I have been using KiCad and on this forum for several years. I ordered boards from JLCPCB about 10 days ago and received them today. The process went surprisingly easily, in spite of the fact that I am using a 5.99 nightly build. The vendor had an accurate image of the needed gerber settings in the KiCad dialog box so that was also easy. The boards look quite nice although my 16 mil via holes look smaller than expected. The worst part of the process was that the shipper notified me that the package was delivered but I did not have it. After calling the shipper I got my boards.
My boards are 2 layer with components and silkscreen on only one side.
This is intended as encouragement for anyone who is thinking about ordering a board. Study your gerbers carefully but then go ahead and dive in!
I knew C-19 was slowing down shipping but such a delay is ridiculous. But .
Iām cheap so I opted for slow shipping. One package arrived after 30 days, another has been waiting for 2 weeks at the outgoing airport with thumb stuck out. Iām getting good at overlapping projects.
Hey I will be one of the first to intentionally misinterpret ambiguous wording. Such as advertisements which claim āNothing works better.ā Well if that is true then use nothing!
But in this instance I cannot interpret my post to mean that my order required several years to arrive. If that had happened, they would have had to carry the order with a camel and wait for the Bering strait to freeze over.
Whilst you are looking for noths, could you keep a look out for tuits? Especially round ones. When I finally get a round tuit, I have a load of projects to finish off.
I opted for Fed Ex which was supposed to be 1 step faster than the cheapest method. I think it arrived within the specified number of days, but there was about 90 minutes (after the time when FedEx said that the package was delivered to my door but it was not there) when I feared I might never see it.
When I did repair work I went to a customers home expecting them to have the part that was ordered because tracking said it had been delivered. Fortunately it did show up while I was there. Yeah, they cheat on the delivery. In this case a āguaranteedā time was missed so they just marked it as delivered ahead of time so it would look like they kept the āguaranteeā.
I had someone elseās package delivered to my address once. I called the company and they wanted me to go online and fill out a form and give them all sorts of personal information. I said basically, Iāve reported it and given you my address which is more than Iām required to do. Pick it up or donāt. They got it about an hour later. Iām sure it was marked as delivered too.
Yes I had not seriously considered that. After the package landed in USA (on Monday or Tuesday) they promised delivery Friday before noon. Then it got to Seattle and early on Wednesday they promised Wednesday before noon. Then later that morning they withdrew the ābefore noonā promise. At 12:02 PM I received a notice of delivery but the package was not here, and I phoned right away. So I guess that if the driver bet that I was away, maybe she could claim that she got it to me at 12:02 even though she still had it. This may not fit in the strict sense, but it reminds me of people ātelling a lie when the truth will do.ā
Iām used to such problems but only if something is send by UPS.
One example:
I have bought food processor and the promotion was that after some (month or two) time I will get free one of its attachments. I got mail that they send it to me. Having the parcel number I spend one or two hours trying to find at UPS www page how to redirect that parcel not to my home but to pick-up point (I prefer to get to such point at time I have than to wait for parcel at home). I failed to find it. I ended with reading the regulations to find that I will get the right to specify the second address after first try of delivery will fail or I can do that at once (wording was not clear for me) if I will install at my phone their software. As I hate to install anything at my phone the one solution left for me - wait at home for parcel.
The right day I spend 3 hour at home waiting for courier and suddenly received the sms that Iāve just got that parcel. I walked to a pick-up point to find that my parcel is there.
The courier got the same idea that me . He just assumed that at 11 oāclock people are not at home.
One advantage of the pandemic is that the posties will now deliver to my door. It used to be that if a package was too big to fit in the letterbox they would ring the bell and if you didnāt answer quickly they would leave a card to collect at the post office. Some times they would leave a card without ringing the bell because they they had a heavy workload. People have observed this ācardingā from windows.
Using PC you get a barcode label for your parcel. Then you show your parcel to camera at the āpaczkomatā and the right box opens (form barcode it knows your parcel size). The receiver gets by mail QR-code so he can open the box without touching the touch screen. He can also open it using the application at his phone.
I put my parcel in one of its boxes and in less then 24h my son at other end of country gets it from a box near him (he has about 50m to such automat, I have about 500m).
We have those too, they are called parcel lockers, and thatās what I used to counter carding in the past. But now either they are in high demand or they require attention cleaning so you end up being sent to the post office again. Right now itās ideal, the parcel is left just outside my door. People are honest in this country. One morning I forgot to put back my petrol tank cap after filling and left it on top of the petrol bowser. In the afternoon I realised I had left it at the petrol station. It was still there.
Here you canāt be send to post office as these parcel lockers are not owned by post but by their competition. It happened me only once that when I get to it all lockers were opened (many with parcels inside) and one man was servicing their locks.
We have PO lockers, private lockers, and even a supermarket chain that offers a collection service, but the private ones are only used by large businesses like Amazon, Ebay, or Newegg. Small companies like PCB fabs and AliExpress sellers can only access the PO services. For couriers anybody can use any courier but that is in a different price class.
We (as I know) have only one firm with that support and anyone can use it.
If I send a small (for example 5kg) parcel to my son I pay for it about $3.85 (including $250 assurance).
Using the courier is a little more expensive, but using the courier with pick-up points (to send and receive) is chipper.
But 
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. He just assumed that at 11 oāclock people are not at home.