Your recent experience with PCBWay, JLCPCB and other similar China factories - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Wilson__
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2025, 02:48:20 pm
content: For very small scale “hobby manufacturing”, what is your experience with PCBWay, JLCPCB and other similar China factories? Are they good for1. PCB2. optional Assembly of SMD part to BOTH side of PCBA3. are they fully comfortable high yield for 0402 (british mil) R C?4. any issue for smaller 0201 (british)

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2025, 02:51:18 pm
content: PCBWAY:1) yes2) yes3) yes4) don't know

author: DashApple
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2025, 02:59:51 pm
content: I've used JLCPCB for all hobby boards and had started to use the Assembly1) For the 10 or so different board runs I've done , all 4 layers there's not been any issues.2) I've only had one board with SMD Assembly to both sides but there was no issues with it and I've had good board runs on singled sided Assembly to.3) Not sure on the sizes but the 0201 ( inches ) boards I had done with an LED matrix on came out well, 2 Got scratched after the pick and place stage but got replaced.Just my 2 cents.

author: Selectech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2025, 06:00:16 pm
content: Many hundreds of PCBA with JLC. 2, 4 & 6 layer, some cards have 700+ placements / card.Mostly TSSOP, QFN, TQFP, 0805, 0603, 0402, SOT723, some double sided assembly.No yield issues at all - they just work.

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2025, 12:22:53 am
content: Quote from: Selectech on March 19, 2025, 06:00:16 pmSame here with JLCPCB for the most part. Easily > 2000 boards. 90% of my orders are pcba. Typical small run is 5 PCBAs. Large runs are 20 to 50 panels of 4 boards each. I let them panelize. Mostly very good.However, when they screw up they are hard to deal with. I only had one job error - they accepted a job but then ran out of stock of one component yet assembled it without the chip anyway. I got the order and the first board failed incoming test. Took me a while to realize that all the boards were that way and why. They tried to weasel out of responsibility. They told me to rework it myself. I wanted to them rerun it correctly. They refused but offered a smallish discount on the next run. Not happy with that but took it. Fortunately, I was able to sell the boards at a discount so didn't lose money on it. I think they have tightened up their process but now I never order a batch where any given component's stock is fairly low (less than 4X what I need).I've also had a couple of assembly errors (missing chip, tombstoning) on like 3 boards total. I reported every one but never received an acknowledgement from them. I take that as a cost of doing business with them. And, it is a pretty low rate (<0.15%).

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2025, 05:46:00 am
content: Re: JLCPCBQuote from: phil from seattle on March 20, 2025, 12:22:53 amI've also had the occasional missing or tombstoned capacitor (I usually use 0603 parts, 2 or 4-layer boards). Also sometimes the edge-mount SMA connectors don't have the center pin soldered. But this is very rare. When I complain and provide photos I get an apology and a very small refund.

author: PartialDischarge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2025, 07:00:43 am
content: I only use PCBWay to order bare PCBs, and they are nice. But the shipment and imports are expensive, so for prototypes I have started usingwww.multi-circuit-boards.euwhich is in the EU and overall cheaper.In the future for larger orders I will see..

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2025, 09:19:21 am
content: I've done maybe a couple of hundred JLC orders over the years, recently started using PCBANegligible issues with bare PCBs, and in general JLC are good when everything goes OK but can be a pain sometimes.A lot more issues with assembly :High shipping costs on assembled boards due to excessive packaging ( esp. dimensional weight for large packages).Excessive estimated shipping costs on PCBA - if you email them they will re-weigh before shipping and sometimes refund the difference. Would be better if there was an option to defer paying shipping until final weight knownInability to fix minor BOM errors, forcing you to cancel and re-start order ( can lose out due to exchange rates). The frustration of re-starting order can easily lead to errors.At least 1-day turnround time on any query, often only answering some of the points, just ignoring anything "hard", so multiple emails often needed.Not accepting panelised boards up to their assembly size limit ( recently got worse, then improved - see other thread - nervous about other random changes in future)Inability to get just a costing on PCBAs if not all parts are in stock.They won't start PCB fab until all parts for PCBA are in stock, adding delayUnpredictable time to get consigned parts into stock, and inability to ship leftover parts with boards.No issues with quality of PCBAs once they do arrive - They're still cheap enough to be mostly worth the hassle, just annoying that a lot of the issues could easily be fixed, and can sometimes be hard to get a reliable price before placing the order.

author: JLCPCB Official
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 02:11:26 am
content: Thank you for sharing your experience with JLCPCB. We appreciate your feedback and will forward it to our team to help us improve our services.If needed, please feel free to share your order number with me, and will check with our after-sales team to address the assembly errors .

