I ordered 3 PCB’s last month and received, less the parts which I thought would automatically be installed in place. My bad.
So, going back into the manufacturing process, there are lost of tabs across the top of the page… Overview, PCB, Stencil, Parts, then orders, tests and sharing. The parts tab is where i get confused. I tried to add parts to the order, vias are a no go it appears, the led’s are confusing to try and add. I have seen post on the internet of problems with the parts placement and I’m wondering if this process is really up and running.
The Stencil tab doesn’t add much to anything. I would think it would be a standard to ship the stencil with the order if there are no parts being placed on the PCB. Not sure how I’m going to place the parts with out the stencil.
vias are part of the board (just a plated through pad) and thus aren’t a part. Other than that I’m unfamiliar with what Aisler provides. Fritzing doesn’t generate the pick and place files needed for automatic assembly (the parts don’t contain the center of gravity data needed for one, and the output isn’t in gerber processing), so it is possible they don’t offer an assembly service (although as I said I don’t know!) I expect (but again don’t know for sure) that stencils are optional. If you are hand soldering I don’t think you necessarily need the stencil, that is mostly to get the flux on to the entire board to solder it in a soldering oven I think. I have seen ads for assembled SMD pcbs but I expect they will be expensive for a single board as it is usually automated and wants a reasonably large number of boards (in the 100s?) to justify the setup cost. The Aisler folks would be your best source for what services they offer I expect.
Thanks for the reply. I played with the above screen shot and the top are where it says Place Order, the spot call Beautiful Boards, I click the up arrow (next to the 0) it auto populates to 3. The Stellar Stencil stays and the prices auto update.
If I go to the Amazing Assembly and click the up arrow next to the O, number increments to 1 and the Beautiful Boards goes back to 0 and the Stellar Stencil is removed. Now I don’t know if that is for 1 board or for the 3, I wanted above in the Beautiful Boards or if that is for all 3. I suspect it is for 1 board. If you then click on the Add Stellar Stencil, everything goes back to 0 in both areas.
It would be nice to be able to add the stencil for the ones I perviously purchased. I think I would like the stencil to place the solder paste and then get the parts to finish blank PCB’s.
I have seen that complaint before, One of the founders said their standard is a 24 hour response, but they don’t seem to be meeting that, perhaps overly busy …
From what I know, you have to add the stencil to get one.
I think Fritzing does generate a pnp (pick n place) file of some sort, possibly as part of the gerber export files, maybe. Anyway, it’s not an industry standard file format, so most fab companies can’t use it. I don’t know if Aisler can use it and assemble boards for you.
Min order for PCBs is 3. I have a couple of extra boards laying around…
Previous projects I uploaded to Aisler are available to me when I log in, so maybe you can order just a stencil for a previous board they have produced for you, but I’ve never done it.
Previous projects I uploaded to Aisler are available to me when I log in, so maybe you can order just a stencil for a previous board they have produced for you, but I’ve never done it.
One can, but shipping cost twice aas much ad the stencil.
I did end up getting an email from Christine at Aisler a couple of days a go and she advised the workplace had been hit with another wave of Covid and it almost shut them down. I guess I never thought of that, especially when people are able to work from home, but we’ll work thru it.
I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise. Here we are just starting a new wave of COVID, hospitalizations have something like tripled over the last couple of weeks (although most restrictions have ended!) People here at least seem to feel COVID is over, although I think they are dead wrong.
