The manufacture and test of the electronics was pretty much a non-event, which was just as well considering the timescale we had been set. The fully integrated electronics design software used at Boa Dynamics ensures that any simple mistakes are caught at design time. This software also guaranteed that the circuit board was exactly in agreement with the circuit diagrams, so testing the electronics was easy too.

By the time all the electronics was assembled and tested the mechanical components had arrived from our machinist. The mechanical assembly was again a simple job of screwing the various parts together and mounting the completed circuit board to the front panel, which had already had the aesthetic overlay applied.The interference check on the 3-D mechanical CAD system had ensured that once again everything went together without any fuss.

The wiring was tidied into its final position and the last screw put into the box. The sensor and its reflector were fitted into their protective mounts and the whole set up was ready for a final test.

At this point a couple of colleagues were enlisted to see if they could find any problems that had been overlooked. They were able to verify that the unit was working correctly.

By this time our six weeks had expired, and we were ready to pack everything for collection by the carrier in a couple of hours time. Fortunately everything had gone like clockwork except that some black greasy dirt had been transferred onto the product. As the unit was weatherproof I checked the sealing caps on the connectors and dumped the whole electronics box into the sink and washed it down with detergent. Suitably cleaned and dried the kit was packed and despatched to the Falkland Islands.