Laravel and SQL Server 2012 DATETIME issue: PDOException: SQLSTATE[22007]

2017_09_05_184055_create_manufacturers_table.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

class CreateManufacturersTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('manufacturers', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->increments('id');
         
            // Here, we specify the microseconds' precision digits to be 4 to make a DATETIME2.
            // If we don't, Laravel will create a DATETIME column type.
            // And our unit test will fail.
            $table->datetime('created_at', 4);
            $table->datetime('updated_at', 4);
            
            // We can also use the precision param on timestamps() and timestmap().
            // $table->timestamps(4);
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('manufacturers');
    }
}

DateTimeMicrosecondsTest.php

<?php

namespace Tests\Unit;

use App\Models\Manufacturer;
use Carbon\Carbon;
use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;

class DateTimeMicrosecondsTest extends TestCase
{
    public function testDateTimeMicrosecondsTest()
    {
        /**
         * Saving this record in SQL Server 2012 will result in the following error.
         *
         * PDOException: SQLSTATE[22007]: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server]
         * [SQL Server]Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from
         * character string.
         *
         * Because Laravel defaults to creating a DATETIME column when using migration
         * method datetime(); on SQL Servers. SQL Servers limits to the nanoseconds
         * parts to 3 DIGITS ONLY.
         *
         * In order to save and retrieve DATETIME values with 4+ digits on the
         * microseconds part, specify the precision on the migration method
         * $table->datetime(4); and this precision works too for:
         *
         *    $table->timestamp(4), $table->timestamps(4) and $table->datetimeTz(4)
         *
         */
        $newManufacturer = new Manufacturer();
        $newManufacturer->code = '123';
        
        // This test also fails (using DATETIME columns) if you comment 
        // these two lines out and allow Eloquent to set 
        // created_at and updated_at datetimes.
        $newManufacturer->created_at = '2017-12-22 13:46:36.1335';
        $newManufacturer->updated_at = '2017-12-22 13:46:36.1335';
        $newManufacturer->save();

        // SQL Server's engine rounds the microseconds up.
        $this->assertDatabaseHas('manufacturers', ['created_at' => '2017-12-22 13:46:36.1340']);
    }

    public function tearDown()
    {
        Manufacturer::where('code', '123')->delete();
    }
}