First PCB - HASL smeared on one board - design error or manufacturing defect?

[jameswilddev]

Hello!  I've just received the first PCB I designed myself, from JLCPCB.  Nothing fancy, just the defaults - 1.6mm thick, 2 layer, green, HASL, etc. All through hole and kept simple (no tight traces or anything)



They look great, and I've certainly made mental notes of some things I'll change for my next design (maybe larger pads for easier soldering), but one of the boards has a defect; the HASL is smeared about 2mm to the right down the right hand side.



Of course I don't expect 100% success for $2 + shipping, and I factored that in when selecting quantity.  But when I've seen other people get bad boards there's usually a big cross on it.  Does this mean that it might actually be a design error on my part?  I had a look for examples of HASL being smeared online but couldn't find anything.

Thank you.

[wraper]

It's a manufacturing defect, nothing to do with design. Probably too little of flux was applied on the board. You can easily fix it though. Other boards seem to have solder smeared on the edges.

[48X24X48X]

Seriously how these got shipped by them is.....

[Yansi]

Seriously how these got shipped by them is.....

Yes, seriously, how can one make pcbs for just $2, or even those $25 shipping included?

Try for yourself, with same price, then come back and bitch about a few specs of solder, that can be easily cleaned.

//I am not defending JLCPCB practices, pricing, behavior, quality or whatever. I just am quite fed up with these random comments full of hate and underappreciation of what we have available for extremely low prices. If that much you are after the highest quality, why are you ordering the cheap stuff? Go and order with your local manufacturer and pay $250 for the same 5 boards.

[48X24X48X]

It's not about the $2 price tag. It's an ISO certified company, every process follows a certain rule. A $2 customer will eventually brings bigger order to them. For me, it is just a marketing strategy but not wrong at all. But, when you offer your service to people, do it properly regardless of the price.

[Yansi]

ISO certified probably as much as myself or yourself.  I would not rely of any such information in any way.

Just appreciate that the Chinese guys are offering us stupid westernians their cheap services. They could easily leave them for themselves. You should just accept that such cheap services may have obvious or less obvious limitations.

[pisoiu]

But when I've seen other people get bad boards there's usually a big cross on it. 

Putting cross on boards implies some form of testing. At least visual, if not automated. Perhaps this is not available at a $2 price tag.

[Mangozac]

But when I've seen other people get bad boards there's usually a big cross on it. 

Putting cross on boards implies some form of testing. At least visual, if not automated. Perhaps this is not available at a $2 price tag.

JLC claim to be doing 100% flying probe test on prototypes.

I'm surprised this defect got through - we order thousands of boards from them and issues are extremely rare.

[phil from seattle]

But when I've seen other people get bad boards there's usually a big cross on it. 

Putting cross on boards implies some form of testing. At least visual, if not automated. Perhaps this is not available at a $2 price tag.

JLC claim to be doing 100% flying probe test on prototypes.

I'm surprised this defect got through - we order thousands of boards from them and issues are extremely rare.

I agree.  $2 or $20,000 order, this should not have passed. I seriously doubt their QA processes know the price tag of the order.

[jameswilddev]

The good news is, they all work!  Applied some heat and the excess solder just rolled off like you said.  Thanks guys, I think I just saw bridged pads on my first design and panicked a bit.



One of the AVRs isn't happy running at 28.6363MHz and resets a lot (it's a requirement of Arduinocade to overclock so far to generate NTSC composite video - playing around with my own engine which runs at half that clock but with halved color depth and vertical resolution).  Replaced it with another AVR which seems to work fine.

[Yansi]

//Try increasing the supply voltage slightly, like instead of 5.0V use 5.6V or something closer to the absolute maximum limit. That may help to force it work faster.//

[CJay]

It's not about the $2 price tag. It's an ISO certified company, every process follows a certain rule. A $2 customer will eventually brings bigger order to them. For me, it is just a marketing strategy but not wrong at all. But, when you offer your service to people, do it properly regardless of the price.

I can write an ISO process that says I smear wombat faeces across every 50th board, I've only failed ISO compliance if I don't do that.

