The team

The engineer behind your network in DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland

Vfonseca Engineering is an engineer, not a call center with a van. The person who surveys the property designs and installs the networks, cameras and systems that homes and small businesses run on. Behind him is a wider network of specialist consultants and trades, including satellite ground systems and radio engineers with twenty five years in the field, which is why we can take on the places where ordinary internet does not reach, and why the size of a job is not the thing that decides whether we can take it.

Engineers
1
Experience
13+ years
On site across
DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland
Languages
English, Portuguese, Spanish
Vinicius Moraes Fonseca, Founder, network and systems engineer at Vfonseca Engineering
01 / VFSilver Spring, Maryland

Vinicius Moraes Fonseca

Founder, network and systems engineer

Based in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Works in
English, Portuguese, Spanish

Vinicius founded Vfonseca Engineering after thirteen years of building things that have to keep working when nobody is standing next to them. He trained as a mechatronics engineer, which in practice means the electronics, the software, the network and the bracket holding it to the wall are all the same job to him.

For most of the last decade he was the only hardware and firmware engineer at a sensor company in the Washington DC area. He left as its Director of Systems Engineering. Along the way he built solar powered sensors that sit outdoors for years without being touched, took ownership of the cloud that collected their readings, and led the company entry in the XPRIZE Wildfire competition, which reached the finals with a system that spotted a fire and put it out with no one at the controls.

Earlier he took six connected consumer products from a blank sheet to a production line, including the hub that tied them together. In 2022 Technical.ly named him to its RealLIST Engineers list for Washington DC.

He lives in Silver Spring and runs the free estimates himself, so the person who looks at your house is the person who designs the system.

Focus

  • 01Network design for homes and small businesses
  • 02WiFi coverage surveys and dead zone fixes
  • 03Cameras and recording that stay inside the building
  • 04Backup internet and backup power that switch over on their own
  • 05Custom software, dashboards and internal tools
  • 06Connected hardware, firmware and sensors

On the record

  • 13+ years in engineering, hardware through cloud
  • BS in Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering
  • RealLIST Engineers 2022, Washington DC, named by Technical.ly
  • XPRIZE Wildfire finalist, autonomous detection and suppression system
  • 6 connected consumer products shipped from concept to production
  • Sole hardware and firmware engineer at a Washington DC area sensor company for more than six years, latterly as Director of Systems Engineering
  • Field deployments on generator and solar power, with no fixed infrastructure to build on

The network

One name on the work, a wider bench behind it

One engineer is the constant, and the one accountable for the result. Behind him is a working network of specialist consultants and trades: satellite ground segment and RF engineers with more than twenty five years in that field, licensed trades, and hardware and firmware contractors. We bring them in by name when a job needs a skill, a license or a pair of hands we do not keep in house, and we stay on the hook either way.

01RF and antenna specialists, and satellite ground segment engineers
02Licensed electricians and low voltage cabling crews
03Rigging, structural and tower trades for masts, roof mounts and towers
04Firmware, PCB layout and mechanical design contractors
05Accredited test laboratories and certification bodies for radio compliance
06Field technicians in the DMV, in Brazil and on deployment overseas

Named and introduced on the job, never hidden behind

Partner companies

Laquilas Tecnologia da InformaçãoSoftware and IoT developmentSoftware engineering, SaaS platforms and connected device systems for companies that need to scale.SaaS platforms built for many customers on one system, scaling automatically, with secure APIsConnected device systems: hardware, device messaging, long range radio links and live dashboardsCustom web and desktop systems, integrations between systems, and process automationCloud infrastructure and automated build and deployment pipelineslaquilas.com · Belo Horizonte, BrazilA&B HubWeb developmentWebsites, online stores and custom systems for small businesses, built to be found by search engines and AI assistants.Business websites that load in under two seconds, delivered four to six weeks from kickoffOnline stores wired to payments, inventory and shipping, without plugin bloatInternal dashboards and custom tools with real accounts and permissionsSearch, answer box and AI assistant visibility, and paid campaigns with measured returnaebhub.com · Belo Horizonte, Brazil, serving the DC area

The company

How we actually operate

A small company by choice. The engineer who looks at the job is the engineer who does the work, and you get the documentation and the passwords at the end of it.

Service area

On site across Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland. Remote support anywhere.

Washington DC / Arlington / Alexandria / Fairfax / Loudoun / Prince William / Montgomery County / Prince George's County / Howard County / Frederick County

Languages

We work in English, Portuguese, Spanish. Explaining the system in the language you think in is part of the job, not an extra.

English / Portuguese / Spanish

How a job starts

A free on site estimate, then a written price before anyone touches anything. Every figure published on this site is a typical range, never a quote.

See typical costs

Engineering practice

The work that goes past a house or a storefront

Some of what we do is not an installation at all: radio and satellite links, custom electronics, firmware, and fleets of connected devices that have to survive outdoors and report back on their own. That work draws on the experience listed above.

It is the same instinct as the residential work, measured and documented, at a different scale. That side of the practice has its own page.

Engineering services

Radio and satellite, embedded hardware and firmware, connected devices in the field. For teams that need an engineer rather than an installer.

See the engineering practice

Talk to the engineer, not a scheduler

Free on site estimate anywhere in DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Get a free estimateSee what we do