JLCPCB assembly - massive "Manual Assembly" fee

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just putting together a JLCPCB job - should be a straightforward all SMD assembly, they have approved all the parts ordered in from Digikey as assemblable, but the quote is showing a $1500 "manual assembly fee" on a 125pc order.
Seems to be related to one part - a LED - nothing special
They're on holiday atm so can't get in touch - anyone else seen this ?

[Smokey]

I've had trouble with the technical support during holidays.  Seems all their real engineers are out and they let the janitors answer technical questions or something. 
I'd wait and get clarification when they are back in full swing.

[Accu-Sembly]

Their website lists the following:

"Manual Assembly: Manual placement of parts on the PCB" and "Standard PCB 1-50,000pcs : $0.0157/ joint"

It sounds like you have something that is not on tape and reel or can't be pick and placed for some other reason.  Perhaps there is an oversized or tall component that wouldn't fit on the machine or line that would be assigned your job.  That's over 700 joints per board they are charging you for though, so maybe it's calculating that the entire order will need to be hand placed.  Maybe the PCB shape or design is not conducive to pick and place?  Maybe all their pick and places lines are full?  All of your components were purchased as bulk instead of tape and reel?

Makes me feel better about our pricing though   

[SMTech]

Their website lists the following:

"Manual Assembly: Manual placement of parts on the PCB" and "Standard PCB 1-50,000pcs : $0.0157/ joint"

It sounds like you have something that is not on tape and reel or can't be pick and placed for some other reason.  Perhaps there is an oversized or tall component that wouldn't fit on the machine or line that would be assigned your job.  That's over 700 joints per board they are charging you for though, so maybe it's calculating that the entire order will need to be hand placed.  Maybe the PCB shape or design is not conducive to pick and place?  Maybe all their pick and places lines are full?  All of your components were purchased as bulk instead of tape and reel?

Makes me feel better about our pricing though   

We had an occasional client send us a job recently, they wanted it in a hurry. "Don't worry we've already got the PCBs, you just need to source the parts and assemble it".
Nobody thinks to check what they are sending, when it arrives there are 25 single PCBs the shape of a key to be SM populated pretty much edge to edge, to make matters worse, they are double sided. This makes them impossible to load in the pick and place both sides and impossible to print on side 2 as there is no way to invent a fixture to support them. In the end I used double sided tape to lightly stick the whole batch to a carrier board, manually placed the busy side (thankfully we have a proper machine for this) and then we did side 2 with a soldering iron. So a job worth about 4 man hours ended up  taking more like 3days of UK rate labour.

That said, I don't see Mike making such elementary mistakes or assumptions, so something squiffy must be happening here. Also for a single BOM line to need manual placement should require minimal extra costs as at that level you should be able to use operator "dead time" to carry it out.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I think they just haven't put it correctly on their system  - this was a part sourced by them from Mouser, hopefully will be fixed when they get back.

[Chalcogenide]

I have not been hit with a manual assembly fee, but a connector in their library that I was looking at (althogh a "pre-order" item, so not stocked), was incorrectly marked as "wave solder" when it was very obviously a reflow-only part. I contacted their customer service and they fixed it in a matter of hours. I feel like something similar happened to you and they need to sort it out.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just checked in my parts libabry - the LED is shown as "Assembly type : wave soldering", which explains it - just need to get them to correct this.

possibly related, I got a message when ordering this part, asking for confirmation to go ahead - I wonder if a wrong flag got set here

The supplier informed us that the Date Code of part C17564768(MP-2016-1100-40-90) is not sure, which means we don't know when this part was produced.
For some types of parts, the performance of the components may be affected if the parts are too old. We are not sure if this is the case with this component, so we want to confirm with you whether this is acceptable to you.

[tszaboo]

Their library is a huge mess. They don't even have a link for it on their main page anymore.
They also added like 2000 components as "basic" that are not in stock. And the same ICs are in 3 different categories.
Power Supply Chip/Linear Voltage Regulators (LDO)
Power Management ICs/ Low Dropout Regulators(LDO)
Power Management (PMIC)/ Voltage Regulators - Linear, Low Drop Out (LDO) Regulators

Like FFS fix the database, it takes 5 minutes to write an SQL query or whatever database you are using that will place these into one category.

[PlainName]

And the same ICs are in 3 different categories.

Is that really a problem? When I'm searching for stuff I often find a part that would be suitable isn't shown because it's in a related category. Sometimes I spend lots of time trawling obscure categories to ensure I don't miss something. Having the same thing pop up in several categories would solve that, and what would be the downside?

