Ordering PCBs for rhococo

Project How to order PCBs from China
For RhoCoCo I needed two PCBs, a 10 x 10cm dual sided "motherboard" PCB, and a 18.5 cm x 10 cm single sided keyboard PCB. These are my experiences with the ordering process.
Status	Initializing
Contact	Mahjongg
Last Update	2019-03-05

I was given an offer that I could get free PCBs if I would write a "HOWTO" about ordering PCBs from the Chinese PCB manufacturer PCBWay. So here are my experiences.

Firstly, you have to realize that the Chinese live in a timezone eight hours later than a Dutch person, so its not a good idea to order PCBs at 19:00 hour, especially not on a Sunday, as stupidly I did, I had to wait until far after midnight before my designs were checked (my fault, it normally takes just a few minutes). The ordering process, although largely automated, still means the PCB must be checked manually, and that takes longer when its four o-clock on Monday morning :-). So first tip, do your ordering in the morning.

Secondly, you need to know the details of your PCB, at a minimum you need the X/Y size of your PCBs, in my case 100mm x 100mm, and 185mm x 100mm. Sure these information is also contained in the gerber files, but almost all PCB manufacturers also want you to state the sizes, if only for determining the price.

PCBWay always produces PCBs in multiples of 5, so the minimum order is 5 pcs, and more in increments of 5 pcs, so 5 - 10 - 15 -20 etc.

I assume this is because they stack 5 PCB Panels, so they always create 5 of each they make.

all modern PCB manufacturers pool all orders until they have enough orders so that they can fill a whole panel, where they will make a "jigsaw" puzzle of all the designs, trying to cram as much designs on the panel as possible. If your designs are large or have unusual shapes, this process becomes more complex. Small square PCBs are easiest to combine to fill a panel, so PCBs smaller than 100mm x 100mm are cheaper, as its easier to find unused space in the panel where they can fit it in. The larger, and less square your PCB is, the more difficult it will be to fit it with all other designs on a panel, and so the cheaper it will be.

The stack of five panels will be drilled as if its one PCB, so all 5 designs in the stack will be the same type, for example they will all be dual sided (or single sided, if the panels are single sided) probably with the same color of lacquer, and the same color of silk screen (printing). the same thickness PCB, the same material, and probably the same precision grade.

This explains why ordering standard PCBs (with standard lacquer and silk screen colors, same PCB material (FR-4) and thickness (1.6mm) ) will always be cheaper, as its easier for the manufacturer to pool designs with these parameters.

Ordering the main PCB

This is the page where you can choose from all the available options, in this case I'm ordering the 100mm x 100mm dual sided main green PCB, with white silkscreen, and standard thickness (1.6mm) and default PCB material. Where possible always choose the default options.

Ordering the keyboard PCB

This is the screenshot of the options for the single sided keyboard PCB, measuring 185 x 100mm. Note that I opted to give the PCB manufacturer the choice over the type of surface finish, this makes pooling these PCBs easier, as the manufacturer can choose in which panel-stack with a specific finish he can pool these PCBs.

February 26, 2019 Finally managed to pay the PCB's

So the good news is that PCB's are being made, and that I succeeded in executing the payment process. The downside was that I have no access to PayPal (long story), and paying with a bank transfer... I think you need to be an expert in business to arrange that. The boss of PCBWay told me they are working on paying with a credit card, but at the moment the only way to pay is to pay $5 extra to make use of the services provided by Aliexpress. But paying trough aliexpress is a bit of a hack, you are directed to a page written in German (good luck if you cannot read German) that tells you that if you did not send in a Gerber file you are buying small experimentation PCB's for $1. I chatted with the service desk of PCBWay, that seems to be open 25/7, and the nice lady told me (in English) that yes indeed, I had to buy 62 of these PCB's, for a total amount of $62, and that after I paid I had to e-mail her the payments details. see the picture below for the Aliexpress page used:

Then after you have clicked on the +1 button 61 times (you cannot directly enter the number, so I'm glad I didn't have to pay $899 this way) I could click on the "jetzt kaufen" (buy now) button to proceed to the page where I could enter my address data. There I also had to enter my e-mail, which in my case lead to a "you need to log-in now" session, where they asked for my password (It seems that half a decade ago I ordered something with Aliexpress, but obviously I forgot I ever had a password), and so logging in was impossible, to top it off the window with these questions were in Italian for some obscure reason, and the window had two tabs, creating a new account, and logging in. It too me two attemps, and two days, to cross this hurdle, and tell the system I forgot may password, Not helped by not understanding (due to the Italian text) that a box I thought was for text entry was in fact a slider I had to slide, the obligatory gotcha I had to enter was much less of a problem, and I finally managed to log in.

After that I could indeed could choose for a dozen or so of obscure payment method, and I could choose iDeal, and the bank I wanted to pay with, so finally I could pay $62, (some 52 euro's), e-mailed my payment details to the service desk lady, and lo and behold, a few days later I received an e-mail that my PCBś were ready, and on my way per DHL.

Yesterday I found a card in my letterbox that DHL had visited me for the delivery of a package, but had not found me at home. The card did not say it, but the reason the package wasn't dropped in my letterbox, or given to one of my neighbors was that I still owed DHL money, namely seventeen euro "import costs" and twenty-eight euro import taxes, or €45 in total! On a package worth €52! Thats 86% extra. It would have been far cheaper to use China Mail, to send this sample without value, and have it delivered in my letterbox, probably without having to pay any taxes and import costs. Okay, it would take a couple of weeks to arrive, instead of a couple of weeks, but would have been far cheaper, and easier.

Now I had to arrange for the €45 payment, and had to find a neighbor that was home, and who was willing to take a package for me.

If all goes well I will have my PCB's tomorrow, and will report on the perceived quality of them.

So was it worth buying these PCB's in China, instead of from my usual PCB maker "eurocircuits"?