Future H5 buyers & assembly

[rubber_jonnie]

I might be interested in a board - would it be easy to take chips off my existing STE (STFM, I have no idea) board and put them on? It would be cheaper for me..

Just remember these are not STE replacement boards, they are STF boards so you need to ensure that it is really what you want to order since as @sporniket said, the STE chipset is different.

[LaserHertz]

I only found out about this great project shortly. Is it still possible to join the group order for the next batch?

[exxos]

I only found out about this great project shortly. Is it still possible to join the group order for the next batch?

"pre-ordering" will likely happen just after xmas. There are 20 boards currently being manufactured.

[exxos]

20x boards are now in production.

H5C5A.PNG

I spent a lot of time fiddling with the tracks and gaps in order to make the via's from 0.2mm to 0.3mm as it saves about £3 per board then. Larger vias are likely going to be more robust anyway.

I now have the long daunting task of adding up all the parts and fees which I have purchased over the past couple of months :pullhair: :crazy:

[exxos]

JLC seem to be having problems with the Video DAC STV8438CV. They say I need to replace the part as it "doesn't fit". BUT, There is only one package for it anyway ?!

STV.PNG

I replied and said it does fit and its been assembled before...

1.PNG

So no idea what's going on now. I've asked them to send a image of the parts they received as something's amiss somewhere :roll: .

I can only assume at this point as the DAC wasn't a stock part, they created the IC template.. wrongly... :shrug:

[MEX68KECB]

I'm grateful for your persistence! I was hoping for "just another run" and here you are making it better AND troubleshooting! I work in software so I kinda get it...it never ends!

[exxos]

I'm grateful for your persistence! I was hoping for "just another run" and here you are making it better AND troubleshooting! I work in software so I kinda get it...it never ends!

Yeah lots of little things end up soaking up a lot of time up :roll:

It took me 2 full days to figure out all the parts costs. JLC charge one amount to my credit card.. Then do multiple little refunds to my JLC account. But, what they charge doesn't match any invoices as they split the charges sometimes into more than one payment to my credit card. A couple payments on my card got refunded as they couldn't get the bits. But the refund didn't go to my card. Then there's working out all the transaction charges to my card which added 3% onto the costs. I hadn't even included that cost on any other motherboard run :roll: The whole thing drove me nuts. :pullhair: My bedroom floor looks like I've been trying to solve a murder with all the paperwork :lol:

I've also noticed the sockets are totally missing and a lot of the jumpers. So I need to figure that out now as well. I wish it was as simple as "just ordering more" but nothing ever is that simple.

I can say the cost per board has hit around £230 now :( It's crazy how fast costs ramp up. I remember saying a while back that the BOM parts cost fractions of a pence per part.. and yet.. it totaled over £100. Crazy. With more parts added this time, it's costs have ramped up again. But it's what people voted for ...

[exxos]

Currently I've been "stuck" with this page..

Capture.PNG

JLC need me to click submit even though the part is actually correct (they made a mistake saying it wasn't right before). But I cannot do this because the button is disabled!! :pullhair: :headbang: After two days I just ended up hacking the html page to remove the disabled code so I could actually click submit and get past the problem. Hopefully now I can upload my corrected BOM...

I think if I ever do any more batches of motherboards then I just simply cannot use JLC again. I keep saying it again and again, that everything is way more effort than it needs to be and its soaking up a lot of my time .. The other company I use is a lot better but of course charges a bit more .. But at least it's not going to soak weeks of my time like it is now with JLC again..

[damo2929]

Hi Exxos can I reserve one, please

[exxos]

So now we are back to the "no PCB outline" problem FFS!. I exported all the files using THEIR OWN gerber filenames and it didn't help. I mean the file has the word OUTLINE in it, how can they not see it ?!

What pi$$ses me off as well, as the order had to be refunded so I could update the files, the money was refunded to my JLC account, and yet paying a second time (from the JLC account) has resulted in MORE transaction fees, I mean seriously ?! The money is already on their system, why do they need to charge fees ? I think they doing this on purpose at this point. It's bad enough I had to hack their own site to get anything done at all. It's just ridiculous.

I'm going to start writing a script to use my other PCB fab house to export all the files in a format they like and get a quote from them for the build. Annoying as I purchased all the parts in JLC already. But this is just never going to get done at this rate. Dealing with JLC is like dealing with a bunch of teenagers where its their first day on the job all the time. There just becomes a point of just giving up with it all and going elsewhere. Which is exactly what I am going to do now.

I was really hoping to get these sorted and shipped before xmas. But it's no way going to happen now.