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 05:51:00 am
content: Almost all my small quantity prototype boards is JLCPCB. They tend to have better prices than PCBWay as long as you have a "standard spec" and don't change the defaults, which is a lot of my test boards.I'll usually use PCBWay for higher volumes. PCBWay also has more options for weird stuff (multi-layer aluminum core, etc).Did my first assembly job with JLCPCB recently. It went ok, but LCSC was out of a connector so I just built it short and put it on myself.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 03:13:03 pm
content: I have had over 100 runs of boards made by PCBway. Some in fairly high quantity, some were very small runs. They have NEVER screwed up an order! My cardinal sin with other fabricators was charging for electrical test and then NOT doing it! Nothing like assembling a 4-layer board with 100+ components and then finding a short between inner power layers. These are REALLY hard to find, as the short could be at hundreds of locations.I have had a few projects assembled by PCBway, but usually do assembly here by myself. The amount of communication to do assembly overseas is difficult.But, PCBway is real good at making sure the first article is right.Jon

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 03:18:27 pm
content: Quote from: jmelson on March 21, 2025, 03:13:03 pmTBH, communication with them for assembly has been limited in my experience. Make sure the BOM is clean and has supplier part# and parts are in stock.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 04:06:18 pm
content: Assembled quite a few boards with them without many problems - dual sided, impedance controlled, low density of parts, 0201 (imperial), QFN48, etc.Once I had a re-run of a board and they refused to assemble a bicolour LED that was easily assembled in the prior batch of the same board. Probably the assigned tech was either less experienced or a less accurate pick and place machine.Also, as mentioned above, never have in stock the exact parts count (plus attrition) for a batch. There might be losses you can't predict.Also, very hard to do consignment if you are working inside a corporation without an electronic method of payment (Paypal, etc.) - the payment methods of their customs agent is relatively limited in this regard.Good luck!

author: b177
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2025, 05:59:22 pm
content: I've had 10+ small batch (5-10 boards) runs with JLCPCB. I saw 0-1 bad boards per run. PCB are ok, only PCBA issues. Since these were prototypes I didn't provided feedback to JLCPCB so cannot comment on their complaint system.I've also had a few larger runs, in the low hundred of pieces (PCB+PCBA). 1-4 boards bad, either a solder ball lodged between pins of QFN or more commonly one of the chips I use seems to have kind of high failure and is dominating the overall yield -- this is probably not a JLCPCB issue unless its a handling / static issue, but seems unlikely. Passives all 0603 or larger and I've never had tombstoning (yet). I did have a SOD323 diode rotated 180d. Now I only use SOD123.Once you figure out how to work within their purchasing platform, the overall experience, at least for me, has been very positive. Yes getting parts can be frustrating at times due to lack of clear communication. But sourcing parts is always an ongoing effort with electronics manufacturing, either you are paying someone to handle it or you are doing it yourself. Once you have a stable design, preordering parts and keeping an inventory really helps ensure the next order can be placed without waiting for parts to arrive.I have been wondering if my yield would be negatively impacted if the passives were decreased to 0402. I see that earlier posts in this thread show similar failure rates, but are using 0402. Does anyone with experience using both 0402 and 0603, any measurable difference?

author: loki42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2025, 11:16:12 am
content: I don't know about jlcpcb assembly but on my machines 0402 works better than 0603 and 0805. Paper tape always seems to peel perfectly, you get way more on a reel so you don't need to change as often and my nozzles seem to not love 0603 as much.Only downside for me is that smaller resistors don't have info on them for AOI.

