PCBWay parts library?

[jmelson]

I have used PCBWay to make many circuit boards, they are very good.  I have assembled these in-house. Now, a customers want 2500 simple boards made.  That is WAY beyond my capacity.  I thought I'd have PCBWay do the assembly on this.  But, i can't find a components library for them.  This board had pedestrian stuff, resistors, caps, regulators, a power FET and an ATTiny CPU.  I can specify all these by part #.  But, it also has 2 tactile pushbutton switches and an alternate action (push-on/push-off) power switch.  I have no IDEA what is available in China for this type of part.  We have used through-hole switches for our local manufacturing.

PCBWay seems to be in a bind that I have to submit Gerber files, but without knowing what switches can be sourced, I can't DESIGN the board!

Anybody know the magic keyword that gets us on the right track?
Thanks,
Jon

[janoc]

I don't believe they have a part library. Most assemblers don't, even though they usually keep common things in stock. JLCPCB is a major exception in this regard.

You submit your design and they will quote you for sourcing the parts you have specified from distributors. They also accept customer supplied parts - e.g.  if you use a special switch they can't get (or not for an acceptable price), you can always ship a reel or two to them.  You can also specify that you want e.g. some voltage regulator from a specific supplier and not a generic (= Chinese) version of it.

[jpanhalt]

I have used the MAX16054 as push on/push off switch with a typical SPST push button switch.  That might be simpler than a special switch.

[Tigerwoods]

Do you have a BOM? Your board seems simple that I think PCBWay can help you to buy those components. Or you can search Taobao for prepearing the BOM and shipping to the factory directly, just be careful to select a honest Taobao shop.

[jmelson]

Do you have a BOM? Your board seems simple that I think PCBWay can help you to buy those components. Or you can search Taobao for prepearing the BOM and shipping to the factory directly, just be careful to select a honest Taobao shop.

Yes, these boards are quite simple, about 6 components/board, not counting the switches that PCBWay can't seem to obtain.  They suggested we buy the parts and ship to China, even when we gave them the manufacturer's name and part #!  That seemed crazy, for us to buy parts from China, ship them BACK there and then they assemble onto the boards ans ship back to the US.  Makes lots of tariff and duties for everybody.  Current plan is to buy switches and solder them on ourselves.
Jon

[ansonbao]

Hi,Jon
I understand your problem.
One thing you need to be clear, we purchase components based on your bom.
In the design stage,you can choose the switch type according to your needs, and our purchasing department will purchase it base on the part number.
You can also send directly to our factory if you have a designated purchasing link. Does it solve your problem now?
Any questions could contact me: anson@pcbway.com

[Psi]

PCBWay seems to be in a bind that I have to submit Gerber files, but without knowing what switches can be sourced, I can't DESIGN the board!

You design the board for part numbers that are in stock somewhere then you submit your gerbers, BOM (and pick-n-place file if doing SMT).
They check them over, confirm the part numbers you provided in the BOM are in stock somewhere and what their price is.   You check it over and confirm the prices they provided and/or point them to a cheaper source if you know one. (Sometimes the source they choose is not the cheapest one though most of the time they are pretty good.)

Note you will pay a little more for parts they have to get from outside china since they have to pay import tax on them. I think its around 13% or so.  But you usually save money on the parts they can find in china vs what digikey would have charged you. It usually balances out.

They can get stuff from LCSC much faster than they can get stuff from digikey.
In my experience it usually takes around 2 months from PCBA payment to your shipment arriving at your door when the board contains parts they need to order from digikey.
And around 1 month if all the parts they need are available in china already.

[jmelson]

Hi,Jon
I understand your problem.
One thing you need to be clear, we purchase components based on your bom.
In the design stage,you can choose the switch type according to your needs, and our purchasing department will purchase it base on the part number.
You can also send directly to our factory if you have a designated purchasing link. Does it solve your problem now?
Any questions could contact me: anson@pcbway.com

We supplied somebody there with the part # and manufacturer in China of the two switches required.  I think it was Aimee (service07@pcbway) that said they could not supply the part - out of stock.  I have bought these parts in small quantities from Aliexpress.
Jon

[HwAoRrDk]

My experience is that pretty much anything listed on LCSC they're able to get, so I used them as a kind of de facto parts library.

