How do you get PCBs manufactured well and consistently?

One of the hardest parts of the circuit board design process is the manufacturing process – okay, you’ve got your schematic and your layout. What now? While milling your own circuit board with a CNC machine is possible, it requires expensive machinery and a good ventilation system. Even then, it’ll never be as precise as certain board designs necessitate.

So how do you get PCBs manufactured?

The best way of turning your idea into a reality is through a service such as JLCPCB or PCBWay. These services will manufacture your PCB for you for incredibly cheap and ship it right to you. All Circuit Wizardry flight computers are manufactured by JLCPCB. After ordering many boards in bulk from them, I’ve learned quite a lot about the supply chain and the process of ordering and shipping straight from a Chinese company.

Is it really that easy?

So is that it? Do you just click “order” and sit back until the boards arrive? Well, yes and no. There are certain parts of the ordering process that are difficult to navigate and certain pitfalls that new designers may fall into. Through writing this blog post, I hope to detail most of these common pitfalls so new designers can avoid them.

Manufacturing + Assembly vs Manufacturing

Typically, these services give you two options for PCB manufacturing – an option where they simply manufacture the board itself with no components already soldered onto it, and an option where they solder the components onto the board for you. The decision you make here is very dependent on the project. If your projects uses many, small surface-mount components, I’d recommend saving yourself the trouble and just ordering pre-assembled. If your project uses larger through-hole parts, it might be worth having them simply manufacture it.

Assembly Issues: Will all the parts I need be in stock?

This is one of the biggest drawbacks to having these Chinese companies assemble your boards for you. If you’re using a part that isn’t readily available in their warehouses, you’re somewhat screwed. You either have to place a special order for that part and have it shipped to them for assembly, which is more expensive, or you have to solder it at home.

JLCPCB does a good job at trying to mitigate this problem through their parts ordering system. I genuinely think it’s a great system that doesn’t overcharge you for parts. The only issue with systems like this is you have to make sure EVERY single part you want is in stock before placing the order. This further extends the amount of time you have to wait before placing an order.

Shipping

Shipping can be pretty expensive – typically, shipping will be around $15-20 (through DHL Express). It can be more depending on how many boards you’re ordering, but if you’re not ordering more than 50 boards you’ll be fine. I usually have my boards delivered to my door about two weeks after I place the order, taking into account manufacturing and assembly time. Not bad.

Making sure your board is perfect

Okay, this is the most stressful part of this process – there are simply so many things that can go wrong! If you have one issue in your schematic, it can lead to you having to spend tons of extra money and time simply to re-order the boards with one change. If you choose one wrong part or have it oriented wrong on the board, you’ll have issues. Even worse if the part is incredibly tiny and difficult to fix at home.

There’s not really a remedy to this feeling, the best thing you can do is continue to review your board, prototype everything you can (not everything can be prototyped), and mitigate risk in any other ways you see possible.

Conclusion

Ordering circuit boards overseas can be intimidating. So many things can go wrong, and lead times are long. This is why many people try and avoid custom circuit boards for short, weekend projects. If you have a project you’re committed to, however, these services are a huge help.

If you’re looking to order boards from manufacturers such as these, I wish you the best of luck.

Until next time.