[tszaboo]

And the same ICs are in 3 different categories.

Is that really a problem? When I'm searching for stuff I often find a part that would be suitable isn't shown because it's in a related category. Sometimes I spend lots of time trawling obscure categories to ensure I don't miss something. Having the same thing pop up in several categories would solve that, and what would be the downside?

Maybe I didn't articulate it correctly. The same type of ICs are thrown into 3 different categories, that are practically the same. You have one LM7805 as a "Power Supply Chip" and another supplier's LM7807 in the LDO category. It's not even an LDO. It's clear that they just randomly created the same categories twice and one has 10x more ICs in them.

[PlainName]

Ah, ok. That might be what trips me up too

[phil from seattle]

Their library is a huge mess. They don't even have a link for it on their main page anymore.
They also added like 2000 components as "basic" that are not in stock. And the same ICs are in 3 different categories.
Power Supply Chip/Linear Voltage Regulators (LDO)
Power Management ICs/ Low Dropout Regulators(LDO)
Power Management (PMIC)/ Voltage Regulators - Linear, Low Drop Out (LDO) Regulators

Like FFS fix the database, it takes 5 minutes to write an SQL query or whatever database you are using that will place these into one category.

First, let me say, AMEN. Their library is such a mess.  I have part numbers that I can find with a direct search but try to find it going through their indexes - no luck. I am certain they have parts that are close to impossible to find.

They try to provide a search interface similar to Digi or Mouser but their data is a complete mess.  For example, selecting a given pin pitch will find maybe half the entries with that pitch because they didn't get the data entered. And, the web interface frequently wedges so I have to start over.

But I don't think fixing their SQL will solve anything - their data needs to get fixed first. They should first start with fixing their categories.  Looking for an optocoupler?  Is it in:
- Optocoupler
- Optocoupler/LED/Digital Tube/Photoelectric Device
- Optocouplers & LEDs & Infrared
- Optoelectronics
- Optoisolators

The answer is all of the above and the groups are only partially overlapping. Compare that with Mouser, it's night and day.  One heading and clean categories.

[Accu-Sembly]

Their website lists the following:

"Manual Assembly: Manual placement of parts on the PCB" and "Standard PCB 1-50,000pcs : $0.0157/ joint"

It sounds like you have something that is not on tape and reel or can't be pick and placed for some other reason.  Perhaps there is an oversized or tall component that wouldn't fit on the machine or line that would be assigned your job.  That's over 700 joints per board they are charging you for though, so maybe it's calculating that the entire order will need to be hand placed.  Maybe the PCB shape or design is not conducive to pick and place?  Maybe all their pick and places lines are full?  All of your components were purchased as bulk instead of tape and reel?

Makes me feel better about our pricing though   

We had an occasional client send us a job recently, they wanted it in a hurry. "Don't worry we've already got the PCBs, you just need to source the parts and assemble it".
Nobody thinks to check what they are sending, when it arrives there are 25 single PCBs the shape of a key to be SM populated pretty much edge to edge, to make matters worse, they are double sided. This makes them impossible to load in the pick and place both sides and impossible to print on side 2 as there is no way to invent a fixture to support them. In the end I used double sided tape to lightly stick the whole batch to a carrier board, manually placed the busy side (thankfully we have a proper machine for this) and then we did side 2 with a soldering iron. So a job worth about 4 man hours ended up  taking more like 3days of UK rate labour.

That said, I don't see Mike making such elementary mistakes or assumptions, so something squiffy must be happening here. Also for a single BOM line to need manual placement should require minimal extra costs as at that level you should be able to use operator "dead time" to carry it out.

Oh man, we've all been there.  3D printers have been a Godsend for last second custom fixturing, but the amount of time lost and labor spent by things that could have been easily avoided with a quick DFM still baffles me.

Glad to read it looks like he got it sorted out.

[Kasper]

Their library is a huge mess.

Their library is such a mess.

I gave up on browsing JLC.

My favorite method for JLC builds is to search DigiKey for parts.  Before final selection, I search the part number in JLC. If my top choice isn't on JLC or I'm struggling to decide between a few parts, I add JLC stock to my spreadsheet where I compare them.

For jellybeans, I'll type what I want into JLC search bar: "0402 100k" and filter for basic parts.  That's hit or miss.

