New project - MSFS C++ USB interface

[Ioannis]

I have used the assembly twice.

First time was on a small PCB with 5 or 6 components for 5 pieces. The PCB had a through hole connector that seemed hand soldered. Anyway it was OK all of them and worked fine.

The second attempt was more complicated PCB with a square PIC and more components (SMD and Through hole). I did a mistake on the selection of LED's. I chose the ones that light from the side and their engineers spotted the mistake, sent me email to explain the problem and the solution, and after I accepted it, I received the 20 pcs that were almost all working fine. One had a cold solder and was easy to fix.

Right now I am preparing my third order and I see that prices of PIC dropped enough, comparing 5-6 months ago.

My problem is that they have tons of passive components to choose from many (unknown) suppliers!

I had similar replies as you Robert about specs or other questions... Yes, communication might be difficult at times. Or most of the times!

About holes, no. I did not had to count them. There seems no limit or charge on this.

Ioannis

[Demon]

... One had a cold solder and was easy to fix.
...
My problem is that they have tons of passive components to choose from many (unknown) suppliers!

I had similar replies as you Robert about specs or other questions... Yes, communication might be difficult at times. Or most of the times!
...
Ioannis

Ok, so I can't just blindly trust them and slap these into a unit. I have to double-check each piece, cause if there's a problem, I'm the one that's gonna get yelled at.

Yeah, I suppose I'm gonna have to do a trial run of each circuit at first and measure the devices, then run a battery of destructive tests to see how far I can take them before PUFF the Magic Dragon shows up. Thing is, I doubt we can trust them to always provide the same material unless it's specified and documented somehow. Like capacitors, we could get a batch of 20-25V on the 1st run, then get 10V later on. You can't ask for a remake if it's not documented on the order.

What if we include it in the BOM, with a message to confirm with us? I mean, it's pretty easy for us to test the voltage and watt limit on capacitors and resistors.

- maybe extra columns at the end?

Volts, Tolerance for capacitors.
Watts, Tolerance for resistors.

So far, all my communications with Asia has been positive. They use a translator similar to google. When in doubt, always ask for confirmation.

I had a conversation just this summer with one lady. They're ordinary people just like us; except they're stuck in a dictatorship.

Robert

[Demon]

Ioannis, check this out.

Couple switches, buttons, resistors and LEDs, along with a truckload of holes:




The exact same circuit without the holes:




I guess they've moved away from milling the boards with endmills, but have moved on to waterjet (this is my first guess) or laser.

This is great news for me 'cause I'm going to need a lot of holes.

[Ioannis]

About the components, there are tons of them but each has specific code from their sister company https://www.lcsc.com/ where you can login with Jlcpcb credentials.

When you find the component you are happy with, put the code in the appropriate BOM that will accompany your PCB files.

Or you can use their EasyEDA and all these done almost automatically because the components library of this cad has all the codes and makes it easy to produce BOM.

There are also FAQ files if you are in doubt and also BOM example files on the FAQ section, https://jlcpcb.com/help/

My last job was done in Eagle and then, with the help of the CAM file JLCPCB offers, I exported the gerber files for PCB production along with the BOM file. I can send them to you if you want to see how I done it.

About the quality of assembly, I can say that you cannot beat them. Even if I had one cold joint, it was nothing considering the work needed on my side to assembly by hand 20 PCBs by hand! A nightmare for sure!

Ioannis

[Demon]

Figured I'd draw myself a logo from the start. Demon was my online racing name for over 20 years in the NASCAR Racing Series from Papyrus.

I got these from the DreamStudio AI image generator. I took the one from the bottom left and started tweaking it.




The fine lines looked like crap once imported and shrunk in Kicad. So I used a LED tablet as backlight and traced it.




I added:
- nose from snapping turtle,
- teeth from viper,
- tweaked the ear,
- horns from a bull,
- lower jaw from "I am legend".

The nice thing with the image converter in Kicad, it removes the pixelation along the edges (used windows PaintBrush for cleaning up). It may not be professional, but it's unique.

[Demon]

Tweaked some stuff, but I could touch this up forever and I'd still find something.