Introducing Pogo Robotics
Every hardware team has lived some version of this story: the boards come back from fab, the firmware bring-up goes fine on the bench, and then production asks the awkward question — how do we test these at volume? Someone opens the layout and starts counting test points. There aren't enough. Half the nets only surface under a BGA, the ground pours swallowed the vias that were supposed to be probe targets, and the one connector you hoped to bed-of-nails is 2 mm from the board edge. The fixture quote comes back with a long "exceptions" section, and the respin discussion starts.
Pogo exists to move that conversation to before you order boards.
What Pogo does
Pogo is a web tool that analyses your PCB fabrication output — the Gerbers, drill file, and pick-and-place data your board house already receives — for design-for-test:
- Reconstructs your nets from the copper. No schematic or proprietary design file needed; the tool works from the copper, mask, and drill layers exactly as they'll be fabricated.
- Finds every probe-accessible test point. A pad is only probeable where the soldermask leaves copper exposed and a probe tip can physically land — Pogo checks size, exposure, clearance, and side for every candidate.
- Computes coverage per fixture class. You get a net-by-net verdict for bed-of-nails and flying-probe testing, so "can we test this?" becomes a number, not a guess.
- Exports an optimised probe plan. One CSV with the selected probe location per net — positions, sides, pad sizes — ready to hand to your fixture builder or test engineer.
Why DFT from Gerbers matters
Most DFT review happens (if it happens at all) inside the EDA tool, against the design. But testability is a property of the manufactured board: what matters is which copper is actually exposed after mask, where the drill hits landed, and what the assembly leaves reachable. That's why Pogo deliberately takes the same zip your fab house gets — it's the ground truth, and it's a format every EDA tool on earth can produce.
Working from fab files has a second, quieter benefit: it makes DFT review a gate you can put anywhere. You don't need the designer's toolchain or a seat of anything. A test engineer, a contract manufacturer, or the person placing the fab order can drop the zip into Pogo and get an answer in minutes — while there's still time to add a test pad instead of a respin.
Where it's headed
Today Pogo gives you the analysis view, tunable probe filters (minimum probe diameter, side constraints, per-net rules), coverage per fixture class, and the probe-plan CSV export. On our bench right now: smarter fixture planning and concrete suggestions for fixing uncovered nets, not just flagging them.
If you want to see it on your own board, the documentation walks through preparing the zip from KiCad or Altium — copper, mask, outline, and drill is enough to start.
Tell us what breaks
Pogo is young and opinionated, and real boards are the only benchmark that counts. If the net reconstruction misreads your copper, if the coverage verdict disagrees with your test engineer, or if the CSV is missing a column your fixture builder needs — we genuinely want to hear about it. Write to hello@pogorobotics.io with a zip that misbehaves and we'll dig in.
Welcome aboard — and may all your nets be probeable.