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2025, 04:38:27 am
content: Quote from: JLCPCB Official on March 21, 2025, 02:11:26 amThank you but I have put the big one behind and the little ones are just not worth dealing with. If you want to do something, make your people more concerned about solving customer's problems than minimizing JLCs costs. You will get loyal customers and they will say good things about you. Loyalty is earned by doing the right thing for the customer, even if it costs you extra.

author: JLCPCB Official
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 02:07:47 am
content: Hello phil ,thank you for your kind feedback. At JLC, we are committed to building long-term relationships with our customers. As you say this begins with good service and support. Moving forward, we will focus on improving our services to ensure our team prioritizes solving customer problems effectively.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 09:00:00 am
content: Quote from: JLCPCB Official on March 24, 2025, 02:07:47 amWell I've made a number of suggestions here which I think most people would agree would improve things - waiting to see the results.

author: Wilson__
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2025, 07:16:30 pm
content: How you purchase components, chip and non-chip (Lithium cell, buzzer, LCD screen)  that areNOT available on Mouser and Digikey?While having huge stock in chips, Mouser and Digikey are 'practically' not stocking Lithium cell, LCD screen and cables (as used in typical electronic products).

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2025, 07:25:51 pm
content: You can send them components, give them a BOM (preferably with suppliers and supplier part numbers included) or a mix of both. PCBWays has the option to opt in for cheaper chinese alternatives for components.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2025, 08:28:08 pm
content: Quote from: Wilson__ on April 08, 2025, 07:16:30 pmif it's not in JLC/LCSC stock, you can pre-order it, either from local sources, or Diigkey/Mouser etc. The parts need to have arrived into your stock before you can place the assembly order, and once there, are committed to their assembly service - they won't ship them to you, or even ship any leftovers with the PCBAs.

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 10:25:05 am
content: Strange issue at JLCPCB today.No option to "Assemble by JLC" on the Gerbers page. Chat rep asked a bunch of questions about destination country and "end use", then informed me "we will register your information, at least tomorrow would have a upgrade"Just a heads up in case you have a time sensitive order to place.

author: yoyoT
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 10:28:09 am
content: Or you can send it to a Chinese friend you know who can help you find it, a Chinese friend in a related industry.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 01:09:52 pm
content: Quote from: bookaboo on April 10, 2025, 10:25:05 amI think "strange issue" is commonly spelled as "tariff mayhem".

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 02:38:39 pm
content: Yes, almost certainly a fallout from tariffs.But this is for a UK based company, no link to USA whatsoever. To my knowledge there's no change in China-UK tariffs or China-EU.Likely some clumsy application of blanket checks, not what I needed after a PCB design marathon

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 03:08:07 pm
content: Quote from: bookaboo on April 10, 2025, 02:38:39 pmGuess what happens if you order a PCBA and you have a BOM with Digi-Key or Mouser as distributor?

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2025, 07:48:40 pm
content: Quote from: bookaboo on April 10, 2025, 10:25:05 amOdd, I put an order in for an assembly job with them yesterday. No issues like that (panel spacing that we quickly cleared up). Build is in progress as we speak. It uses US, VN, Korean, EU and of course CH parts.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 14, 2025, 07:35:23 pm
content: Not sure if JLCPCB canplace and reflow0201, but the boards are perfectly fine if you do your own assembly. They'll do 3/3 mil w/s with either 0.3/0.45 or 0.2/0.35 vias (regular or advanced) so no worries. Assembling 0201 is vastly more challenging than 0402 - which is pretty mundane. 0201 passives will cling toeverything!

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 02:51:20 am
content: Quote from: bson on April 14, 2025, 07:35:23 pmJLCPCB can do 0201 without issues. All my designs used this and, although not high volume, they all came with no errors.

author: all_repair
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 03:45:21 am
content: Went with PCBway last round for 25 pcs PCB. This round reorder for 50 pcs with their quoted price but found that they increased the price after order was placed with no explanation. That pushed me to JLCPCB and got me 4/5 saving pf PCBway price.