Do you see those beautiful electronic cards? Well, good news! Assembly work has begun.

So I took out my soldering iron, and… Uh no, anyway. So I went to see my favorite subcontractor, in the heart of the Silicon Valley of Grésivaudan.

Always with good taste...

If you were there exactly a year ago, you already know the story.

If you're curious, it's here: Assemble the cards, method n°2.

If you don't want to know why "method number 2", don't click there.

Finally, if like me you were born in the 90s, here is a summary, in one image. (because it's hard to stay focused to read until the end)

With subtitles:

The machine picks up the small components one by one, placing them in the right place on the board. Afterwards, we put it in the oven, and hop, it's welded.

Brief. Map assembly is in progress.

At the exit, lots of trays that look like this:

Does it pass or does it not pass?

Welding is only part of the job.

Then, to test the cards one by one, we pass them on my great test bench:

It's a bit crafty, but it does the job.

I wrote a small program which tests in autonomy all the functions of the card. GPS, compass, pressure sensor… In less than 10 seconds, we have the complete diagnosis.

Ah, holy Chinese!

Either way, the diagnosis doesn't seem too bad. A little too much.

Because on the first batch, I detected a defective compass on 40% of the cards. You imagine the panic.

After a day of stirring everything up, changing the process and re-checking, we finally found the culprit. It wasn't a soldering problem, but it was the components themselves.

Brief. I got handed a bunch of crap components from a Chinese supplier. The classic thing, what...

Luckily, it was the only component I had purchased from this supplier. This chip being very common, it is easily found at wholesale prices. It was attractive. Now I know why.

Brief. Chinese components in the trash. Bought components from a more reputable supplier. Corrected faulty cards. Now all is fine. I have learned.

The (good) maps should be finished sometime next week.