Does anyone have have any experience with Breaktabs and V-Cuts?
V-Cuts are what I am most curious about.
I found Gerber Tools with its Panelizer, and was able to add breaktabs to a design, after hours of scratching my head (because some settings need to be changed when plotting the gerber initially, etc)
Here is a little guide I found about it -
Here is my result with break tabs.
I use tabs for utility PCBs, and it works well. Haven’t used v-cuts, but mostly because they’re not very precise (you need to leave more space around the board) and I don’t really like the look of them 
. With routing, most of the outline looks nice, and a tiny bit of filing/sanding makes the rest less visible.
Make sure you check the PCB fab’s panelization guidelines before ordering (e.g. your tabs are probably too small for JLCPCB).
Also, only one diode?
these are not for conventional circuits. These are strictly for Pete B’s Paper Circuits - not to be used with ANYTHING else. lol
(most of the circuits themselves have a diode and a conditioning cap PLUS this little power board 
)
does it work out cheaper for you than just having single boards ( the designs all look the same )
They will charge for 4 designs even if they are the same I belive.
Rob
At least JLCPCB considers it a single design as long as the panels are identical and not connected, but they charge a bit extra in “engineering fees” (at least they did last time I ordered panelized PCBs, but I know I’ve gotten it for free earlier, but that may have been a special offer).
EDIT: Ok, tried it right now, and this time they didn’t add any extra fees, so I guess “it varies”.
it seems a bit haphazard, my “two part” designs some times get charged and other times not. the two parts are obviously not the same.
I try to interconnect them with say a net running round the smaller of the two boards back to the main board.
My snap line is just drawn with edge cuts
4.00 bucks for 5 of the boards by themselves
4.00 bucks for 5 of the boards panelized
So get 5 for $4 or 20 for $4 lol
You have to compare with 20 boards by themselves, though (last time I got panelized boards I paid $6.30 for 5×4 panelized boards, today they want $5.90 for 20 of the same boards but 5×4 panelized boards is $4 “special offer”).
(the above assuming the panelized boards fit in 100Ă—100 mm overall)
JLC pricing is just random…
has it been confirmed in production? if not you may get a charge…
not yet.
Ordering once i figure out something in another thread lol
With JLPCB im sure if you have a single ground layer you can panel away to your hearts content.
I read a piece a while ago about difficult to QC and test designs. May be something.
