Hacker News Reader

Comment by baz00 | Hacker News Reader

OSHpark boards aren’t that great from experience. Had a couple with mask registration issues and the silk screen and edge cuts are terrible. They’re also slow and expensive. I’ve switched entirely to JLCPCB now which seems to have none of those issues. I’ve done ~20 runs through them including complex multi layer boards for ref.

View on HN

Isn't JLCPCB's turnaround time even slower than OSH Park, for shipping to the US? I know JLCPCB advertises "24h build time" but that's just physical manufacturing. The shipping is at least 4-5 days(!), as per the last time I got a quote.

I occasionally make PCBs, as a hobby, and I would love to find a manufacturer with a next-day delivery guarantee to the US (California) for simple 2-layer PCBs. I would pay $50 just for shipping for that service, even for just 2-3 small PCBs that fit in an envelope. But to my knowledge this isn't possible. I hate designing a project, and having to wait a whole week to get my PCB. This truly hampers my creative flow... sigh

I just had JLCPCB and OshPark race to get me a board: I used the default jlcpcb settings and all the expedited settings for oshpark.

JLCPCB started making the board in less than a day, was done in two days, and mailed it to me in 3 more days (DHL delivered it a day earlier than expected). They had it in the mail to me before oshpark even sent my design to the fab (which then took a week to make the part). And oshpark was much more expensive (5X for 3 simple 2-layer boards).

I could see getting into a week-cycle (design board over weekend, send to jlcpcb sunday night, get results friday for testing), and then just read Hacker News in the down time.

I only used OSH Park once before switching, but I ended up waiting many data just for them to have enough orders to batch together and send to the manufacturer. In comparison, I can order boards from JLCPCB and components from DK on the sane day, and get both around the same time.

DHL takes 2 days to UK. I usually get PCBs snail mail though. I don't mind waiting because I'm a cheap ass. I've got to the point I don't screw up the PCBs now anyway (every time you screw up write something on a checklist and don't do it again!)

As for next day, you can pay to get anything like that. Years ago I worked for a large company that had an in house PCB fab because it was cheaper than subcontracting out prototypes and production builds to third parties. They were quoting 500-800 GBP a board and much much more for Rogers for the same week production. We are truly in magical times now for how cheap this stuff has got.

The shipping times are why I keep checking in every once in a while if someone came up with an actually decent electrically conductive 3d printer filament.

But it looks like even now at best you can etch two sided boards at home.

I don't want to bother etching at home though. That's just so much work. I was reading lcamtuf's blog the other day https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/designing-your-own-pcbs where he explained the high turnaround time for manufacturing PCBs is why he chooses to design primarily on perfboard, and honestly I am on the verge of being convinced to do the same.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com