I recently uploaded a several board job to JLCPCB at a cost of $900.
I have two issues, one stencil was 8mm over PCB area and I could only order it with a stupidly large framed stencil when the acutal SMD area is well within the requirement. I have messaged them before about this asking to make on a smaller stencil and got OK, your risk. This time I'm on the third message and all I get is "we can't do this at this stage", but no indication of the stage they can do this.
They pissed me off a few times as well. My latest one was, when they asked for an extra 90 USD payment for a 4 USD order, because they think panelizing stuff needs some sort of special care, so it's worth to ask 23 times as much for it
My experience has been that they don't know what they are talking about or asking of you.
The entire company sales/management force seems to be made up of 20 yo tik-tok users ...
They can be very unreasonable, and they don't give a shit ... (typical Asian culture).
rudi
I recently uploaded a several board job to JLCPCB at a cost of $900.
I have two issues, one stencil was 8mm over PCB area and I could only order it with a stupidly large framed stencil when the acutal SMD area is well within the requirement. I have messaged them before about this asking to make on a smaller stencil and got OK, your risk. This time I'm on the third message and all I get is "we can't do this at this stage", but no indication of the stage they can do this.I've had that - their system doesn't understand that the active area of the stencil may be smaller than the PCB outline.
The fix is to do the stencil as a seperate item on the order, so the system "doesn't know" how big the PCB is.
JLSPCB is NOT for professional jobs. I do probably 4-8 PCBs with them per months, all for personal/home
usage.
Recently, I have attempted to have them manufacture one of my companies PCBs, and it was a total mess.
The BOM management is a nightmare, if your components are not stocked by LSCS. Several, large bill
items (>$200) we would have to ship to them and would lose if we would not use them. That's just one of
the issues. The other issue we had was that they refused to order parts directly from vendors, even though
we had a relationship with the vendor (ASM in that case) and they agreed to ship directly to JLSPCB, and
the list goes on.
I believe it will take them some time to be useful for the "big money" projects. I am glad to see their new
"HD PCB" offering. Quality and pricing will determine if they can be competitive in the future or not.
For now, I am taking my company business to the "Big Boys" !
JLSPCB is NOT for professional jobs.
I recently uploaded a several board job to JLCPCB at a cost of $900.
I have two issues, one stencil was 8mm over PCB area and I could only order it with a stupidly large framed stencil when the acutal SMD area is well within the requirement. I have messaged them before about this asking to make on a smaller stencil and got OK, your risk. This time I'm on the third message and all I get is "we can't do this at this stage", but no indication of the stage they can do this.
Second issue is when uploading the job (did this three times as the new interface causes me issues) I accidentially missed changing the FR4 to 1.2mm on one PCB and I'm getting the same messages about "we can't do this". The PCBs are not in production yet as they all have the confirm manufacturing data so I can check for things like not using the paste layer for stencils or checking panelisation. It is getting so hard for what was an easy process.
The best I got for the second problem is "you can leave a comment at the confirm stage", but no guarantee they will actually read and understand, likely they will just see the green light and move to production as is.
What board factory should I move to, we make both batch quantity and small 10 PCB development runs. We spent $5200 in the last 12 months with JLCPCB.
I have used quickturnpcb, S Korea in the past, the boards were super nice, but that was a few years back thing things might have changed.
Looking forward to your recommendations.
Thanks for your time
When selecting a stencil, please ensure that your PCB dimensions fall within the valid area range.
When selecting a stencil, please ensure that your PCB dimensions fall within the valid area range.the problem is that the PCB size is usually larger than the valid area due to panel borders etc., but your system still rejects based on the PCB dimension, not the dimension of the area actually used on the stencil.
JLCPCB can do cheap assembly because they don't have to hassle with people sending special parts, ordering from different vendors, etc. etc.
f you expect that kind of service, go to the "big boys" and pay orders of magnitude more for it
How do you fit the board and stencil in the printer of it's smaller than the pcb? I always use 29" stencils as my machine is a bit annoying with smaller ones and the cost is pretty similar. Maybe vector guard would work for you?
I could easily have a PCB larger than that with panel borders etc. but with pads within in less than a 290x190mm area
It does appear as JLCPCB is trying to enter the "big boy" market with their HDI PCBs.
IMHO, if they want to do that, they have to become more flexible, and more professional.
It does appear as JLCPCB is trying to enter the "big boy" market with their HDI PCBs.
They don't currently offer HDI PCBs, nor even blind/buried vias. Which is shame.
IMHO, if they want to do that, they have to become more flexible, and more professional.They are fine already. If you pay $10K for PCBs, then the fab would better accomodate, but if you pay $100 for the same PCBs, then it's on you to ensure fit into their workflow. If you don't want to change your ways, go to "big boys" which will lick your ass all day long, but you will pay dearly for that.