SMT Service
Gabriel wrote 04/25/2020 at 04:02 • 3 pointsSo i recently "discovered" the SMT service by Jlcpcb and was super exited. However I am interested in trying other SMT services.
Maybe one with better parts selection?
Recomendations? Who builds your boards?
(Really trying to get away from diy pcb)
Discussions
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While Jlcpcb might not have all of the components, they usually can populate the most common ones. If you're prototyping, populating all of the passives, and some of the more common ICs, might be really good trade-off between the PCBA cost and time spend on your board bring-up.
Did it once, worked pretty well.
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Components sourcing explanation:
https://www.makerfabs.cc/article/how-makerfabs-source-the-components-for-pcba.html
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Er, i do not know if this allowed or not, suggesting myself as a SMT service fabs. As the questions, either by sourcing on the digikey/mouser, or you send me the packags, are OK. of course, we have a warehourse for most common used capacitors/resistors/connectors.. for shorter lead time and cost-efficiency.
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Do you make PCBs or just assemble? Got links to pics of made boards?
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Mainly, i do:
1. For PCB, i purchased from local PCB factory(JLC for express& cheap PCB, and some industry-level PCB factory for multilayer PCB)
2. Sourcing components, from digikey/mouser, or local electronic market
3. assembly
4. programming& testing
There some of my case:https://www.makerfabs.cc/cases/all.html
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Now there are many PCB companies, JLC, pcbway, gogopcb. But our company has been using Moko technology products, we just put forward the demand, design and manufacturing are given to them. I hope I can help you.
https://www.mokotechnology.com
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Any US based fab houses? I would be ok with paying a premium. I think logistics wise id be better off. (I dont live in the US)
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I haven't used macrofab, but they seem really slick.
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I've used macrofab, which I was really pleased with the results of. Their website is really well designed, and makes it easy to choose the right components, if it doesn't find them automagically.
I used them for this board - https://www.anfractuosity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_4753.jpg (forgive the right-angled pcb traces etc. though heh, still very new to pcb design)
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PCBWay lets you upload your own BOM and is not limited to their own list of items. They'll do whatever they can to source the components you want. Of course this might end you costing you more, but at least you are not limiting yourself to a very small subset of SMT.
Here's my experience with their services: https://hackaday.io/project/162301-high-voltage-nixie-power-supply/log/160564-part-5-sending-for-assembly
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thank you, i will give them a try. I have a larger board on the works now and basically decided to go with as much through hole as posible so that i could get the exact parts i wanted... but again, i want this to be a solderless endeavor.
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Many other fabs will also source the components for you but JLCPCB has the advantage that it's a sister company to LCSC which is a large stockist.
You could look at the offerings of PCBway and Elecrow to mention a couple of other fabs,
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thank you for your suggestions.
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As far as I understand, they don't have access to the full list of components from LCSC. https://jlcpcb.com/parts lists their parts. I just got a very simple assembled board from JLCPCB though which I'm pleased with, just need to test soon!
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Fabs will also add components which you provide. Normally in such a case they expect you to ship the parts to them. Say you want one of those esoteric chips sold by LCSC. I'm guessing you can request JLC to buy it direct from LCSC and add it to your bill, saving you the effort of dealing with two parties. Heck other fabs might do such sourcing for you. That the component doesn't appear in the standard list doesn't mean you can't negotiate.
Of course the caveat is "for a price". For a handful of boards it might prohibitively expensive. But if you are making lots, you can surely get a deal.
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Cheers @Ken Yap , I might have to give them an email then about additional components, as there's some i'd like them to be able to add to a new board :)
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That's my understanding with jlc as well - you gotta design around what they have on hand. Also, I just ordered a board from them and discovered that some of the things they listed as in stock on this list, actually weren't. Luckily all those parts are pretty hand solderable, so not a huge deal.
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