[sdiy] Does anyone here use JLCPCB for SMD assembly ?

[Mike Bryant]

Yes I have.  And indeed several of my designs for OEMs ended up with them for volume production as JLCPCB have quite low volume limits even with panellisation.   But for prototypes it often takes them ages to get the last few components needed for the assembly and they ask you to send them which adds more cost and delay, whereas JLCPCB is linked to LCSC which whilst not Mouser or RS, does have good stocks of a wide range of components, especially of the cheaper but still high quality Chinese components it's difficult to find details of or get in the West, but without using you have no hope of being competitive on price.

For example I obviously use large quantities of MELF resistors for low noise amplifiers.  The Vishay ones you get from Mouser, etc, are about 7 cents each, whereas the ones from Thunder Components (yeah I know - Chinese companies don't help themselves with naming) perform identically for under 3 cents. 

In fact when you look at them you wonder if Vishay actually make their version themselves or just buy them in.  I know quite a few of the big semiconductor companies have given up making discrete transistors themselves and just get them marked with their logo from CJT in Nanjing nowadays.  Open up a MMBT3904 from almost anybody and you'll find identical die inside.


-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Johnson [mailto:neil.johnson71 at gmail.com] 
Sent: 27 October 2021 15:07
To: Mike Bryant
Cc: synth-diy at synth-diy.org
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Does anyone here use JLCPCB for SMD assembly ?

Hi Mike,

> When SMD assembly was a new service at JLCPCB there were obviously teething problems.  For example parts shown as rotated online and so on but the PCBs always came back fine as they spent time fixing everything.

Have you tried PCBWay?  I know they are used by several instrument manufacturers.

Neil