i was so excited about trying out their SMT service at JLCPCB.com until i realized their component feeder fee is $3 per part, and that i would have to pay $60 or so feeder fee to get the design i wanted. I dont know how hard it is to load an smt reel into a machine but $3 per task seems exuberant to me and defeats the whole purpose of outsourcing my project to china.
Im wondering if you guys know of any other pcb company where you dont have to deal with such exuberant labor fee.
Im wondering if you guys know of any other pcb company where you dont have to deal with such exuberant labor fee.
Considering it's going to require a human to walk the length and breadth of a warehouse to find your components and then manually load the component reels into a pick and place machine, it doesn't seem so overly expensive for a small batch run of boards.
JLCPCB have to pay staff to run the machines, if you were manufacturing 5000 boards then the costs may come down to something like 3 dollars a pcb. I imagine this feeder cost would be very much similar regardless the location where the pcb's are loaded.
Small batches are going to be more expensive than a large production run of several thousand boards. SMT is designed for high volume production.
JLCPCB have to pay staff to run the machines, if you were manufacturing 5000 boards then the costs may come down to something like 3 dollars a pcb. I imagine this feeder cost would be very much similar regardless the location where the pcb's are loaded.
Small batches are going to be more expensive than a large production run of several thousand boards. SMT is designed for high volume production.
If those prices put you off, then it's probably better to stick to DIY and avoid looking into manufacturing services altogether... 😎
In my understanding the $3 fee is only for components that JLC themselves don't use regularly. Seems they have a cache of frequently used parts and if you specify a lesser-used part it involves a trip to an external storage unit for them to collect the reel. If you keep your design to the commonly used parts it can be remarkably cheap, more so if you've gotten a discount coupon.