JLC PCB Prototype Assembly - Incredibly Cheap

[MarkR42]

I don't pretend to understand their coupons system, but I seem to have accumulated a fair selection of coupons

To be honest without the coupons the price is already pretty unbeatable so I don't worry about it.

[VEGETA]

I wanted to ask will they do different color soldermask? I hope they support black at least.

Do you guys know a good company that does PCB manufacture + assembly as one order?

thanks!

[c64]

I wanted to ask will they do different color soldermask? I hope they support black at least.

Yes they do. For 2 layer board don't even charge any extra. You can see all the colors available on the online quotation page

Do you guys know a good company that does PCB manufacture + assembly as one order?

For prototypes?

[VEGETA]

Yes they do. For 2 layer board don't even charge any extra. You can see all the colors available on the online quotation page

that is for normal pcb manufacture but not for their assembly service. did you get colored PCBs assembled by JLC?

For prototypes?

no, but for small batch production.

[c64]

Yes they do. For 2 layer board don't even charge any extra. You can see all the colors available on the online quotation page

that is for normal pcb manufacture but not for their assembly service. did you get colored PCBs assembled by JLC?

Hmm I don't know actually. I'm yet to use their assembly service.

They let you choose color and then choose assembly for that PCB so I guess yes.

[VEGETA]

Hmm I don't know actually. I'm yet to use their assembly service.

They let you choose color and then choose assembly for that PCB so I guess yes.

They write it exclusively to be green though.

[MarkR42]

Green solder mask is required for jlc's cheap assembly service. I'm guessing that this is because there are machine-vision systems used in the pick-and-place, which would need to be recalibrated or re-trained to work with different solder mask colours. For $cheap, they don't want to do that.

[lutkeveld]

Its probably because all designs are combined in one big panel.
Now you can group all designs in the same panel, otherwise you will have to maintain seperate panel types.

[JLCPCB Official]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

[VEGETA]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

[thm_w]

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

If the website states that they only do green and <50pcs, then why would you think its not the truth? 
Use PCBWay or another service instead.

https://jlcpcb.com/smt-assembly
https://www.pcbway.com/pcb-assembly.html

[c64]

If the website states that they only do green and <50pcs, then why would you think its not the truth? 

Because this is what "JLCPCB Official" said two posts earlier?

[uer166]

If the website states that they only do green and <50pcs, then why would you think its not the truth? 
Use PCBWay or another service instead.

Seriously, did you not read 2 posts above from JLC saying otherwise? I'm curious as well, there seem to be so many disconnects between what the website says, what JLCPCB EEVBlog account says, and what their email support says. This is all fine while they're a unique service, but if someone else pops-up with something similar, they need to get their shit together.

[thm_w]

Seriously, did you not read 2 posts above from JLC saying otherwise? I'm curious as well, there seem to be so many disconnects between what the website says, what JLCPCB EEVBlog account says, and what their email support says. This is all fine while they're a unique service, but if someone else pops-up with something similar, they need to get their shit together.

"JLCPCB support many PCB colors"
ok, now the second statement, which may be completely unrelated to the first:

"and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order."

[JLCPCB Official]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

Just a clarification
For PCB colors JLC has many different mask colors that could be produced.
For PCBA for the moment JLCPCB support SMT assembly for green PCB only.
 

[VEGETA]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

Just a clarification
For PCB colors JLC has many different mask colors that could be produced.
For PCBA for the moment JLCPCB support SMT assembly for green PCB only.
 

We knew about multi color PCB fabrication but we asked about the assembly since people are confused. Now we know you only do green for some weird reason. When do you plan to support other colors such as black? since your service is so cheap, we could use it for small batches production. For me, I like to have black solder mask for a certain project but for not green is fine.

Anyway, I have a board of 50x50... I can make a panel with 280x280mm... is that doable? can I order say 20 panels fully assembled?

[JLCPCB Official]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

Just a clarification
For PCB colors JLC has many different mask colors that could be produced.
For PCBA for the moment JLCPCB support SMT assembly for green PCB only.
 

We knew about multi color PCB fabrication but we asked about the assembly since people are confused. Now we know you only do green for some weird reason. When do you plan to support other colors such as black? since your service is so cheap, we could use it for small batches production. For me, I like to have black solder mask for a certain project but for not green is fine.

