Best to avoid Paypal.
I use my credit card to pay JLCPCB and pay in Canadian dollars, so there are no currency conversion costs. Canadian taxes are also included if the dollar amount is over a certain amount, I think about $20. So that is taken care of and no extra charges are due in Canada.
I also choose the slowest shipping, which usually takes around two weeks or less. The shipping is by air from Hong Kong to Canada, and then Canada Post. This avoids the possible courier customs brokerage fees. Since the pcbs that I order are for my diy hobby, I am happy to wait a bit for the pcbs in order to avoid paying the courier brokerage fees.
I use my credit card to pay JLCPCB and pay in Canadian dollars, so there are no currency conversion costs. Canadian taxes are also included if the dollar amount is over a certain amount, I think about $20. So that is taken care of and no extra charges are due in Canada.
I also choose the slowest shipping, which usually takes around two weeks or less. The shipping is by air from Hong Kong to Canada, and then Canada Post. This avoids the possible courier customs brokerage fees. Since the pcbs that I order are for my diy hobby, I am happy to wait a bit for the pcbs in order to avoid paying the courier brokerage fees.
This isn’t how it works Ed. What's happening is almost ALL household appliance brands in the West that do microwaves get Haier or similar and just rebrand them. Hotpoint have been doing it for years. If you’ve ever been to one of those factories in China, you’ll know exactly why they can build a product at a fraction of the cost we can in the West. Economies of scale. Same thing is happening with TV’s that are not mainstream brands like Sony, LG or Samsung. A lot of 2nd tier brands are rebranded Haier products.
No.
Products sold from a factory of the same scale and overall operational efficiency in the EU would be more expensive.
I am in Canada, and when ordering from jlcpcb I either use the DHL or the post options which both add the brokerage and duty tariffs to the price and if using PayPal a small PayPal fee. Jlcpcb costing is done in $USD so a conversion to $CDN is done on the transaction. I myself do not feel comfortable giving jlcpcb my VISA card number, maybe I am paranoid but would rather pay the small PayPal fee instead.
I prefer to use USA based manufacturers. Not surprisingly they do cost more, however the processes used to make circuit boards can be horrible contributors to pollution.
One of my local folks are concerned about the problems for what they do to the extent they have a staff chemist to monitor and control things.
Sometimes cost is not my only concern.
(I use about 5,000 small PCBs a year.)
One of my local folks are concerned about the problems for what they do to the extent they have a staff chemist to monitor and control things.
Sometimes cost is not my only concern.
(I use about 5,000 small PCBs a year.)
I tried that. The credit card company kept raising the limit as I was a good customer!
Not that kind. It’s just a debit account that you put money on and when it runs out it runs out. They’re supposed to be used to keep kids’ spending under control. Using it so my $13k limit main credit card doesnt get hacked. Im in the middle of a home build and the next thing I’ll need this month is about $10k worth of lumber, with no other method of payment available. I cant have some “frivolous” PCB or parts order screwing that up.
Price differences between $100 and $1600 are hard to ignore.
Price differences between $100 and $1600 are hard to ignore.
I'd recommend that each person check their terms of agreement regarding financial liabilities for the fraudulent use of credit cards vs. debit cards in their specific situations and imagined scenarios. There is a big difference to me between a hassle and a financial liability. In my particular case, I can never be held accountable for a fraudulent charge on any of my credit cards. Conversely, any money that I might happen to lose from a debited account would be gone forever. My banks may be sympathetic to a loss from a debited account, but they'd never make me whole financially in the event of a loss/fraud. The police likely will not care to help me recover my funds. For those that care to research further, they can check both the laws that apply in their area along with how the various transactions are processed.
To the point - Any charge I have contested on a credit card has been removed within hours, and I've had a new card number that I could use by the end of the call. The hassle of getting a new card if it is used by someone else... is a hassle. I don't want to ignore that. However, I'd rather make a call to remove a charge and get a new card, than be out the money forever. That's one of the reasons I use a credit card vs. a debit card for almost every transaction.
YMMV my
IMO etc. etc.
To the point - Any charge I have contested on a credit card has been removed within hours, and I've had a new card number that I could use by the end of the call. The hassle of getting a new card if it is used by someone else... is a hassle. I don't want to ignore that. However, I'd rather make a call to remove a charge and get a new card, than be out the money forever. That's one of the reasons I use a credit card vs. a debit card for almost every transaction.
YMMV my
IMO etc. etc.Never seen that kind of difference but have seen when onshore costs less when including shipping and tariffs.
Perhaps you might want to get a few price quotes.
I just hate it when my “big” card gets frozen automatically for fraud at bad times. It’s always when there is a critical need, and it can’t be straightened out in time to pay for what I need to pay for right then. And no, I don’t want to carry 3 of them because it just invites more opportunities for problems.
