PCBA plugins - what works today?

External Plugins
1

I need some boards assembled and I want to help make the PCBA plugin work. (thus this is about making the plugins work, not help me work around them and get boards. I’ll wait for the boards in favor of debugging the plugins)

The board I am trying to order:

There is this from 2020:

What I have found so far:

“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.” um… my history shows I started in 2020 - how am I still “new” ?

Anyway, I will follow up with what I have found. stay tuned!

Also, is there a place to index the PCBA plugins and how well they work with the vendors?

2

PCBWay

https://github. com/pcbway/PCBWay-Plug-in-for-Kicad

there is a problem with the bom (I am working on figuring out who
needs to fix what…)

(hacked URLs trying to outsmart the censor robot:
An error occurred: Sorry you cannot post a link to that host.

3

NextPCB

https://www.nextpcb.com/blog/NextPCB-Plugin-In-for-KiCad
but no mention of it in their help:
https://www.nextpcb.com/helpcenter/nextpcb-gerber-from-kicad -

4

https://github. com/Bouni/kicad-jlcpcb-tools
readme: This plugin is not yet very well tested and only works for KiCAD 6.0!
IRC
artok : I’ve been successfully generated build files and bom +
placement on kicad 7
alexisvl: JLC doesn’t seem to follow any actual standards for part
orientations…

I tried it:
2023.04.18 17:32:05 - DEBUG - update_from_board - Part R16 does not
exist in the database and will be created from the board.

5

There is a PR that seems to work. I have gotten as far as a quote, but have not actually ordered boards yet. GitHub - computergeek1507/kicad-jlcpcb-tools at schematicv7

6

Reading this explanation from the FAQ at the top of this page should answer your question.

You have now, with this thread, promoted yourself to Basic which automatically removes the restrictions that were placed on you. :slightly_smiling_face:

7

For JLC PCB, you can use ‘Fabrication Toolkit’ instead.

I have ordered a lot pcbs/pcbas from JLC PCB sucessfully using ‘Fabrication Toolkit’.

GitHub - bennymeg/JLC-Plugin-for-KiCad: Fabrication Toolkit - An JLC PCB Plugin for KiCad

8

I was able to get working assembled boards from JLC using GitHub - Bouni/kicad-jlcpcb-tools: Plugin to generate BOM + CPL files for JLCPCB, assigning LCSC part numbers directly from the plugin, query the JLCPCB parts database, lookup datasheets and much more.. It looks like the previously mentioned pull request for v7 has been merged into the main branch.

There was not much to it. I went through and identified the LCSC part numbers using the plugin, but I think there is some degree of automation on the website so this step may not have been entirely necessary. YMMV

There is also some ability to put in rotation correction data through the plugin. It’s a bit confusing, and you can correct placement and rotation of parts manually on the websites preview. A person will look at your files and do this for you if you don’t so this step is just to avoid confusion and ensure repeatability.

I did have to order some parts for my JLC part library. In this case LCSC carried the part so the simplified process only took ~3days. For my new board, I ordered some parts from digikey/mouser and this took a little more than a week. Not every part was available even if a major distributor did carry it, like a small smd coincell battery for example. Maybe they would add it by request, or maybe they don’t want to deal with batteries. JLC made 3d models with placement data for my new parts included with the small fee of just a few dollars per part per run, and they store them for free. It’s hard to beat. Customer support was very helpful and attentive to the few questions that I had.

9

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