type into it is kept.

The key is checked inside the page, on your own machine. It never calls us, so there is still no account and nothing about your business goes anywhere. If you ever stop paying, your records stay exactly where they are, read-only, and Export still hands you every one of them.

Open the demo before the next launch

The invented brand’s Pro model has a different board and antenna under the original’s FCC ID, a holiday edition went on sale before its grant, a module-based RC car has no Part 15B report, and a label photo is missing. Sideband catches every one.

Open the demo See pricing