Future H5 buyers & assembly

[exxos]

Hi Exxos can I reserve one, please

I will post when people are able to pre-order a board in due time .

[exxos]

"Were sorry to inform you that the following components package in you order SMT024112360500 does not match your design."

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Oh yes it bloody does match my design!!

They accepted the outline file now I sent them the filename and a screenshot proving I had sent it last time!.. I mean they couldn't have even looked! All this is really beyond ridiculous.


I had to pay for some supplement parts it seems, but this is what I was saying yesterday.. that even when using JLC balance you get charged fees which I think is wrong! so I emailed them and asked them about this....

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I mean they could literally refund and redo the order unlimited times and they are making money each time!! I could understand it if they was building my credit card and there would be of course fees but they already have the money!!

I've done most of the new BOM processing for the other PCB company. I will export the files and see whats what with them.

[agranlund]

That is so bizarre, I mean, you’ve had it assembled once before so wonder why they’re complaining now..

I never tried assembly service but have been curious to do so but it sounds like it’s a bit of a hassle.

[exxos]

That is so bizarre, I mean, you’ve had it assembled once before so wonder why they’re complaining now..

I never tried assembly service but have been curious to do so but it sounds like it’s a bit of a hassle.

JLC did one older birdseed board IIRC, but most boards were not done by JLC. The company I was using, kept screwing things up every order. Like the ST2VGA adapters, they fitted the wrong sockets on them! I sent them all back. they replaced the sockets, now half the boards don't work and they didn't even clean them! The STM RAM upgrades were supposed to have the pins soldered on, they forgot.. Other projects came back improperly cleaned and mostly sticky! So I had to clean them myself. Other orders they changed my BOM without asking! So not using that company anymore. I went with JLC this time..

I think JLC are fine for blank PCBs, and assembly *ONLY* if they stock the parts. But as soon as you get into ordering parts which they don't stock, their whole system falls apart. I've had rants about them before, but thought I would try and keep costs down by using JLC. But with all the fees here and there, plus all the time and stress of it all, its just not worth it. Like I said yesterday, I am having to literally hack their website to even get past bugs in their website!

[exxos]

Had a reply back from JLC about the fees...

Dear Chris，

Good day! Thanks for reaching out to us.

There is no payment fee when use JLC balance pay for the order.

The "payment fee" shown in the screenshot is the fee for using Google Pay.

I'm sorry for the confusion, I've feed this back to our team to improve our website.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

Joann

[exxos]

JLC order canceled. Next drama is that my parts have not been returned my parts library yet. So I will have to chase that up tomorrow

More JLC drama because I wanted to get a couple of other small boards for another project assembled.. There are basically 2 resistors per board, and I want 2 boards built.. So then I got this...

-Final quotation:$0.0146 /piece

-Your requested quantity: 848 pieces

-Supplier's Minimum Order Quantity(MOQ): 5000 pieces

Our purchasing team has encountered a challenge as the supplier requires a MOQ of 5000 pieces, which exceeds the quantity you requested.

As a result, we must cancel this order, and the payment will be refunded to your original payment method.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we appreciate your understanding.

If the MOQ and the quoted price are acceptable to you, please place a new order.

Where 848 comes from I have no idea. BUT I would have to order 5,000 resistors, and I only want 4.

Also another part has a 24 days lead time and that will now be cancelled. It really is a uphill battle with them continuously everyday

EG:

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It's also got confusing having to deal with multiple people about the same issues. Its turning into a fulltime job dealing with it all




So my other PCB supplier who I have not fallen out with yet replied.. So far there was slightly confused over the board outline because the silkscreen connectors overhangs the PCB outline.

The only other two questions was that one part they could not obtain and suggested alternatives which is brilliant. That was easily resolved. And they queried the date code of the DAC as the best they could find is 1999. But I doubt it has been manufactured in recent years anyway. They say all the parts they can obtain and are in stock.

So now I am just waiting for the quotations. It will be interesting to see what the final price is compared to what I worked out JLC's cost was. They are certainly not as cheap as JLC.. So I do expect the final motherboard cost to be higher with this other company, but it's just unavoidable.

[exxos]

Motherboards in production again. Had problems paying for the order since Lloyds won't let me up my credit card limit anymore

I need to add up the costs again, but so far it looks like they won't be anymore expensive than JLC and could be actually be cheaper!

[exxos]

PCB place says production will take 4-5 weeks.

After that I need to complete a build to make sure it boots, then I'll open up ordering.

[MEX68KECB]

PCB place says production will take 4-5 weeks.

After that I need to complete a build to make sure it boots, then I'll open up ordering.

I know how "price sensitive" the Atari community can be, so I appreciate your efforts with JLC. I'm glad you saved some brain cells and pivoted away from them though. I'd rather pay more and preserve your sanity.

And of course I'm still in for two! I feel really lucky that you're doing this run.

[exxos]

I know how "price sensitive" the Atari community can be, so I appreciate your efforts with JLC.

Yeah, I have always tried to keep the prices down as much as humanly possible. Though indeed, there does become a point where I end up spending a phenomenal amount of time, just maybe save people a few quid etc.

I'm glad you saved some brain cells and pivoted away from them though. I'd rather pay more and preserve your sanity.

Yeah, I have literally lost count how many PCB supplies I have used over the years. I would guess there would easily be 30. Having to start over shifting projects over to different companies all the time , and that takes a lot of time by itself. Like I'm having to write scripts to convert the BOM to different formats for different companies. It all soaks up a lot of time.

I really just want to get to the point where I can just have a dependable company and just say "make me more of that project" , pay for it, and done! Currently I've wasted the best part of a month with JLC alone.

The problems are even more compounded because of the aggro in sending ports to China now. That is another epic load of drama for another time. Long story short, I'm even considering going with UK manufacturers (and currently obtaining quotes for some projects) as it may be more cost-effective than shipping parts back and forth overseas. Annoyingly I found a company which had reasonable costs, both shut down during the pandemic and never came back. So I feel like I am just constantly forever going around in circles dealing with the UK company should theoretically be a order of magnitude easier than trying to explain myself to China people for the 50th time!

And of course I'm still in for two! I feel really lucky that you're doing this run.

Things died down a fair bit and I did not really have the intention of making them again. Though I think because of @coonsgm did a video on it all, it sparked off some interest in the project again.