Post B6o8Sc9plkIeYdSFYu by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
(DIR) More posts by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
(DIR) Post #B6nnoZUKHDaNbzfUem by poleguy@mastodon.social
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So, I'm going to try getting a fully populated PCB built at #JLCPCB for the first time.I mean, I know that knock-off vendors are going to be cheaper than American brands, but is it normal to have multiple knock-offs available with prices ranging by more than 10x?Are these made with slave labor? Are the materials stolen? Are they even real? The datasheet specs are not the same, but I'm not actually sure what the design requirement is, or what the relevant parameters are on the datasheet here.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoZlhEdTqTrnMjQ by 0h00000000@ioc.exchange
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@poleguy I've had very good experience with PCBgogo.com for PCB and assembly - over 10 years and dozens of boards, some HDI. They get whatever part from Mouser you want. The only vendor they seem to have an issue with is Coilcraft.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoZzWPEXVAkGPHU by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@0h00000000 I don't know that one. The guys I work with have had luck with JLCPCB. It was new territory with them. Historically our company has been reluctant to send anything to China, but JLCPCB, PCBWAY, etc. are so fast and cheap, and the local fabs in Illinois are stupid slow and expensive. I'll probably try JLCPCB first, because I've started putting together the BOM. They seem to have their own distributor, which is going to help make things fast and cheap.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoaCzb9JZqWZAHI by 0h00000000@ioc.exchange
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@poleguy Yeah, I would love to have PCBs done in the US, but it's like 4x cheaper and 5x faster and less hassle to do it in China.Get a quote from both, as the professors would say "for completeness". All you need are Gerbers and a BOM in CSV format.Just upload your gerbers and BOM to PCBgogo, and you will get an account rep emailing you the next weeknight for clarification or the final quote. I usually have them source all the parts unless it's a special engineering sample I have to ship them.It usually takes a day to get a final quote on PCB and assembly, and a couple of days to get the quote on parts. The always have good feedback and catch many of my errors and include an x-ray check for complex boards.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoaNywI6aObhwPI by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@0h00000000 I'm a cheapskate historically, but I have to fight that urge, because first-of-all my company is paying the bill, and second, the risk of getting bad parts just isn't worth it, and on some of these parts I don't want to spend the time to determine if the cheap knock-off is worth it.I looked at the datasheets for these USB protection diodes and every single parameter is different. Without an expert to guide me, it's not worth trying to optimize prematurely.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoaTebCdsgCMTFQ by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@0h00000000 Good point... quote both. The factors making me hesitate to even put in a little effort is that I've never done JLCPCB and cost is not a major concern, but time is.But maybe I will.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoapHInwJlGTjxA by 0h00000000@ioc.exchange
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@poleguy I hear ya. Time and hassle are major factors for me when choosing a vendor.I'll make you a deal, I've got a small board to order next week. If you quote both vendors, I'll quote both and we can compare notes on speed, ease and price.@azonenberg Has a PCB place he really likes, but I can't remember the name.
(DIR) Post #B6nnoarPAtdnrrTRGi by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@0h00000000 I'm working from a presumed "known good" design... the Raspberry Pi CM5 IO board. So any deviation from their part selection comes with risk. None of this is going in to final products, and it is all low volume (Maybe 10-20 boards over the next year) so it doesn't make sense to spend any time working saving a few bucks on bits that are already known working.Also the cost of RAM and SSD is so dominant right now that a few hundred extra dollars on brand name parts is meaningless.
(DIR) Post #B6nnob1gYfreNkHeIC by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@0h00000000 @poleguy https://www.multech-pcb.com/ is my go-to for high end work.
(DIR) Post #B6o7fXM0q8wbTCkVZQ by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@azonenberg @0h00000000 Bookmarked. The fastest thing on my current board is going to be a 1GBps serial link, which is fast enough to risk trouble, but also slow enough that I can probably just not do anything obviously stupid and it'll work just fine.My project manager questioned the wisdom of buying MMCX to BNC cables off of Amazon. I replied that none of these signals are RF stuff that would be going over the air. :-)I'll ask the other guys if they have used multitech. It sounds familiar.
(DIR) Post #B6o7oDEqzwt7gnXO6a by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@poleguy @0h00000000 multech not multitech.And last time i bought rf cables on Amazon the center pins were massively out of tolerance. Never made that mistake again.
(DIR) Post #B6o8C8NeiC6LZY3rDU by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@azonenberg @0h00000000 Hah. I need to go to sleep. I might as well have called it motorola with that logo. :-)I've had fine luck with cheap Amazon cables for this project so far. It's really low stakes.Were the pins too big/long and damaged the mating side? That would suck.
(DIR) Post #B6o8Sc9plkIeYdSFYu by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@poleguy @0h00000000 the shoulder was sticking out way too far and *would* have damaged the mating connector had i not noticed and disposed of them before they were used
(DIR) Post #B6o8ehhkyFTfEk5PvM by karotte@chaos.social
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@azonenberg @0h00000000 @poleguy Not to be confused with https://www.multek.com/, also a mid- to high end PCB supplier
(DIR) Post #B6o9EEY0qzfRETTF5c by poleguy@mastodon.social
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@azonenberg @0h00000000 Well, I've been warned. I'll be sure to inspect for obvious trouble before connecting. Thanks for the heads-up.