Here at Rocket Scream, every boards are tested before being put on sale. When we first started, we have to admit we were awfully ineffective in testing each product that we made. Each test process was time consuming and our method could be described as primitive (imagine rubber bands…).
As we make more and more boards, we need to ensure that the test process is more effective, repeatable, and less time consuming. Most boards or kits have connectors that are not populated during production. For example, a lot of shields in the market made for Arduino are usually sold without the stacking header populated. Some user might want to use different type of connector (header or receptacle) or direct wire soldered to the pads. In order to test shield without basically soldering any connector onto it, we needed a test jig that temporarily provides access to the circuitry on the shield. Our idea was to design a test jig board that could be sandwiched in between the shield board under test and a tester board (an Arduino board in this particular case). We came out with a pogo pins test jig for Arduino compatible shields that we made.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
