CUI devices farce

[Siwastaja]

We are developing an IoT energy management / building automation thing and hoping to get it on the market still this winter, which might be a tad ambitious, unrealistic even given we don't yet have pre-production prototypes for EMC and LVD qualification testing.

Anyways, had this great idea to use USB-C connector for power. As usual, find a part that has good availability on all distributors: CUI Devices UJC-HP-G-5-SMT-TR. A new part, yeah. Says: short lead time. Available at Digikey, Mouser and others. All is well.

Ask for CM to order the parts. They contact us: can't assemble because Digikey sent the wrong parts. OK, Digikey makes mistakes, so they request correct parts from Digikey. Then Digikey sends more wrong parts, them removes all the parts from their stock without commenting it further. Clearly, they had ordered wrong parts and misshelved them, right?

Nope. Next we order the parts from Mouser. But we get the same kind of wrong parts, OMG! Meanwhile, CM has tried ordering from Mouser and ICKey on their own, and got more of the same wrong parts. What's the likelihood three distributors do the exact same misshelving?

So clearly, CUI Devices has delivered mislabeled parts to all of their distributors, and now the production is halted and we are losing money every day. What is worst - CUI devices is unresponsive, maybe they are not interested in our order size of 10 000 parts or do not believe there's a chance we will next order 100 000 or 1 000 000 parts.

I have seen distributors mixing parts up, but never seen something like this.

If anyone has any idea how to directly and QUICKLY contact CUI Devices, or where to get actual UJC-HP-G-5-SMT-TR (as shown on the web page / datasheet) ASAP, even just 60pcs for the prototype / qualification / testing batch, we would be extremely grateful, as that would be more clean-cut than forcing the wrong parts on the footprints by bending the legs which would result in poor mechanical endurance.

EDIT: By looking at CUI offerings, it seems the wrong part is UJC-HP-L-G-5-MSMT-TR.

[wraper]

Looks like fairly standard part, why not order some compatible connector for prototypes before the issue gets sorted out to not waste your time? On other hand, I would never use such connector unless have no other choice. Maybe for something that gets connected once and then never touched again. Such connectors (without any TH terminals holding the shell) get ripped from PCB very easily, often together with pads from PCB. The part which you wrongly received is way more reliable solution.

[Siwastaja]

Looks like fairly standard part, why not order some compatible connector for prototypes before the issue gets sorted out to not waste your time?

Looked through the Mouser offerings and can't see any compatible part, but if anyone has any part number in mind, I'm all ears.

On other hand, I would never use such connector unless have no other choice. Maybe for something that gets connected once and then never touched again. Such connectors (without any TH terminals holding the shell) get ripped from PCB very easily, often together with pads from PCB. The part which you wrongly received is way more reliable solution.

It's a device which will be fixed on the wall and connected once, but yes, I still agree and will probably change to a part with better mechanical endurance.

Silver lining is, USB-C is designed to wiggle in the connector, reducing stress to the footprint, but of course you're still right.

[moffy]

It looks like this connector would fit: https://au.element14.com/gct-global-connector-technology/usb4135-gf-a/usb-conn-type-c-r-a-rcpt-6pos/dp/3973076
only thing is that the center between mounting pads is 10.25mm instead of 11mm, but the mounting lugs would still cover about 2/3 of the mouting pad. You could try one and see if it is solid enough.

[Siwastaja]

It looks like this connector would fit: https://au.element14.com/gct-global-connector-technology/usb4135-gf-a/usb-conn-type-c-r-a-rcpt-6pos/dp/3973076
only thing is that the center between mounting pads is 10.25mm instead of 11mm, but the mounting lugs would still cover about 2/3 of the mouting pad. You could try one and see if it is solid enough.

Definitely better than the current idea of bending the pins of the wrong part. Thanks, asked the CM to order these. You are held responsible if it doesn't fit! No, just kidding .

[moffy]

Hope it works, best of success.

