3 ms·
A counterargument: their prices make the "PCB" quality tier available for projects that would previously have been resigned to the lower "ball of bodge wires"
by hakfoo 4y ago
A counterargument: their prices make the "PCB" quality tier available for projects that would previously have been resigned to the lower "ball of bodge wires" or "breadboards/stripboards" levels of quality.
I was recently in a situation where I wanted to fit a new MCU/breakout into an existing PCB designed for a different one. I figured if I liked the results, I could redesign the PCB for a 100% conversion later, but I already had the old boards.
While some of the pinout differences could be papered over in the software, the physical fitment seemed like it would be a tangle of bodge wires or maybe trying to use ribbon cables to tack everything together.
Then I realized PCBs were an option. I could put all the cross-wiring on a PCB about half the size of a baseball card, fab a stack of them for $10 delivered, and have a product that's clean and reliable enough to use without worry.
- Teknoman117 4y agoThey're so cheap that I've almost completely given up on breadboarding/protoboarding hobby stuff. Throw a design together, have it show up a week or so later, solder it together, do some testing, reorder if you goofed up too much or bodge wire the ones you did order (a component I used neglected to mention one of its output was open-collector...) Admittedly, it does feel a bit wasteful to order 5 of something that is going to be a one-off. Problem is, ordering all the little SMT adapters modern components need and protoboarding it usually costs the same... Examples: https://github.com/teknoman117/P80C550-EVN https://github.com/teknoman117/P80C550-EVN https://github.com/teknoman117/M68K-BUS-VOLTAGE-CONVERTER https://github.com/teknoman117/M68K-BUS-VOLTAGE-CONVERTER https://github.com/teknoman117/ACORN-CLE-DVI https://github.com/teknoman117/ACORN-CLE-DVI https://github.com/teknoman117/PCIEX1-SMA https://github.com/teknoman117/PCIEX1-SMA
- sircastor 4y agoI ended up spending about 6 years (in short bursts) doing this for one project - all the iterations were error-fixing on my part. I started out with OSHPark (I know the owner personally) but I wasn't able to manage $30 a run when I wasn't very good at PCB design to begin with. JLCPCB made iterating on real PCBs possible. I have found JLCPCB's quality to be fantastic. The only exception being I think once the silkscreen looked a little crummy because it was matrix printed (they offer a nicer process, but I was not concerned with it.