PCB Prototyping - A Reflection
My most recent orders with JLCPCB and OSHPark got me thinking:
- That's a curious price difference between the ITX motherboard and the older SystemIO board
- I haven't quoted the same board with both shops. Hmm.
 |
| ITX (yes, I know it says "ATX") board order from JLCPCB. Also, the latest iteration of the SystemIO board for comparison. |
 |
| Quote for ITX board (using the same Gerber files as the JLCPCB order) from OSHPark |
OSHPark vs. JLCPCB pricing. It's stark. The R65 ITX board is 14 times more expensive @ OSHPark for only 60% of the product. Per-board it's 23 times more expensive. Call me crazy, but I don't see that as a trivial difference. I'm sure if I was ordering at quantity from OSHPark, the per-piece price would be substantially lower, but I don't see them getting close to the "prototyping quantity" price from JLCPCB.
I'm not trying to shit on OSHPark. I'm glad they exist, and I'm glad they get business. Seriously. Their default PCB prototyping offering is decent, it's a little more featureful than offshore vendors, and for small quantities of small boards, the pricing is higher but not prohibitive. I don't know about longevity of the boards... or greater-than-2-layer boards... quality of adhesives and so on.
I have to say, though, that the packaging for shipping I've seen from OSHPark has been abysmal. It's a heavy paper envelope. Boards rattling around, unrestrained and unprotected. I've had solder mask abraded away in shipping. JLCPCB has shipped every board I've ordered, regardless of size, vacuum-packed in thick shrink bubble wrap with desiccant, packed in a box.
Real-world turn times from China using DHL (the default shipping option) are on par with OSHPark -- a little more than a week.
I'm not getting any payment or barter or sponsorship or anything from JLCPCB. I've just been very impressed with their quality, efficiency, and price.
You're certainly free to make the choices that work for you... and I know OSHPark has some community cachet and word-of-mouth defaultness like Kleenex/Xerox in the electronics hobby area... but I couldn't iterate like I have up to this point at OSHPark prices.
