[sdiy] LCSC.com (branch off 8-bit MCUs, why bother?)

[MTG]

I just sent half a batch of Seeed boards back because many of the 0402 
resistors were wrong. That was fun. They did fix them though, all at no 
cost and pretty quickly.  I have to say that this thread has me looking 
at JLPCB.

That $0.03 microcontroller looks too painful to use unless you are 
selling 100,000 of something or else your design is super simple. I used 
an EMC controller years ago that was a PIC ripoff and what a pain in the 
butt that was. I'm sorry but flash, debugging, timers, interrupts, a 
decent stack and communications of some kind are the bare minimum for 
me. Life's too short...

On 11/15/2019 4:05 PM, ulfur hansson wrote:
> wow! that price sounds incredible... I just finished a design that i'm 
> dreading to build because of high component count. the JLCPCB 
> boards/assembly are OK quality?
> 
> i've always used Seeed for bare pcb's with great results, but my 
> experience with their smt assembly hasn't been at all that great.
> I've used gold phoenix with good results, but they are more expensive of 
> course...
> 
> fös., 15. nóv. 2019 kl. 14:29 skrifaði Chris McDowell 
> <declareupdate at gmail.com <mailto:declareupdate at gmail.com>>:
> 
>     I just wanted to pop in and put in a good word for LCSC. I use
>     LCSC.com <http://LCSC.com> and JLCPCB.com <http://JLCPCB.com> daily
>     for work, with jlcpcb now having -insanely- great deals on low
>     volume smt assembly. I'm talking 20 units covered in surface mount
>     components for ~$3 a piece. jlcpcb already got all of my business
>     for prototype pcbs before this service went live in the US, but now
>     I get any prototype pcb for less than I would have a year ago, with
>     all or most surface mount soldered. A bit of a game changer for us.
> 
> 
>     *Chris McDowell*
>     ATXLED <http://www.atxled.com>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>     On Nov 15, 2019, at 12:43 PM, sleepy_dog at gmx.de
>>     <mailto:sleepy_dog at gmx.de> wrote:
>>
>>
>>     Ben Stuyts wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>     On 14 Nov 2019, at 23:04,sleepy_dog at gmx.de
>>>>     <mailto:sleepy_dog at gmx.de>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>     Ben Stuyts wrote:
>>>>>     How’s $0.03 for a microcontroller? :)
>>>>>     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYhAGnsnO7w
>>>>>     Die shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jw5D0F008c
>>>>>
>>>>>     By the way,lcsc.com <http://lcsc.com/> where this mcu came from
>>>>>     is a really interesting distributer, part of the same company
>>>>>     alsjlcpcb.com <http://jlcpcb.com/> (pcb manufacturer). Lots of
>>>>>     cheap Chinese parts, but also e.g. ST microcontrollers for
>>>>>     better prices than e.g. Farnell or Digikey. I’ve used some of
>>>>>     them in production, no complaints yet.
>>>>>
>>>>>     Ben
>>>>>
>>>>     Ha! :D That's slightly cheating, though, isn't it? Unrealiably
>>>>     obtainable "seasonal produce" fresh from Shenzen market...
>>>>     usually made for one-off rubbish products.
>>>>     Or not?
>>>>
>>>
>>>     I believelcsc.com <http://lcsc.com/> is a reputable distributor,
>>>     and the company behind those cheap MCU’s (Paduak Tech) seems to
>>>     give reasonable support. There are some eevblog.com
>>>     <http://eevblog.com/> forum threads where people discuss their
>>>     experience with these chips. I just checked that particular MCU
>>>     and it is still in stock, over 18k pcs:
>>>     https://lcsc.com/product-detail/PADAUK_PADAUK-Tech-PMS150C-U06_C168658.html.
>>>     It boggles the mind…
>>>
>>>     For a more well known example: For a recent production run I
>>>     needed 100 pcs of the STM32F103RBT6, a 64 pin Arm Cortex-M3
>>>     controller. It is US$1.5348 at lcsc, and USD 4.83 at Digikey.
>>>     There is some sort of supply chain advantage there…
>>>
>>>     Ben
>>>
>>     Ok, this is interesting. In general, not for me personally (wrt
>>     applicability). Those seem more primitive than I was aware still
>>     exist, if I read that right you need to chose whether it comes
>>     with an arm OR a leg ;) Which would be just right for what Richie
>>     B. mentioned, e.g. electric toothbrush, I get it. Wasn't even
>>     aware those had MCUs now... But I guess one step to be "ahead"
>>     (marketing wise anyway) of the competition at some point in their
>>     evolution was to give toothbrushes more than one function, and as
>>     soon as it has that, some simple MCU like that comes in handy. (or
>>     if the charging logic can also ditch some "traditional" components
>>     if a MCU is present, then it's benefitial even earlier?)
>>
>>     So, I guess my perception of 8 bit MCUs fading away comes from
>>     seeing a lot of areas where there once were king, and anything
>>     better prohibitively expensive, and nowadays those fields that I
>>     am more aware of tend not to be so focused anymore on "lowest end
>>     MCU possible" (again, from industrie examples I stumble upon,
>>     which is biased by my particular, if not peculiar, set of
>>     interests, I guess)
>>
>>     So to summarize, my perception is still that they are becoming
>>     less used in some areas (and IF my perceived trend continues, the
>>     end point there is "phased out"), but now through this thread I
>>     have become aware of areas that weren't on my radar at all before,
>>     so thanks for that, to all involved.
>>
>>     - Steve
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     Synth-diy mailing list
>>     Synth-diy at synth-diy.org <mailto:Synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
>>     http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     Synth-diy mailing list
>     Synth-diy at synth-diy.org <mailto:Synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
>     http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> •
> ulfurhansson.com <http://ulfurhansson.com/>
> cargocollective.com/ulfur <http://cargocollective.com/ulfur>
> instagram.com/ulfur_ <http://instagram.com/ulfur_>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>