[wraper]

Another suggestion, do not use thermal reliefs on mounting pads for such connectors. It greatly increases the chance connector will be torn off. Nor they are really needed, such connector cannot tombstone.

[Siwastaja]

Another suggestion, do not use thermal reliefs on mounting pads for such connectors. It greatly increases the chance connector will be torn off. Nor they are really needed, such connector cannot tombstone.

Thanks, completely agree with that, I can now see how I made this in hurry. Also noticed lack of a few stitching vias near board edges in EM simulation.

[Siwastaja]

I have more updates:

So CUI devices never responded to my contact requests. Had my boss to call around and he finally managed to contact actual person (Neil) who admitted CUI has fucked up and sent wrong parts to Digikey, Mouser and Arrow, and they are in process of contacting said distributors for quarantining the parts and that they could help us out and send correct parts to us and our CM...

... but not ASAP, which is pretty surprising, I would have expected something to happen within like 5 minutes. CUI Devices clearly have absolutely no process for such disaster-level fuckups, so after a few back-and-forth messages leading nowhere, it now seems Neil is out of office, and CUI devices is not interested in rectifying the situation for us in any reasonable time frame, but also seemingly not for any other client.

It obviously goes without saying we will be removing all CUI Devices parts from our designs, current and future.

Having random products shipped randomly labelled by the manufacturer, with absolutely no quality system or process how to rectify the situation, this is to be considered a high-risk manufacturer.

[TimNJ]

From what I understand, CUI is not much of a “manufacturer” per say. I think they’re mostly in the business of re-selling/re-badging. So, it’s not too surprising that they made a mistake like this, as they are somewhat detached from the products they sell. Of course, good IQC/OCQ should catch these things, and is possibly even more critical to have when operating a re-selling business.

To CUI’s credit, they are often among the first to offer interesting “China only” parts to us Western folk. For example, there are a million connector manufacturers in China, but here in the US, we only really see a handful on normal distributors. So, they’re good at getting those types of parts in our hands and managing those supply chains for you…well, until they don’t.

[Debugging]

This may not be CUI's fault. Would not be surpised if CUI ships the part from overeas manufacturers directly to the retailers. The retailers QA dept. could easily create an internal ticket and follow up to check the warehouse and check physical the parts are correct, but many companies just move boxes w/o quality control. Physical because the label could be different form the physical parts, and that is probably what happend here by the manufacturer. Lazy QA/support people don't even think about checking the physical parts and ask the warehouse QA to do it who just looks at the label, warehouse often don't scan the barcodes from the part or label on the boxes at receiving and only find out such issues until they they do a phyiscal inventory check at the end of year,  if they check such low cost parts at all.  Shipping departments normally never inspect physical goods, they just scan and box. It probably not an isolated case, where is smoke there is fire, In general you would expect there retailer to support the small volume conusmers but it seem going backwards as it seems harder to get support nowadays. Maybe they have severe manpower shortage. There are many USB-C connector manufacturers in Asia, even for 9 pin USB-C, but unfortunately, unless you place a large PO, they don't sell it, it's all reserved for the big guys . + Plus we should be very thankful to CUI for (their rebranding, if any) getting parts in low volume through retail to us.

[Siwastaja]

This may not be CUI's fault.

Of course it is. It's basic chain of responsibility. They can then blame their subcontractors or where they buy from, but it's their internal matter. The value-add of CUI Devices is that they must operate their core business properly, that is, to take in orders and supply what is ordered, correctly labeled.

Plus we should be very thankful to CUI for (their rebranding, if any) getting parts in low volume through retail to us.

In 2022, by default, I'm pretty thankful to anyone who is able to sell parts. I'm willing to accept mistakes being made because we are all humans, but it's worrying to see that in 2022, companies do not have any quality processes in action (probably on paper only) and are acting more and more irresponsible when mistakes are made, choosing to ignore or play waiting game instead of act instantly. That is pretty weird actually, because it's not difficult to correct your mistakes and make your customers happy! All that was needed was a few internal phone calls to find out who has the right parts and ask them to ship 100pcs to the address we had already given.