[0:00] I’ve got a bunch of breakout boards to test
[0:02] - and I’ve got a bunch of bonus bubble wrap!
[0:08] In total, I’ve got 50 MAX98357 stereo amplifier boards and 100 ICS-43434 I2S microphone boards.
[0:18] I’ve got a couple of videos on both these breakout boards that you might be interested in watching.
[0:22] I need to get these boards all tested so I can get them shipped out.
[0:27] Testing the microphone boards is pretty straightforward - I’m using my audio visualiser and it’s simply
[0:32] a matter of holding the boards on the header pin to get a good connection.
[0:40] For the amplifier boards, it’s a bit more tricky, but I can use my MP3 player project
[0:46] and then test each channel in turn.
[1:00] With the boards all tested I’ve only got 3 failures on the microphone boards and only
[1:05] one faulty stereo board. So that’s not too bad.
[1:08] The microphone board failures are pretty typical of problems I’ve seen before with bottom ported
[1:13] MEMS microphones.
[1:14] It’s very easy for the hole to get blocked with excess solder which prevents any sound
[1:19] from reaching the sensor.
[1:20] You can see the difference here between a working board and a problem board.
[1:25] For the faulty stereo amp board, one of the channels is not working.
[1:30] I’ve probed all the connections and can’t find anything obviously wrong from the visual
[1:34] inspection so I’m guessing it’s a faulty chip.
[1:37] Fortunately, PCBWay has always been great at dealing with this kind of thing.
[1:43] Some of these boards are destined for a couple of bulk orders, but I’ll be listing the rest
[1:47] on eBay - I’ve put a link to the items in the description.