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It's a shame there aren't US manufacturers who can manufacture custom PCBs as cheaply as JLPCB or PCBWay. These types of lasers might be a stopgap if tariffs m
by LarsDu88 1y ago
It's a shame there aren't US manufacturers who can manufacture custom PCBs as cheaply as JLPCB or PCBWay.
These types of lasers might be a stopgap if tariffs make buying from those companies inordinately expensive, however the extreme cost, and the need to do a bunch of cleanup kind of makes me suspect there needs to be another iteration of this tech.
- willis936 1y agoOSHpark and sunstone are pretty good. circuithub is serviceable for turnkey assembly (though they might outsource fab overseas, uncertain).
- all2 1y agoI've had problems with Sunstone since they got bought by a company in the Midwest. It may just be corporate integration pains, but still. Specifically we had issues with added graphics not in my GERBERS, and some through hole plating issues.
- willis936 1y agoYeah that's fair. I don't use them very often. They're in a similar bin as Advanced in that regard.
- inferiorhuman 1y agoRight, but OSH Park competes on quality not price. In fact the other day I came across a reddit post from the owner of OSH Park explaining that e.g. JLC is selling their finished products below his material cost. Add on to that the subsidized shipping and of course they're going to be well below what any US based company can offer. https://old.reddit.com/r/PrintedCircuitBoard/comments/9bt5ed/how_come_jlcpcb_be_so_cheap_compared_to_others/ https://old.reddit.com/r/PrintedCircuitBoard/comments/9bt5ed...
- wrs 1y agoThat post is 7 years old and JLC has changed a lot since then. It would be interesting to hear his current impressions (presumably they're still doing competitive comparisons).
- K0balt 1y agoI’ve had good results with jlcpcb and I push their manufacturing limits a little bit now and then to get the miniaturization I need. 0402, 5mills, tight vias, small BGA no bad boards yet (n~1000). Tried pcba too, worked, but a small sample size. Even in HASL they work and their stencils are dead-on. And $2.10 plus shipping for 5 boards, $7.50 for ten (4layer FR4, HASL, small boards) is crazily subsidized for prototyping. It’s like free prototyping boards. Even 6 layer and flex boards are cheap. They also have crazy cheap CNC and 3DP, but I haven’t tried that yet. Also the integration of the free design tools (easyEDA pro , DFM review, etc) is unbelievably efficient with one-click to order parts or boards lol I have had a great customer experience so far, but I do suspect they are either subsidized or use a lot of loss leaders to pull people into the ecosystem. Other companies may offer better quality, but I’m fine with Toyota, I don’t need Rolls Royce for what I’m doing.
- transcriptase 1y agoThe general population of the Western world has no idea, or even a reflexive reaction to deny, the fact that Chinese companies in “strategic” industries are intentionally subsidized to the point that their competitors look ridiculously expensive in comparison.
- thenthenthen 1y agoThere are 100.000’s pcb fabs in China, why would JlC be strategic?!
- Brian_K_White 1y agoThe industry is strategic. jlc and all those others exist because China has decided it wants them to exist, and did things to see to it that they exist. There are 1000's of corn farmers in the US, because the US has decided it was strategic and sees to it that there is always a lot of corn production capacity, even if it means buying the corn itself or artificially disposing it in some other way like making a law to use ethanol.
- the__alchemist 1y agoWithout assembly, I'm not sure how I'd use OshPark for practical purposes. We need a non-China vertically-integrated setup.
- seddona 1y agoCircuitHub founder here. Most fab by order volume is in the US, but for now, at least, we do have to source some fab from overseas for various reasons.
- brg 1y agoIn the 90’s we ordered them from TX