Hello,
I have used Kicad many times to build homemade PCBs in the past using photosensitive pcb and other homebrew methods.
I want to place an order on JLCPCB for the first time.
I have designed 2 different PCBs and I want to merge their outlines with mouse bites.
I used the option “append board” and placed one board 3mm below the other. I deleted their outlines and designed another outline so it could be treated as one PCB.
One of my PCBs has a circle hole and I designed it as an outline. The 3d viewer on pcbnew shows it correctly with no errors.
I managed to export the gerber file and uploaded it on JLCPCB but the hollows are not visible on their gerber viewer and it gave me an exclamation mark for the outline layer.
Also here they say I will be charged extra if I include two different designs on one order with holes or slots.
Has anyone used JLCPCB with two PCBS on the same gerber file? Did the slots created successfully? Have you been charged extra?
Being charged extra is normal, you are trying to avoid the extra setup charge, which is the main cost of small volume pcbs.
The extra charge is usually much less than the second setup fee.
It also depends on how the board service charges. Many places charge per design. Some simply charge per square inch based on minimum bounding box. (So your 2 board design you would still be paying for the empty space where the top board overhangs the lower board. If you put yet a third board in that space you wouldn’t be charged any extra.)
I’m not familiar with JLCPCB, but based on your description of their communications they charge per design. So they would see you trying to put two designs into one order as trying to game their system.
I have contacted their support and they replied:
“there is no any extra cost for the slots or coutouts”
I placed my order and I’m waiting to see if they will accept it. I covered an area 100x100mm with 4 small PCBs(connected with tabs and mouse bites) for $2 + $9.99(shipping).
The last time I ran into that with another vendor to get around it was to run a couple traces from one design to the other between the mousebite drills (trace intact).
Net’s got connected and it became a ‘single’ design
PS: yes, that’s hobby/prototype use. Wouldn’t do that for production or anything serious.
