It can take some time before I really order them, I want to redo them on a breadboard, and want to test if I can solder SMD, and have to recheck the PCB several times, since I never made one before (at least not one that will be fabricated). And this all happens in my ‘sparse’ free time.
My PCB was my first design. I had been building that circuit on perfboard and suddenly decided it was too much work for a board that I needed multiple copies of
I ‘still’ enjoy the accomplishment. I could not have done it without this forum. I included two SMD regulators at the suggestion of a forum member just to see if I could solder them with a fine tip iron. I discovered they were easier to solder than THT so my next board will be predominately SMD.
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Thanks for this feedback, I already have some 0604 SMD components but they are really small and now ordered 1206 components. In of the PCBs I have made there are quite some components (like 50), where about 20 are SMDs (but all simple 2 pin elements like resistors/LEDs, and I’m thinking about the capacitors to change).
One big advantage to SMD is that I cannot use the ground plane for GND pins of SMD components, so I have to increase the number of VIAs.
A little late to this discussion -
JLPCB has a comparatively large fee for v-cuts (at least compared to $5 for 10 boards, 10x10cm)
Elecrow, at least as of a couple of months ago, didn’t charge for v-cuts.
Both charge for multiple designs on a single board, though I have no idea how they tell that’s it’s two independent designs if you don’t check the box to tell them so. (I also can’t fathom why they care).
Shipping from both of these outfits is based on weight. Combining two orders into one saves little, if any, money in my experience.
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For those doing hand soldering, that is with a single soldering iron, of MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor) SMD (chip) capacitors–Don’t! This may work with other components such as chip resistors and ICs, but heating only one end at a time of an MLCC you will get micro cracks in the ceramic because of the uneven heating. You should use a heat gun and move the heat around to both ends of the chip to get even heating. Or use an oven.
–Larry
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Thanks. That would’ve been a major headache until I figured that out! I’ll stick with smd IC’s and resistors for now.
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“Charges for V-cut on small sized board (small batch)”, https://support.jlcpcb.com/article/62-what-cases-will-be-charged-of-extra-cost. The devil lies in the details - “small”. Their small is pretty small, I don’t know how many hobbyists hit those limits, and not certainly a board with some MIDI connectors. You can hardly fit even a couple of THT components into 1.5cm x 1.5cm.
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Not too late at all, it will take some time before I really order them. Good to know a v-cut costs money, maybe I make a lot of small holes in them to make it easier to break them apart, or be ‘honest’ and order two, but would be nice since I really don’t need to make them bigger than 5x10cm.
Thanks, I ordered also SMD capacitors, but they were very cheap so not much lost anyway. Can you tell if SMD 1206 diodes (normal ones and diode LEDs) are possible to handsolder? And SMD 1206 ferrite beads?
I don’t have a heating gun (or at least not one that is typically for soldering); they are too expensive for the level of electronics I am now at.
That sounds quite expensive indeed … I really have to think about making my designs a bit larger (easier to solder), and still fitting into a box.
I find that table and the associated text hard to follow. You might be right that if you’re just splitting a 10cm x 10cm board into two 5cm x 10cm board there is no charge. I’ve done that sort of split with Elecrow on several occasions and can verify there is no charge from them in that case.
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My boards were the standard 100mm X 100mm and I didn’t get charged for the vslots. You can always submit your design and ask. In my case I just submitted the boards figuring if worse came to worse, I’d have to cut them myself.
OK. In my case it was one duplicated design. However, if you simply cut the board in half they might not complain or charge you extra. This would incur no more work on their behalf regardless of design. I recall someone challenging this once and said he’d have the board made elsewhere and they just went ahead and did it. Put the order in and if they say nothing, you get the boards. 
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Thanks for this answer … btw, do you know a good way to cut boards? (I have some ‘proto’ FR4 boards I can use for testing but it would be nice to know beforehand what works and what not.
You can search it. The method I’d decided on was using a three corner file to notch both sides and then put in a vice/two blocks of wood/etc and snap it. It works on the internet but fortunately I didn’t have to find out.
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I’ve had good luck using this saw with a diamond blade: https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/power-saws/miter-table-tile-saws/4-in-mighty-mite-table-saw-with-blade-61608.html
(Always use a mask to prevent breathing the FR4 dust.)
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I have just got my latest boards back from JLCPCB - a WeMos shield. I submitted these as a panel with mouse bites. The panelisation and mouse bites were done using GerberPanelizer from ‘This Is Not Rocket Science’ (http://blog.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/projects/pcb-panelizer/). These boards are easy to separate - much easier than v-grooves but need a bit of sanding to finish off nicely. Doing boards like this has another advantage - I can stencil the whole panel in one go.
I have attached a couple of pictures as they illustrate the little trick I use to achieve this. I have two types of boards on this panel - obviously the six copies of the main pcb but also one copy of a ‘Frame/Rail’ at the top of the picture - with two special holes in it 8cm apart. These holes have the paste layer active - so they appear as holes in the stencil. You can put the holes anywhere convenient on the actual board if you have a larger board - just as long as they are on a 10mm grid. For small boards like these, I find putting the holes on an edge rail to be easier. The boards themselves are then simply placed in the panelizer program so that they are a suitable distance apart. You need at least two pin holes - in practice adding more pins doesn’t seem to make much difference to security of alignment.
For stencilling the boards I use a home-made jig made of 10mm Derlin CNC drilled with 2.5mm diameter holes 10mm apart but if you always use a frame with fixed hole separation distance, you only need a single piece of something rigid drilled in two or three appropriate places.You then use 2.5mm metal dowel pins to locate the pcb on the jig. The stencil has holes which correspond to the pins as setting the paste layer active for the holes leaves a perfect alignment hole. Just make a sandwich of jig ->pcb -> stencil - all aligned with the dowel pins and apply your paste. Job done. The 10cm square boards fit in my (homemade) reflow oven perfectly. The boards separate easily after they have been reflowed - when laying out your pcb you should take care not to place critical components near edges/stress points.
This time, JLCPCB supplied me with a massive 40x30cm stencil so it covers the whole jig so it is difficult to see the stencil in relation to the jig but usually I get a 20x20cm one. Hopefully the pictures make the process clearer.
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Thanks for all this info … I do not understand everything, so I need to learn/read more about what a panel and stencil is, and all consequences of drilling etc.
I use PCBWay. They have a minimum length for the V-cuts (around 3.5 to 4-in IIRC). Don’t recall if they charge extra.
However, if you have two different boards, you can put them in the same order as separate boards and they will ship them together.This is the easiest way. If one of the boards has a problem, they will finish and package the other boards, but delay shipping until the issue is resolved. Their customer service is pretty quick - just keep in mind the time difference.
If you do the panelization yourself, they will catch it and charge you extra.
Over all, I am pretty impressed with PCBWay. 100x100mm boards are $5 for 5 or 10 boards.
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I picked up a pair of +2.5 reading glasses; and I am just starting to not have the capabilities of only 20 year old eyeballs.
Keeping cost in mind, I’ve been pretty happy with the concept of using them instead of stereo microscope.
They will not replace the performance of a quality stereo microscope; but it might just be minimal enough to get the task at hand done.
ON EDIT: I double checked, they are +2.5 in specification, and I believe to be just enough for me to hand solder SOIC and 1206 parts with confidence.
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I hand solder 0603 by eye, but have a nice Olympus stereo microscope for tiny TSSOP packages
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