All these tablets are made in the city of Shuya, Ivanovo region, and this is not a "screwdriver assembly".
In Soviet times, there was a radio factory in the city of Shuya, famous for the production of Temp TVs. Now the plant of computer equipment "Aquarius" works in its place.
The plant produces computers, servers, laptops and tablets (I wrote about this: zen.yandex.ru/media/ammo1/v-rossii-delaiut-kompiutery-noutbuki-servery-planshety).
Next year, the All-Russian population census will be held, this will be the first "digital" census (census takers will enter data on tablets) and, possibly, the last census in the form a survey of the population (the census is carried out every ten years and next time most likely the census will no longer be needed - all the data will be in the state information systems anyway).
For the census, 360,000 tablets will be manufactured with the Russian operating system Aurora and special software.
This is what the Aurora interface looks like on a tablet.
Census app.
Scribe interface.
All data will be saved on the tablet, and at the end of the working day it will be dumped to the server.
Those who wish will be able to pass the census on the State Services, but the census will still come to them and simply scan the QR code (this is needed in order to make sure that the person who passed the census on the State Services really lives according to the specified address).
The tablets are equipped with 10,000 mAh batteries, in addition, they will be equipped with power banks, so that the copyist is guaranteed enough energy for the entire working day.
The census application contains not only a questionnaire, but also a task for the census taker with a map of the area and navigation.
The scribe kit (tablet, powerbank, software) costs 23,000 rubles.
After the end of the census, the tablets will be used for other purposes within the Digital Economy program.
I had the opportunity to see the entire production cycle of tablets at the Shuya plant.
The tablets use six-layer PCBs. In the SMD-assembly workshop, parts are installed on them and soldering is performed.
The plant is ordering the boards themselves, but it is planned to master their production (now the construction of a new building is underway).
The component installer places various parts on the board with great speed: processors, microcircuits, connectors, resistors, capacitors.
All these components come to the factory in such coils.
Multi-zone soldering line.
Temperature from 180 to 255 degrees.
Unlike other components, memory chips do not come in tapes, but in cassettes.
They are installed on the board with a special machine.
The automatic equipment works accurately, but mistakes sometimes happen, so there is a special person in the workshop who manually removes the defects of the soldering under a microscope.
Further, the firmware is "poured" into the boards of the tablets. This is done via the USB connector and takes about five minutes (the bootloader is already written to the processor's internal memory).
A special device is connected to the antenna connectors of the board, which emulates signals from GPS / GLONASS satellites, and the board is calibrated to determine the correct coordinates.
MAC addresses and IMEI are stitched into the boards.
The functionality of the board is checked.
The plates are assembled by hand, but using a conveyor belt.
The screen is installed, speakers and microphones are soldered.
The battery is installed.
Numerous miniature self-tapping screws are screwed on.
The tablet starts up and checks.
Back to the first photo. On it, the tablets undergo a mandatory four-hour test after assembly.
Officially, the production of census tablets began on June 30, and this is the very first copy signed by the heads of Rosstat, Rostelecom and Aquarius.
Thanks to the press service of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) for the opportunity to see the production of tablets with our own eyes.
© 2020, Alexey Nadezhin
The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.