Regarding JLC and their parts catalog you can add parts not available in their catalog. You have to ship them and become your own stock. They issue a cxxxxxx number once they approve that the part can be placed. After that you can ship them. Although they stay yours you can not ship parts only and can only be used for your assembly as far as I understand.
They also order from Digikey and Mouser. They just cannot order from Digikey Marketplace.
Iâve used JLCPCB for assembling a lot of boards - 1500 or so in total - but never ordered parts. How well does that work? I have to admit Iâm a little skeptical of it working well so stick to whatâs in their library. Anyone have experiences to share?
I used it a couple of times. I sourced the components (SMD) and you have to send them a datasheet. They check I think in 48 hours if they can place such part. If they can they assign a part number to it c xxxxx and from there on you can order the parts and ship them to their warehouse. They require some code on the shipping label so they can link this part to your library. Once they receive the parts they add it to your private library. Now you can use this part for your assembly jobs.
They have an order parts section. You can choose to order from LCSC or the global supplier section. You can order from sources like Digikey, Mouser, arrow etc. The prices do have a markup. I believe you have to pay for shipping costs. It takes about two to three weeks for the parts to be available for use in the order.
I have used the pre-order service, although itâs so far only to get LCSC-listed items added for processing by JLC. If you anticipate needing parts at a later date, the pre-sourcing process works well. However, waiting two or three weeks to have the part available for placing an order is not so good when youâre trying to get a prototype done immediately. (I usually skip the part and hand place the missing part when itâs just a couple of boards). The one nice thing about JLC is that when you do add parts into your private library, they record the inventory levels for easy review from their website.
PCBWay will let you send in parts for consignment, but they do not provide a way to monitor/keep track of the parts form their website.
Iâm using the pre-order feature. It seems to work well, only real issue is that it does take a long time. It is 2-3weeks from when the order is placed until parts are ready for smt. It isnât too big of an issue since I order the parts far ahead of when the layout is done.
The other thing Iâll say is that it can get rather expensive. They apply all of the import costs and overhead to the digikey price. If you want to stock 1000 parts or something, you may tie up some considerable cash in their inventory. Still, it is worth it.
I employ a trick to avoid ordering from Digikey on JLC. I donât recommend it for professional projects.
If it is a chip you are going to order from Digikey, you can find a local clone on LCSC using the same part number but different alphabets.
For example: I found this LCD controller from NXP or something similar that had a local clone with the same part numbers. I verify that the pins and the footprint match and just get the local LCSC alternative for my board designs.
Since it is a hobby project, I donât care that much if it didnât work.
I would only use LCSC rather than a US disti. Not sure about the shipping costs for that but think customs/import duties donât apply.
2-3 weeks is pretty hard to swallow - does sourcing from LCSC reduce that?
As to using any complex second source chips/clones, I would buy directly from LCSC and test in my circuit before taking a chance.
2-3 weeks is pretty hard to swallow - does sourcing from LCSC reduce that?
Yes. If the part is in stock, you can place the order right away.
If a part is in stock at LCSC, there is a way to âpre order from LCSCâ that is fairly immediate.
Otherwise, they have âglobal sourcingâ.
Note that little part about âFor below/not matched parts try our Manual Parts Selectionâ link which tells you:
The annoying thing is that an item they recognize in the system but do not have in inventory will not allow you to pre-order from the same screen. I just discovered that after spending nearly 1.5 hours sorting out a very long list of part shortfalls, as the design was not made specifically for the JLC parts library and I had to manually search for subs on a large number of line items.
There is no way to save this âin progressâ order.
I think JLC is fine when youâre building boards with mostly basic popcorn parts â but anytime the order falls out of their sweet spot, it quickly starts to get unhappy.
Can you just give them a BOM of Mouser part numbers, all of which are in stock, and say please buy these parts from Mouser? Iâve already done my homework and designed around what Mouser has, I donât want to go through a lengthy exercise of finding substitutes. Or maybe I can just order from Mouser myself and have them ship directly to China?
Iâve found PCBWAY better at sourcing parts than JLC PCB though they are a bit more expensive.
You can. But if you use JLC that way, youâre not hitting their sweet spot. PCBWay is better in that regards â you can upload your design and BOM and theyâll do the sourcing and part placement checks on your behalf. But the downside is that it usually takes a full day before they have the quoted BOM ready, and if they have any questions (as often happens) it can be an additional day or two before everything is ready to order.
Itâs a question of how rapid a turn you want/need. When working with clients that are willing to pay me to stuff the boards, I can use PCBWay or JLCPCB and have the boards in hand in about 3 or 4 days (1 day turn on PCB, 2-3 days for DHL, 1 day of timezone related lag).
For simple situations where I can order from JLC, itâs about 5 day to a week for many boards from JLC, but itâs roughly an hour to 1.5 hours of putting the order in unless I designed the board around JLC from the start (which I rather not do). If there are a few items that they donât have, I could hand stuff those when the boards get arrive. The BOM substitutions that often ends up having to be made are done with Chinese generics â ok in many cases â but not âcontrolledâ in any way.
And then thereâs the traditional full-service model, which PCBWay is much closer to â itâs just that you do some upfront work putting the order in, instead of just sending the zip file an let them do all the work. This has been my preferred method until probably the start of this year when PCBWayâs quoted lead time seems to have gotten a little slower than before. Larger orders (like a 50 board run) is now often quoted at around 34+ days.
PCBWay will take consignments. JLC does not (at least, thatâs my understanding). (EDIT: JLC will let you consign parts â see below)
Youâll pay import duties and it tends to take a lot longer. You are better off using the Chinese channels.
But Mouser has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai - the CM can just order from them. Most of the partsâ COOs are Asian anyway. And If thereâs duty, so be it.
Oh, I do see that they will take consignment to add your parts into their system. How to consign parts to JLCPCB
What I said earlier was said while still thinking in the context of entering an PCBA order. With PCBWay and others, you can start the order before consignment is already in the system.
I believe with JLC, you cannot start the order until youâve first consigned the parts.
Mike,
Iâd love to hear your thoughts on pros/cons of JLC versus others? Iâm perpetually worried that Iâm just being dumb and that maybe Iâm using JLC the hard way or something. I feel like I can never order an assembled board without spending about an hour fussing with their assembly ordering system.
I donât think you are alone in that JLC takes forever with their ordering system.
I usually order my parts through their system before placing an order. Last night, they refunded the cost of 26 SMD resistors saying that the minimum order for that resistor is 5000 pieces.
It takes forever to get the component order right before you proceed with the assembly.
If a component placement doesnât make sense, they further prolong the order.
I have had two negative experiences with JLC. The first time, we were going back and forth about a male USB connector that had pads on the top and bottom layers. They could have just told me that it is not possible to assemble such a part. They shipped the board without the connector. The board was a total waste because they didnât mill the edges correctly to place it manually. I would have accepted manufacturing limitations if they informed me.
The second time, they sought some clarification about a part. I responded immediately but they sort of delayed the order for over 10 days asking the same questions over and over.
1 Like