Anyway, I have a board of 50x50... I can make a panel with 280x280mm... is that doable? can I order say 20 panels fully assembled?

Not sure when will have other colors SMT service. I hope soon, many people want to try other color board.
1. Currently, black is not supported
2. The single size is 50*50, and the imposition size is 280*280mm, which meets the SMT size requirements.
3. SMT supports one side, front or back
4. SMT-qty does not exceed 30 pcs
5. No more than 10 kinds of components in the extended library.

[c64]

This is from JLC website:

Rarely, the stock shown in JLCPCB website may be inconsistent with the actual stock, which may cause there is no enough stock for a component to process SMT assembly, then the component won’t be assembled on your boards. In this case, JLCPCB will refund you the cost of those unassembled components.

Anyone actually experienced this?

This may get quite ugly, if the not in stock component is actually important. For example, you have a board with 100 small 0402 capacitors, and few big 0805 ones. You can not solder 0402 by hand so you decide to pay for assembly. Since you do assembly anyway, why not to assemble 0805 as well? You order assembly, everything in stock, and then suddenly they say "sorry your caps not in stock, here is your board with your couple of 0805 soldered". Now you screwed up.

[phil from seattle]

Seems like a stretch to me.  I recall reading something in one of the FAQs about them not holding a commitment for long as it ties up the parts. It is definitely in JLC's best interest to manage their inventory really tightly. The scenario you describe makes for very unhappy customers. Especially with web sites like this where people can be squeaky wheels. So far, JLC doesn't seem like a F-You kind of company.

My latest board had an out of stock IC that showed up when I uploaded the BOM.  I was lucky in that there was the same part, same footprint from a different mfr and I was able to quickly switch over. Both were extended parts so only a slight difference in cost - literally pennies. I had checked inventory levels the day before and don't recall it being particularly low. I think it's a good idea to avoid parts with low inventory levels in general, if you can.

[c64]

Maybe they should have one more category of parts and call them "super basic", which are guaranteed to be in stock. Like 100n capacitors or 10K resistors 

[JLCPCB Official]

Hi, do you mean by the two $7 coupon for SMT service,
you can check the coupon detail https://support.jlcpcb.com/article/107-pcb-smt-assembly-from-2,
The coupon should be sent at the beginning of each month. Actually from June, we will send three  $8 coupon each month.

[JLCPCB Official]

Green solder mask is required for jlc's cheap assembly service. I'm guessing that this is because there are machine-vision systems used in the pick-and-place, which would need to be recalibrated or re-trained to work with different solder mask colours. For $cheap, they don't want to do that.

Most customers choose green boards, and few other colors. Sowe do green color to reduce material cost and time cost. If most clients like black, then we will also make black,this is based on customer needs. In the future, we may have other colors SMT service, but it needs to reach a certain amount of demand.

[JLCPCB Official]

Seriously, did you not read 2 posts above from JLC saying otherwise? I'm curious as well, there seem to be so many disconnects between what the website says, what JLCPCB EEVBlog account says, and what their email support says. This is all fine while they're a unique service, but if someone else pops-up with something similar, they need to get their shit together.

"JLCPCB support many PCB colors"
ok, now the second statement, which may be completely unrelated to the first:

"and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order."

For PCB manufacturing-related problems, I'm really sorry if our answer confuses you. This is a problem that we should not have. We will pay more attention in the future, and we will definitely give you a clear answer and guidance. Sorry again

[JLCPCB Official]

Hello ;

JLCPCB support many PCB colors and could produce and assemble your PCB through the simplest ordering way, and also there is talented engineers that could guide you through to finish your order.
Find more here : https://jlcpcb.com/
Or just text me here for more details. 

Hello,

Your website states that assembly service requires only green solder mask to work.. so can i do it with black for example?

I want to produce around 100-200 boards of 50x50mm product, all parts are compatible with JLCPCB.com/parts and all of them are at one side of the board. I can panellize myself too if required.

What do you think?

regards!

sorry, we can't.Only green, up to 30pcs

[JLCPCB Official]

Maybe they should have one more category of parts and call them "super basic", which are guaranteed to be in stock. Like 100n capacitors or 10K resistors 

A good idea, do you think Pre-order parts service can help? If we receive order in advance, we will know which kinds of parts you need most, and we will prepare as we can.