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but it may be that I have to program and test each board manually!>
Maybe you could make some kind of JTAG panel with nails that you drop on top, and then use JTAG for boundary scan and even some firmware tests if needed?
You could then at least test for shorts and such with relatively few operations per panel. Not sure what kind of things you're testing so this suggestion could be stupid...Can I ask which manufacturer you used? It looks very high quality.
alexanderbrevig
Actually it's handy to have the videos in the page anyway. EEVBlog is great, but I don't get how he talks so much - I'm sure he could make his videos 1/4 as long!
The Pico panel was put together by the PCB manufacturer - it was a bit more tricky because of the castellations... Every castellation needs to be drilled a second time, and then routed (to avoid tearing the copper out of the hole).
As you can see from the initial image there are 3 'rat bites' - little tabs with small drilled holes - that hold the Pico boards in place. They've got to be strong enough so the board doesn't wobble when running through the pick and place but easy enough to snap out.
As it happens we got that bit wrong, so each board will have to be cut out manually as snapping it would damage the pads on the end. There's a tool for that though, so it won't take too long.
I didn't put an ATE connector on the board (described in that last video) though, and I'm regretting it now. I've had to make a test harness that physically moves around the board, which is taking a bit longer than expected!
We'll see how reliable it is, but it may be that I have to program and test each board manually!