I think ages ago PCBway used to have a spreadsheet floating around on the support section of their web site that had a listing of stocked parts, but it was mostly passives and the like - resistors, caps, diodes, transistors, etc. Don't know if that's still around or even relevant anymore.

Having gone through the assembly quoting merry-go-round with PCBWay a couple of times, one thing that annoyed me is that they are very reluctant to use any kind of initiative to specify parts themselves. They want a manufacturer and part number for everything other than jellybean passives (e.g. resistors, caps). Like, you specify you want a 3x2 2.54mm pitch shrouded pin header, any manufacturer is fine, whatever there is available - but no, they want to know a specific part number. How are we supposed to know what brands and parts they have access to? On generic parts like that where you're not at all concerned about the quality (it's only a programming header, used only once or twice in the product's life), you don't care where it comes from, you just want whatever's cheapest.

[jmelson]

My experience is that pretty much anything listed on LCSC they're able to get, so I used them as a kind of de facto parts library.

UGH!  I just tried to find suitable parts on LCSC, their parametric search is pretty bad, and I found VERY little.  They DID have a small quantity of alternate action power switches for a fairly high price.  I came up with NOTHING for the lighted pushbutton switch, maybe I am using the wrong search terms.  When I say their parametrc search is bad, I selected SMT and it gave me solder tabs.  I selected solder tabs and it gave me SMT.  I can't believe they don't have simple 1 A push-on/push-off switches and LED lighted momentary pushbuttons.  I can only assume LOTS of people are using very similar parts.  I have been able to order the push-on/push-off switch on Amazon, and the lighted momentary button on Aliexpress, but only in small quantities.  The prices are pretty good, though.
We are looking for 2500 power switches and 5000 of the momentary ones.  Is there a better place to look?
Jon

[HwAoRrDk]

UGH!  I just tried to find suitable parts on LCSC, their parametric search is pretty bad, and I found VERY little.

Oh, yes, it's absolutely atrocious in places. But it varies so much from category to category - some good, some bad.

The thing that really gets my goat is how a category might actually have useful parametric property lists, but a significant number of products aren't actually tagged with any attributes! So you search, come up with sod-all, thinking "wait, is that all?", but in reality the majority were excluded due to their lack of attributes.

Sometimes I just sort by stock and then browse to get a handle on what's popular, then filter by keyword (ironically, often the descriptions contain info that could have been added as parametric attributes).

[Psi]

Normally you use LCSC because they are 1/3 the price, not because they have a nice website 

Ya just have to be careful because the likelihood of getting bad chips is higher on LCSC.
So I try to avoid getting anything from LCSC that is mission critical to the pcb.

[grandaspanna]

I've had good experience with PCBWay in at least three different scenarios:

• They've sourced all the parts based on my BoM
• I've sent them unique parts that they were unable to source
• I've had parts shipped directly to them from a supplier

The only quibble I've ever had is not getting the quantity break pricing where I've spec'd 1000+ of a single component, but at the end of the day, it's a few cents per board.

The related issue is designing stuff and then being unable to source the components you want. Drives me nuts.

[MarkR42]

I have only used the fully "turnkey" on PCBWay.

But when using assemblers who are not JLCPCB, usually you will send a BOM, and specify all required information to get the right part. If you aren't fussy (e.g. it's a 33k pullup resistor) then just put the important info.

Then they will give you a list of the parts that they can source / have selected, with pricing, and ask if it's ok. If they substituted something that you didn't want, then you can suggest a different alternative, etc. If something is much too expensive, you can ask them for a better price or to suggest an alternative, or suggest one yourself.

I have found that they mostly quoted reasonable prices on standard component, but if you're using a hard-to-get component, they might be quoting from a scalper ($5 for a $1 part? or worse?).