Not sure how new this is but I don’t recall seeing it before… I think OSH Park is way too expensive for most PCBs, but for teeny tiny adapter boards (e.g. for breadboarding with SMD parts) shipped to US addresses they’re way cheaper than anyone. They used to be dog slow, though. But now you can pay twice as much for faster service:
and twice as much, for the teeny SOT-143 adapter I just ordered, is still way cheaper than anyone. $2 shipped for 3 boards.
Here’s a walkthrough of downloading a design and getting it fabbed:
Its almost enough to make someone want to convert to smd for shrunk modules.
have they, how does it work in KiCad?
That would be awesome when making panels 
It’d be good if they also offered a premium visual quality service and also let you to choose how to orient the PCB relative to the ridged texture of FR4. Their budget service only aims to be readable and serviceable, scratches and flaws should be expected
Hi all. I am looking at ordering some PCB’s and Panels from JLCPCB. I have read through this thread and a few others but am still hesitant to pull the trigger without someone making sure I am sending the correct files. For instance if I wanted to build @analogoutput’s Hero VCO would I just need to put the following files in a zip and send them?
herovco_back-CmtUser.gbr
herovco_front-CmtUser.gbr
herovco_switch-CmtUser.gbr
gerber_gen.sh
Thanks
Chris
Did you watch @analogoutput’s video here? When I ordered, you needed individual zip files of the gerber folders uploaded individually for the three PCBs (and faceplate I imagine as well).
You’ll get quick confirmation that this worked after upload because you’ll get an image of what the board looks like on the website:
Let us know if you have questions. I just put in a Hero order and can confirm what my cart/order looked like and what my zip files contained when uploading.
No, because (1) the three .gbr files belong to three different PCBs and so need to be in three different zip files (2) the .sh file is just a shell script for creating the Gerber files and isn’t anything JLCPCB wants or can do anything with (3) the CmtUser files describe only the User Comments layer of the PCBs and in fact do not specify anything about the PCBs that JLCPCB wants or can do anything with.
You would need to submit three different zip files for the PCBs (and a fourth for the panel if you want that). Each one would contain a bunch of different Gerber and drill files describing a single PCB. Specifically, you’d download and expand https://gitlab.com/rsholmes/herovco/-/archive/main/herovco-main.zip into a directory, say ~/herovco, and then you’d zip and upload to JLCPCB, separately, the folders ~/herovco/Hardware/PCB/herovco_back_gerbers, ~/herovco/Hardware/PCB/herovco_front_gerbers, and ~/herovco/Hardware/PCB/herovco_switch_gerbers (as well as ~/herovco/Hardware/Panel/herovco_panel_Gerbers (sorry about the inconsistent capitalization!) if you want the panel). The first of these contains:
drill_report.rpt
herovco_back-CmtUser.gbr
herovco_back-CuBottom.gbl
herovco_back-CuTop.gtl
herovco_back-drl_map.pdf
herovco_back-EdgeCuts.gm1
herovco_back-MaskBottom.gbs
herovco_back-MaskTop.gts
herovco_back-PasteBottom.gbp
herovco_back-PasteTop.gtp
herovco_back-SilkBottom.gbo
herovco_back-SilkTop.gto
herovco_back.drl
herovco_back.gbrjob
(not all of which actually are needed by JLCPCB but it does no harm to include them all) and similarly for the other three boards.
Thanks for the replies guys. I will watch the video now. I have trouble reading through whole threads, post after post. I appreciate all the help. Thanks
I have officially placed my first order with JLCPCB. Much excite.
Has anyone tried to order anything from JLCPCB in the last week? The order I placed on 1/25 was able to generate black PCBs for faceplates for the expected $4 engineering fee and $3.80 board costs, but when I go to place this morning white and black PCBs have a $15 color upcharge, and purple/red/yellow/blue have a $30 pcb upcharge. This doesn’t look to be related to the new year, as they are flagged as not being eligible for production until after the 17th.
jfi: these are the pcbs for the tamagotchi thing from the funny pages
JLC prices for 5 boards under the minimum size changed all the time for me last year, from 3.5 euros to 6.5 euros shipped. I probably evens out more on large quantities. Even the “worst” price is really good so eh
I just tested by uploading a VCO PCB, larger than 10 cm dimension,quantity 10, purple solder mask:
which is $0.40 less than in September 2022.
Color upcharge sounds to me like some error in their software, or a misguided holiday period pricing change quickly rescinded.
Thanks to you and @AriaSalvatrice for checking!
Going to have to do more investigating on my end, as the audio mixer gerber (thanks Siri) I have uploaded still has a color fee toggle on when selecting black:
Have kiddo responsibilities until later this evening, will try to figure out what’s going on and report back.
in my experience when going lead-free, a lot of colors entail a surcharge almost every time, that they wouldn’t add if it was hasl with lead. only green and black seem always available, and blue and white also frequently available… the rest always ask you to pay more or swap to green. though on your order i don’t see a surcharge for surface finish so it might be due to quantity or something else
I checked another design, still no upcharge, here’s the complete order page so you can compare options:
With LeadFree HASL and white color:
Extra charges triggered by Green → White appear as Special Process Fee rather than Color.
