I used JLCPCB for a rather large PCB with over 200 TH LEDs. Just the board. Complex wiring. The cost and quality were amazing. I soldered the LEDs and everything works perfectly.
Now I want them to assemble. You have to use their parts but all their components are SMT. I need the height of the LED for my project, and there is stress on the components so would not trust SMDs.
So looks like I need to go with a company that can support THT parts and assembly, and with comparable cost and quality.
Any suggestions?
Thanks so much
Mmm, I would expect the cost to shoot up as PnP machines and catalogues cater for SMT nowadays. Maybe a company that still has THT machines. I expect it will be more involved. I mean you can PnP say a mix of resistor values but mixing resistors in a bandolier would be more hassle I would think. Sorry no suggestions; I expect myself to have to learn SMT once I have used up most of my THT components in projects.
Stay with China’s slave labor.
Since their production lines are mostly equipment with European machinery quality should be good!
Problem with that ‘… labour’ statement is that even here in NZ so called local PCB fabs send their local orders to cn and charge a multiple more for that. Kind of nuts. Therefor to order directly makes only sense to circumvent the local greed. To order in AU might seem to be an option however they send their jobs to cn as well.
As long as local greed prevails cn has an upper hand, and they know it.
And Chinese people who own the companies aren’t greedy? They pay good salaries to their employees?
Agreed. Unfortunately they are just as bad, if not worst. As for ‘chinese people own’ companies. Last time I checked the cn government has their fingers in every ‘company’ deeply by requirement. No real private companies as far as I’m aware.
I’m quite clear about the differences from relative ‘local’ perspectives. For us ‘westerners’ it appears well priced even though it actually is not from the cn’s perspective.
However, at the same time it shows that prices in western countries are way over the top. I can make a long list of items that can be purchased locally for 10-times more and beyond for the exact SAME product from china. Because that’s where may locals source their ‘products’. There is no justification in that.
Just a couple weeks ago I had a case where the exact same product is offert locally as a drop ship item. It just so happens to be a whooping 250 vs 150 directly ordered from source. 100 bucks for plain lazy greed. Thumbs down on that.
Apart from that the allover business world of values is up for a complete overhaul. Where I grew up we were in for about 10% to 20% of a income to cover ALL essential costs of living. Today it’s kinda the other way round for most people. Go figure.
Mixed SMD and THT assembly is still done in Malaysia, higher wages in China these days have made local factories competitive again.
Anyways, low cost in China may create another option for us who have more money: some companies in China may be willing to do manual assembly which you can afford even if they don’t have machinery. But I don’t know if they publicly offer that kind of services. You have to ask, and searching means more work for you.
My company used to assemble telephone sets by the million using Panasert machines. These required a modified foot print with oversized holes and some attention to the direction of the solder wave.
These days most mixed technology boards are actually using hand assembly of the THT parts
Seems I sparked some controversy.
On the price difference, my board was large in size, so a US manufacturer was going to charge $350 for 3 boards. That would make my project unaffordable and commercially valueless. The Chinese manufacturer was $28 for 5 boards. They worked perfectly and saved my project.
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