[tooki]

But when I've seen other people get bad boards there's usually a big cross on it. 

Putting cross on boards implies some form of testing. At least visual, if not automated. Perhaps this is not available at a $2 price tag.

JLC claim to be doing 100% flying probe test on prototypes.

I'm surprised this defect got through - we order thousands of boards from them and issues are extremely rare.

I wonder if perhaps those pins are unconnected, in which case they wouldn't be tested? I can't think of any other way...

[tszaboo]

It's not about the $2 price tag. It's an ISO certified company, every process follows a certain rule. A $2 customer will eventually brings bigger order to them. For me, it is just a marketing strategy but not wrong at all. But, when you offer your service to people, do it properly regardless of the price.

I can write an ISO process that says I smear wombat faeces across every 50th board, I've only failed ISO compliance if I don't do that.

Yes, ISO 9001 basically has more to do with continuous improvement and documenting everything, not with actual quality. It's a toilet paper for most companies, something that they gota have. While the underlying principles are great.

If you want quality for your product, it has to be IPC-2222 IPC-A-600 for PCBs, and IPC-610 for PCBAs.
With the strict agreement, that non-conforming boards will be shipped back to repairs at the expense of the assembly house, together with a late delivery fee.

[GerardG]

Hello @NANDBlog just a short comment to your message

I think you mentioned the wrong IPC.
The 2222 is for designing the board.
=>IPC-2222 establishes the specific requirements for the design

The board manufacturer will us the IPC-6010 series. For the specifications on quality.
=>IPC-6012E. Qualification and. Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards

And use the IPC-A-600 for checking the boards.
=>IPC-A-600 Acceptability of Printed Boards (picture book like the IPC-A-610)

@jameswilddev
Try to find yourself a copy of the IPC-A-600. This will exactly show what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

[Daixiwen]

I can write an ISO process that says I smear wombat faeces across every 50th board, I've only failed ISO compliance if I don't do that.

No, you will only fail ISO compliance if you don't write a non-conformance report and come out with a plan explaining how you will ensure the process is properly applied in the future.

[tszaboo]

I think you mentioned the wrong IPC.

You are absolutely right, thanks.

[CJay]

I can write an ISO process that says I smear wombat faeces across every 50th board, I've only failed ISO compliance if I don't do that.

No, you will only fail ISO compliance if you don't write a non-conformance report and come out with a plan explaining how you will ensure the process is properly applied in the future.

True, yes, I over simplified the process.

[S. Petrukhin]

And no, they don't do 100% flying probe on two layer boards.

It seems that this is indicated as being performed for 2-layer boards. How do you know they don't do 100% verification?

[S. Petrukhin]

Wow, Pacman! Are you going to post the schematic and firmware? 

[Bassman59]

Seriously how these got shipped by them is.....

Yeah, that's clearly crap.

[jameswilddev]

Wow, Pacman! Are you going to post the schematic and firmware? 

It's a derivative of the Arduinocade project:
https://github.com/rossumur/Arduinocade

Schematic/PCB layout for this one at:
https://github.com/neomura/atmega328p-cartridge

Note that the version up on there is designed for being cut out of metallic tape on a vinyl cutter, it's not optimal for traditional etching.

[Daixiwen]

It seems that this is indicated as being performed for 2-layer boards. How do you know they don't do 100% verification?

Yes, they say they do a full test at no extra cost: https://jlcpcb.com//quote/pcbOrderFaq/Flying%20probe%20test.
It's not very likely but is it possible they do the flying probes test before the HASL finish?

[jameswilddev]

It seems that this is indicated as being performed for 2-layer boards. How do you know they don't do 100% verification?

Yes, they say they do a full test at no extra cost: https://jlcpcb.com//quote/pcbOrderFaq/Flying%20probe%20test.
It's not very likely but is it possible they do the flying probes test before the HASL finish?

It looks like the HASL comes first if this factory tour is anything to go by:

https://youtu.be/ljOoGyCso8s?t=1235
https://youtu.be/ljOoGyCso8s?t=1390

[tooki]

Hence my speculation that perhaps it passed testing because those pads weren't connected to anywhere else on the board, so nothing to test.