Any experience with JLC PCB house in china?

[soubitos]

The default QTY is always 5, but if the board is small (less than 100x100) you can usually get 10 for the same price. Also gold fingers are free (just learned this one). You can "panelize" small PCBS yourself and still get them for $2. I did this with the SMD breakouts.

How do you separate the "panels"?
Do you add "scoring lines" and they V-Cut them for you?
I want to submit something possibly similar but i really dont know how.

[DerekG]

How do you separate the "panels"?

The boards are effectively "scoured" in a similar way to using a pizza cutter, with the exception that the board is cut with a scouring wheel on both sides. You carefully flex the boards (circuits) back & forth until they separate at the scour line. It is best not to place components too close to the edge of the board (particularly SMD components) as they may break (or the solder "cracks") during this flexing process.

Do you add "scoring lines" and they V-Cut them for you?

Not normally. You can panelise the boards together yourself, or leave it to the board shop to do (you need to instruct them of course that you want them panelised).

I want to submit something possibly similar but i really dont know how.

You can only V-groove square & rectangular boards. The scouring is done across the panel "edge to edge". The board manufacturer will simply lay each circuit (pcb) right next the the previous one with no space left between them.

V-grooving is rather imprecise with a +-0.5mm tolerance quite usual. We use it wherever possible as it holds all the circuits together for SMD paste stenciling, robot loading & wave soldering.

Replicate the SMD paste stencil to match the panelised boards of course

[soubitos]

I know what panels are etc...
How do you submit panels to JLCPCB (which i am using) without using their own option and without paying extra (ie 4 pcb in one 10x10 board) esp if they are different designs?
I recall they mention somewhere you can submit different designs in one pcb but as ONE whole pcb, they say you can separate them by silkscreen lines and cut them out by yourself.. that is why i asked...

[Inverted18650]

I did this. No v-grooves so I had to score and snap or use my dremel. No issues at all.

edit: since the total layout was less than 100x100, I was able to order 10 of these, or 60 total breakouts for just $2.

[soubitos]

I did this. No v-grooves so I had to score and snap or use my dremel. No issues at all.

edit: since the total layout was less than 100x100, I was able to order 10 of these, or 60 total breakouts for just $2.

They arrived to you like this?? .... or?

[soubitos]

I did this. No v-grooves so I had to score and snap or use my dremel. No issues at all.

edit: since the total layout was less than 100x100, I was able to order 10 of these, or 60 total breakouts for just $2.

They shouldn't charge panelizing fee anyways if the patterns are the same.
They only charge panelizing fee for different designs.

I think... they charge if they need to v-score or otherwise make the "10x10" separated.

These are my Joule Thief Night Lights. I ordered 10 "panels" each with 3x5 pcb all under 10x10 total.
They asked for 15$ extra which i didnt pay in the end as i explained to them i would need to spend more than that to go to the bank, deposit, transfer, pay fees etc etc etc... (that is the case really!!!)

So they did it for 2$ but i ordered other pcb and parts and have done so ever since, this was one of my very first with them

[Inverted18650]

The photos are of the PCB's and stencil that arrived. (I took the pics myself). If I wanted them to panelize the boards for me, I would have just done one small PCB in the original file, and then chose panelize at checkout and ticked the boxes to tell them the layout I wanted (QTY of rows and columns). This is where the panelize fee originates. If you have more than one design, i.e. more thanone PCB, then its an additional fee as well.

new: I am having an issue with getting "gold fingers" for my card edge board. I sent the gerber like normal and chose the "gold finger" option at checkout. They replied stating that I cannot use the 'HASL' coating and get gold fingers too. I must choose the 'ENIG-RoHS' and they will gold plate the entire board. The cost is $20, or $2 per board, instead of $2 for the batch of 10. Well worth it for this project, but I wasted a week chatting with them.

[katy201607]

scoring line, stamp holes, or tabs will be okay

[Sudo_apt-get_install_yum]

I’ve used JLC PCB quite a lot lately but I have only used it for porotype development at work, in total I’ve got just under 100 PCB's from them and all of them fit within the 100x100 size and are two layers (2$ deal but 5xPCB's). The boards are jam-packed but aren’t too complex and I’m generally quite happy with the results however there are a few things that I’m not too happy with.

The FR4 material feels much lower quality than other manufacturers.
The silkscreen is always off by a little witch is annoying when using small footprints.
When getting internal parts milled it’s not always a guarantee that they will mill it even though it’s contained within the milling Gerber files and a side note is written in the order. I ordered two boards with slots for cables, both were the same board (V1 and V2) the V1 came out fine but the V2 had a the slots missing (using the same board and cam processor). I also had problems with DC barrel jack plated through hole, when getting square holes I had to mill the inside; I’ve used the same Gerber files for Osch Park and got flawless PCB's but when ordering from JLC they never milled them even though it fit within their specifications.

I’ve had a little hit and miss with JLC but if the boards aren’t too complex they usually come out pretty good, but boy are they cheap.
Can definitely recommend them!

[D3f1ant]

I've had my most recent order get to China border and then DHL has marked it as 'Return to Shipper'. I phoned DHL but they couldn't tell me 'why' it was returned.

Will be interesting how long it takes to get resolved. Typical that it happens when there is a tightish schedule.

[DerekG]

I've had my most recent order get to China border and then DHL has marked it as 'Return to Shipper'. I phoned DHL but they couldn't tell me 'why' it was returned.

It is probably because the export paperwork was not filled in correctly.

[nsd_c]

Does anyone know under what conditions JLC PCB offers free shipping? A few months ago, I bought 10 boards just under 100x100mm for a "special offer" price of $2 + $18 for ENIG and got free shipping (~18 USD to the continental US).