[bson]

I gave up on the JLCPCB library the first time I looked.  Their whole BOM match is strange, and it seems like everything has to be in stock at the same location.  The basic library lacks some very basic parts, like 0402 0.1uF capacitors, in fact just browsing I could find practically nothing in 0402.  Sometimes it fails to find parts despite it being in stock in all locations and I can manually find it by the JLCPCB part # just fine.  Given how sparse it is, it would be helpful if the BOM matcher could actually make sensible recommendations, like if they don't have an 0402 10k resistor, maybe they have a 12k or 15k one?  Suggest it!  Maybe it's fine and just used as a pullup or LED current limiter (= high likelihood).  Having to manually do this, in their very special CSV column layout, is just too effing tedious.  Computers exist.  Use them.

How do you use their PCBA service with DigiKey?  Drop ship?

[Kasper]

I have not tried drop ship to JLC.

I find parts on DigiKey, check they are in stock on JLC then enter JLC part number as a parameter in the part, along on manufacturer part number.

After I export BOM, I make a JLC copy of the BOM with just the columns JLC wants.  Then I upload on JLCs website when ordering PCBA.

Usually goes smoothly.

[Selectech]

Good experiences so far, probably close to 1000+ assemblies this year, 2, 4 & 6 layer. 12+ designs.
I get some parts from Digikey to MyParts Lib and build stock of critical items from JLC stock in MyParts Lib, to be ready for may various builds.

Try to use Basic parts for std 0402 to 1206 passives.

BoM export from Altium, fill  in columns with JLC part #s, check CPL file and placements.

[sleemanj]

The only realistic way to search for JLC parts, is to use this tool...

https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/

Also you want to add in my Grease/TamperMonkey script for it which allows to filter/search categories, since as noted above categorisation is a complete shemozzle.

Example of filtering categories to "Resistor"...

[bson]

How do you use that tool?  I enter "Capacitor", pick Basic and select 0402 and it finds nada.  I clear the search, enter "Resistor" and it doesn't even find the category?

[sleemanj]

The search is for part name/nunber,

Select categories you want, parts will be listed and additional specifications, select additional specifications as needed.

The search you entered is not for filtering category, use the grease/tamper monkey script I linked for filtering category, it just makes it easier to find the categories of interest.

[sleemanj]

If you are still unsure how to utilise that tool, this should help:

[fourfathom]

I use the LCSC library when choosing components for a JLC build.  The LCSC library is much better organized, and they use the same part numbers as JLC.  If LCSC has the part in quantity, chances are that decent that it's a JLC "standard" part.  However, try as I might I usually end up with a bunch of not standard but still available parts on my BOM.  This costa a bit more but it's still a bargain.

I often have JLC hand-solder connectors and headers on my assembled boards, and there has been a very modest extra cost for this.  Occasionally there's an additional "fixture" charge, but the cost is still low enough that I'm happy to not have to do it myself.

[bson]

I use the LCSC library when choosing components for a JLC build.  The LCSC library is much better organized, and they use the same part numbers as JLC.  If LCSC has the part in quantity, chances are that decent that it's a JLC "standard" part.  However, try as I might I usually end up with a bunch of not standard but still available parts on my BOM.  This costa a bit more but it's still a bargain.

They may be standard, but very few components are basic.  Basic means they're kept loaded on their P&P machines and there is neither minimum quantity or the $3.50 reel load charge. If you have a couple of hundred components the latter adds up in a hurry, and if you only need two board having to buy a minimum 5 or 10 $20 parts gets expensive as well.  They don't even ship you the surplus parts you had to buy, along with the assembled boards.

And with very few parts, why pay for assembly when it takes less than an hour to do it yourself.  The exception I can see is letting them mount a complex part like a BGA-256 with medium or fine ball pitch, that's simply not available in *FP or QFN.  That too isn't economical though, given the minimum qty overhead...

[JLCPCB Official]

Hello ,

Sorry for the delayed response.Regarding the $1500 manual assembly fee for the LED, which doesn't seem to be a special part, we need to verify if it has any specific handling or assembly requirements.

Have you received a response from us yet? If not, please share the part name or any additional details, and I’ll forward it to our support team for further assistance.

[phil from seattle]

The only realistic way to search for JLC parts, is to use this tool...

https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/

Also you want to add in my Grease/TamperMonkey script for it which allows to filter/search categories, since as noted above categorisation is a complete shemozzle.

Example of filtering categories to "Resistor"...

I used to use it a lot but in the last maybe 6 months it has never completed an update.  I let it go for like 24 hrs and it is still stuck on a number of categories.