JLC SMT assembly review + script for generating files from KiCad 5

[cyberfish]

I've just received my first assembly order, and written a review and a tutorial + tools for exporting from KiCad 5.

More details: https://dubiouscreations.com/2019/10/21/using-kicad-with-jlcpcb-assembly-service

In short, 8 days from order to delivery (London, England) for a 4 layer design, and the quality is perfect (I have a QFN and a bunch of 0402s on each board). The whole process was very smooth, and I'll definitely be using them more in the future.

[newbie666]

I really enjoyed your blog post. Also the scripts will come very handy as I'm planning to test assembly service of JLC as well. Thanks for that.

[ve7xen]

I also recently placed my first order with them. Your tools look handy!! I manually tweaked the placement file and such, it was quite a pain...

Props for finding the pushbutton in their library - I couldn't find any connectors or buttons in the library (though I didn't look *that* hard), and just decided these were going to be manually soldered.

One thing they don't mention at all and you'll only catch if you notice or use expensive parts is that each part you place has a minimum quantity separate from the LCSC minimums. They say it's related to waste, which I suppose makes sense for Extended Parts they need to load, but not for Basic Parts they keep on the machines. For example placing TPS61040 (a Basic Part) on my board at $0.2785/per x 5 units resulted in a line charge of $8.576. I inquired about this and the agent said the minimum on this is 20 pcs, which still doesn't add up, and isn't communicated anywhere either. Kind of annoyed at the lack of transparency on this, and it seems unnecessary for Basic Parts.

I still went ahead with the order as it's still pretty affordable, but this inflated the parts cost on my design quite substantially. Boards should arrive soon.

[cyberfish]

Yeah it's annoying that they don't have any connectors. Even just micro USB would be very nice. They said it's because they panelize boards, and board edge connectors make it more difficult.

The buttons are the only style they have... though they do have it in a few different stroke lengths.

Good to know re. minimum qty!

[JohnnyBerg]

I expect my first order next week.

I discovered that prices from the parts list, and the final listing do not match. There are some calculation errors, and for some parts (not all) the price is a exact double of the offered price, making the end result more expensive.

The preview in the order process also has some parts rotated, so there is also a bug.

As a KiCad fan, I switched to EasyEDA for my first order, just to make sure I get what I ordered. I've made a custom BOM export, and parts placement, but due to the problems with the preview I decided to use EasyEDA at first.
This is what I made, when they arrive next week I'll post some pictures of the result. I did not find a real working 3D view in EasyEDA like KiCad has.

[cyberfish]

I except my first order next week.

I discovered that prices from the parts list, and the final listing do not match. There are some calculation errors, and for some parts (not all) the price is a exact double of the offered price, making the end result more expensive.

The preview in the order process also has some parts rotated, so there is also a bug.

As a KiCad fan, I switched to EasyEDA for my first order, just to make sure I get what I ordered. I've made a custom BOM export, and parts placement, nut due to the problems with the preview I decided to us EasyEDA at first.
This is what I made, when they arrive next week I'll post some pictures of the result. I did not find a real working 3D view in EasyEDA like KiCad has.
(Attachment Link)

My blog post linked above has a script to fix the rotations. It's not really a bug, but JLC and KiCad libraries using different reference orientations.

[JohnnyBerg]

My blog post linked above has a script to fix the rotations. It's not really a bug, but JLC and KiCad libraries using different reference orientations.

Hmm .. EasyEDA has the rotations also wrong .. not on all, but only on some parts ..