JLCPCB Pricing Confusion - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Miti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2021, 02:34:16 pm
content: I'm trying to prepare a board to prototype with JLCPCB for the first time and I'm a bit puzzled by their pricing scheme. I've attached an example with a Microchip ADC. If I read this correctly, if I only want 3 - 5 boards with one part per board, there's a flat fee of $9.327, so the 1+ price of $0.6406, or even 10+ price of $0.6218, is not true.Now, is that flat fee per line in the BOM, per job, so if I order 15 boards it doesn't apply, or per order, that may have multiple jobs with common parts?Also, that star in front of the "*For qty≤15,charges a fixed fee $9.3270" is normally used in conjunction with a star somewhere else in the text, as a footnote, which I don't find anywhere else. So should it be 1+* or 10+* instead of 1+ and 10+?Can anybody shed a bit of light or point to an explanation somewhere?Thanks,Miti

author: vad
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2021, 05:09:14 pm
content: Many parts at JLC have minimum order quantity. For that particular part, the minimum quantity is 15. You must pay for 15, even if they only need 5 or 10 to assemble your boards.The minimum amount you pay for that part is 15 * $0.6218 (unit price for 10+ bracket) = $9.327

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2021, 05:52:53 pm
content: JLCPCB assembly is totally whacky with some of their decisions. I understand that you need to pay 5 USD for setup costs. I also understand why they have a selection of basic parts. But why is there a MOQ for basic parts? It's already on the machine, the reel is already connected. There is no re-reeling cost, no dropped components, no packaging overhead. It's just a stupid decision, to go and "yo, let's charge extra to these laowai". And it's entirely ridiculous, that they charge 20x0.005USD for capacitors. Like, really, you needed that extra 10 cents. Can I have a connector on my board? No!It's not mockery. I want them to be better, and I want others to take their business practices, and drive down overhead costs.

author: Miti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2021, 12:46:08 am
content: I was overly excited to have my board (almost) fully populated by JLCPCB but looks like I'll have to solder quite few parts myself. I knew they don't carry connectors and only install SMT but this minimum quantity was a surprise. Oh well, I guess 0402 capacitors and resistors helps a lot anyway.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2021, 03:05:46 am
content: JLC have both an MOQ (which may be 1 for some things) and on some parts an additional Attrition amount (which isn't visible normally until you go through the quote process).The amount of pieces you will be charged for a given part is...Code:Total_Part_Count = max( BOM + Attrition, MOQ )For example the part you were looking at, MCP3021 has an MOQ of 15 and an attrition of 4.If you want 5 boards (with 1/board), you will pay for 15 parts, becauseCode:max(5 + 4, 15) = 15If you want 20 boards, you will pay for 24 parts.The attrition is more readily viewable using the JLC part finder herehttps://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/click on the part's line to see the attrition and MOQ

author: Miti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2021, 05:39:41 pm
content: I can't see the attrition and MOQ. I only see the unit price and total price.

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2021, 06:47:37 pm
content: Yes, pricing prior to ordering is a tricky process. I understand attrition is due to losing parts when changing/loading the carrier on a PnP machine so the question of Basic parts having attrition is quite relevant. For small, inexpensive parts, it doesn't seem terrible but can add up fast with pricier parts. MOQ seems to be their way of discouraging really small assembly runs. It shows that the JLCPCB managers prefer having many small dials to turn rather than a few big ones. Personally, I'd prefer to see a surcharge on smaller assembly jobs. Much easier to understand.Another pricing curiosity - many parts in the JLCPCB library are priced below the LCSC price. I am looking at using a different assembler and ordering the parts directly from LCSC. Was surprised to see this. That may be factoring into the attrition and MOQ thinking.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2021, 01:49:59 am
content: Quote from: Miti on January 04, 2021, 05:39:41 pmTry using Chrome, IIRC Chromium and maybe some other browsers had issues. Anyway highlighted below.

author: Miti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2021, 03:54:25 pm
content: Yeap, got it. Thanks sleemanj!Another weird thing, I'm trying to use Cyclone IV, two assemblies, they have 16 in stock, part # C32726, but when I check the parts placement the part cannot be confirmed, it shows as unselected part. I tried live support, he suggested that I may have more than 20 extended parts, not the case. Maybe I need to wait until the stock gets replenished. In total I have 21 different parts, a combination of basic and extended.Any suggestion?