Constant Innovation in Quality Control

Contributors: QCPete

Introduction

Here in Quality Control, we are constantly challenged to create fast, thorough, and reliable test procedures. We are never willing to sacrifice any of these three ingredients, and so, the only way to speed up a test is to hire more technicians or... innovate. In our true boot-strapping style, we have always done our best to do the latter.

In 2009, we began designing our testing equipment using pogopins.

You can read more about that here: PogoBeds: SparkFun Production and Testing

In 2011, we hacked together a multiple board programmer using our first ever waffle press.

You can read more about that here: Ganged Programming with AVR ISP MKIIs

Since then, we have made tons of advancements in our hardware, code, inspection processes, and board layout. In this article, we are going to share some of our best ideas from the past few years. We hope they will help you design better projects and maybe even think about your hardware design in new ways.

Cheers to making great electronics and how to test them!