Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
(Source: Images CC-BY 2.0 SparkFun/Chris Rojas)
Figure 12.5
Test fixture.
In early 2012, the test developers were already beginning to experiment with designing
and building SparkFun's own devices that could test and program multiple boards in a
single instance. These devices are commonly known in the electronics assembly industry
as
ganged programmers
.
When the MaKey MaKey collaboration began to take shape,
that design was immediately identified as one that would benefit greatly from a ganged
programmer (
Figure 12.6
), given the greater volumes that were expected to hit SparkFun's
production operations. Therefore, the test procedure for the MaKey MaKey boards and
kits was designed from the outset to be capable of programming and testing multiple
boards in a single pass. This differed from past designs where a single unit testing device
was typically used when a new product was initially introduced to the SparkFun digital
storefront. But, again, the number of MaKey MaKey units that were expected to be manu-
factured during the initial production run far outstripped the volume of any other new
design ever produced by SparkFun.
