What is flashbay?

flashbay is a Hardware-as-a-Service platform that gives you remote access to real MCU development boards. Flash firmware, interact via serial console, and run hardware-in-the-loop tests — all through a browser, CLI, or API.

No hardware to buy. No test rigs to maintain. Just your firmware and real silicon.

How it works

1. Pick a board — choose from available MCU boards
2. Flash your firmware — upload a .bin and flash it over USB
3. Interact — serial console in real-time, power cycle if needed
4. Automate — integrate with CI/CD to test every commit on real hardware

A session reserves a physical board for you. Serial data, flash commands, and power controls are proxied over WebSocket in real-time.

Use cases

Hardware-in-the-loop testing

Run your test suite against real hardware on every push. No more "works on the emulator" surprises.

# GitHub Actions
- uses: flashbay-dev/action@v1
  with:
    api-key: ${{ secrets.FLASHBAY_API_KEY }}
    board: esp32-s3
    firmware: build/firmware.bin

Rapid prototyping

Flash and debug from anywhere. The web UI gives you a serial terminal right in your browser — no cables, no drivers.

Evaluating hardware

Try an MCU before committing to a dev kit purchase. Compare serial output, power behavior, and peripheral support across boards.

Ways to connect

Tool	Best for	Get started
Web UI	Interactive debugging, quick flashing	flashbay.dev
CLI	Scripting, local development	curl -fsSL https://flashbay.dev/install.sh | sh
Python SDK	Testing, automation	pip install flashbay
API	Custom integrations	https://api.fbay.io/v1/

Credits

Sessions consume credits from your account balance while active or idle — the board stays reserved until the session ends. Credit rates vary by board type and are shown in the dashboard when you start a session.

Sign up to get free credits and start flashing immediately.

Next steps

• Quickstart — flash your first board in 5 minutes
• CLI reference — install and configure the CLI
• CI/CD integration — set up automated hardware testing