If I found somebody in the states who would make qty 15 18.5x4.8in 2 oz copper boards for $200 I’d use them (94.70 from JLC). Last quote from Sunstone gave me sticker shock. It had damn near doubled from when I was looking into it about 3 years prior. Design wasn’t done yet, but the size has been fixed since I acquired the heat sinks. It was only around $30 for the 5 1 oz. mock-ups I just bought to use for the drill templates. They were in a box with various protos and the big cap boards to mount rails of snap-ins to get aggregate shipping. Still keeping it way under the tariff limit.
Now I have to go write sentences for a couple whole days. Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill! Drill….
If I found somebody in the states who would make qty 15 18.5x4.8in 2 oz copper boards for $200 I’d use them (94.70 from JLC). Last quote from Sunstone gave me sticker shock. It had damn near doubled from when I was looking into it about 3 years prior. Design wasn’t done yet, but the size has been fixed since I acquired the heat sinks. It was only around $30 for the 5 1 oz. mock-ups I just bought to use for the drill templates. They were in a box with various protos and the big cap boards to mount rails of snap-ins to get aggregate shipping. Still keeping it way under the tariff limit.
Now I have to go write sentences for a couple whole days. Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill! Drill….
Attachments
For fraud? Sounds like it's potentially being frozen for a fraud alert / irregular spending pattern. If your card were being frozen for actual fraud frequently, something is truly amiss. I hope that's not the case. To avoid it being frozen for irregular purchases, a call ahead and/or adjusting triggers online in your account (if available) may help prevent all of that. As an example, I make adjustments prior to any trip to a foreign country or before making a relatively large payment to a new vendor. You can set up two-factor authentication sent to your phone for purchases over $X in some situations. Some card providers will allow you to block anything but a signature / in person verification. I realize what works well for me, may not work well for everyone. I hope it doesn't seem as if I'm saying there's only one "right way". There simply may be unexplored options to make people's lives a little easier and/or less stressful. Typically, thankfully, it's a non-issue for the vast majority of people.
That's awful. I'd feel the same way.
When you amortize the pcb costs for large volumes, on shore pcb can be more cost effective. That is not prototype nor low volume nor diy so it does not apply.
I found in the past that onshore pcb fabs have a very high nre $ for setup, engineering costs of a new design. This is where offshore pcb fab has reduced these nre costs substantially thus making low volume pcb fab for prototypes and diy so attractive.
I found in the past that onshore pcb fabs have a very high nre $ for setup, engineering costs of a new design. This is where offshore pcb fab has reduced these nre costs substantially thus making low volume pcb fab for prototypes and diy so attractive.
Just often enough to be a pain in the ***. What happens is somebody uses it on iTunes, or buys $2000 worth of groceries, and I find out about it when I go to get the car out of the shop Friday at 5:30 and the damn card’s frozen. Can’t just ride the bike back to the house and get a check cause they don’t take them anymore. So wait till effing Monday to be able to pay for it. Or argue with the hotel manager on business travel and tell ‘em cash is ALL I’ve got left. All because of online exposure, which is a lifestlye choice. Don’t give them the opportunity, it don’t happen.
So a separate method of payment for routine online purchases that are not time tested as secure so the critical one doesn’t get interrupted.
True, places like JLC bypass the whole NRE phase for low cost protos. They just take what you send them and run it. Everything is on the customer, which is ok by me. And even my “production run” quantities are low. I’ve just got 7 really big amplifiers in the pipeline, plus a lot of smaller stuff I’m just now getting around to. A lot of this was just waiting till I get my new shop built - which finally started last year, and was in planning for the last 5. It will be useable (with us living out there) by summer. This ramp up was anticipated, and keeping my credit line clear is critical to keeping it going smoothly.
Jlcpcb operates much like any fab.
all designs get reviewed, you even get to review the fab data that is loaded into their system, using their fab data viewer which is the first part of the review process. They then verify the tech to see if it matches what you were quoted and if they see some obvious drc violations etc
They are very efficient and reasonable at taking your data and preparing it for fab panelization and test. Everything gets the flying lead test as a minimum. In the old days test was a cost adder
all designs get reviewed, you even get to review the fab data that is loaded into their system, using their fab data viewer which is the first part of the review process. They then verify the tech to see if it matches what you were quoted and if they see some obvious drc violations etc
They are very efficient and reasonable at taking your data and preparing it for fab panelization and test. Everything gets the flying lead test as a minimum. In the old days test was a cost adder
Just to add something - PCBway are very competitive with JLCPCB on both cost and quality, and they have created a Kicad Plugin which uploads the gerbers for you (you still need to select the PCB options on the web page, but it saves wrangling zip files). I used JLCPCB for a few years with no complaints until PCBway offered me a free batch of boards just for trying, so I figured I would give them a shot. I will use PCBWay again for my next batch because JLCPCB cannot ship to me direct (I used to ship to a friend) and they are otherwise very similar.