Today, I tried to place an order and found that their site was down for most of the day, throwing 500 & 502 HTTP errors frequently. However, I was able to get far enough in the ordering process (which would have been around 5AM in China on Saturday at the time) to see that shipping was free... but I wasn't able to actually place the order. Fast-forward to later (around noon in China on Saturday), and on re-visiting the order page, boom, no free shipping available anymore.

Is this perhaps something that goes away on weekends...? Should I consider waiting until Monday to place an order...? Is there any info on this anywhere...?

Btw, that order contained two boards, one 2.75"x3.75", the other 1.5x2.5". For some reason, the first (larger) board was $2, but the second was $5-ish. Why is this??? I don't understand JLC PCB's mystery pricing model.

[soubitos]

There is a promo offering i think 25$ discount on shipping for your first order only.
They charge 2$ for your first item ordered up to 10pcs 10x10cm pcbs then 5$ for up to 10pcs 10x10cm.
If you order 2 pcbs you will pay 2+5+shipping. 

[bd139]

Ordered some boards about two weeks ago. Will post outcome here.

Their site was down yesterday for a bit.

[Insatman]

I've placed two orders with them and good results both times.  They ship DHL which costs more than the boards usually(~18$ US), so it's best to order several types of boards at the same time if you can.  They do combine orders into one box and one shipment.   Turnaround to here in Philippines is less than two weeks from submission to arrival at my door.

[nsd_c]

There is a promo offering i think 25$ discount on shipping for your first order only.

I opened my computer again today to check to see if free shipping would magically re-appear. I had left my browser open to the checkout page, and when I opened my laptop... lo and behold: free shipping! However, when I went to actually check out, I got some error and was punted back to the checkout page. At this stage, I no longer had free shipping. Now the even weirder part: I clicked the 'edit' button on the shipping address, made no changes, clicked save and... free shipping again! So I tried to place the order, and... my invoice shows that I'm being charged for shipping... what? I've sent JLC PCB an e-mail about this, but I'm not sure if I'll even get a response.

I'm not sure how the site could have shown free shipping simply by opening my laptop: I looked at the source of the page, and an AJAX request is used to update shipping prices, which seems only to be triggered by adding/editing an address, so with (presumably) no page refreshes between closing the lid on my laptop the previous night and trying again today...?

Also, I'll point out that, with this account, this is the first order I am placing, and I have tried ordering only one item (with no prior orders placed) to find that I would be charged shipping.

[Insatman]

There is a promo offering i think 25$ discount on shipping for your first order only.

I opened my computer again today to check to see if free shipping would magically re-appear. I had left my browser open to the checkout page, and when I opened my laptop... lo and behold: free shipping! However, when I went to actually check out, I got some error and was punted back to the checkout page. At this stage, I no longer had free shipping. Now the even weirder part: I clicked the 'edit' button on the shipping address, made no changes, clicked save and... free shipping again! So I tried to place the order, and... my invoice shows that I'm being charged for shipping... what? I've sent JLC PCB an e-mail about this, but I'm not sure if I'll even get a response.

I'm not sure how the site could have shown free shipping simply by opening my laptop: I looked at the source of the page, and an AJAX request is used to update shipping prices, which seems only to be triggered by adding/editing an address, so with (presumably) no page refreshes between closing the lid on my laptop the previous night and trying again today...?

Also, I'll point out that, with this account, this is the first order I am placing, and I have tried ordering only one item (with no prior orders placed) to find that I would be charged shipping.

Even with the shipping it's still a good deal.  Before i was using Bay Area Circuits in the US.  Great quality but shipping was more expensive and total turn-around was typically 6-8 weeks due to EMS shipping being so slow here in philippines...plus I had to go to the post office to pick up the package.   With JLC, turn around is typically 2 weeks, shipping is less and it arrives at my door.    Quality is still good.   JLC has my business.

[nsd_c]

Even with the shipping it's still a good deal.

You're not wrong... with shipping, I paid about $60 for 2 boards, one 1.5x2.5", the other 2.75x3.75", which from PCBWay was going to cost ~$100 (incl. shipping).

EDIT: I should note that the steep cost was from getting ENIG. (Otherwise, the boards were "normal": 1 oz copper, 1.6 mil FR-4, white stencil, green soldermask.)

[bd139]

Just got my boards from JLCPCB. Good deal. Really nice boards. Went for cheapest green HASL boards. No registration or drilling errors. Clean edges (no panelization marks like oshpark). No residue. Fine traces perfectly defined with no bending or lifting. Plating in holes looks good too. Really nice job actually.

Only problem - I needed one. Now I have 10

[Insatman]

I just placed my third order with JLC today.  Five different boards, one 4 layer the rest 2 layer.   Total cost $49 plus shipping of $20.  So $69 delivered for 50 boards (5 different types).  I can remember when getting 2 prototype boards would cost you hundreds of dollars.   Quote was 5 day fab time, plus DHL shipping puts them in my hands in less than 2 weeks.     

[mikeselectricstuff]

I've used them a few times and service has been good, but just checked status on a recent order and it is showing "Cancel" - I've had no explanation - just emailed to query and the email bounced

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just checked and they refunded my card payment a day after the order AND DIDN'T TELL ME!
I was just about to place another 3 orders today. Guess where I won't be senting those...

[bd139]

That’s pretty crap. Please let us know if you find out why.

I was going to use them for a prototype soon but now I’m not so sure.

[mikeselectricstuff]

They emailed claiming they did email me with an issue in the files but pretty sure I didn't get it, though possible it looked like Chinese spam..

Moral - if urgent, check order status!
 

[mikeselectricstuff]

They just cancelled another order, due to too many routed slots. Bye Bye JLCPCB