I’ve ordered quite a few PCB boards, but this is the first time I’ve paid for assembly as well. Documented here so that I remember the steps. Instructions here.
- Do the PCB design. Duh.
- Find components in the JLCPCB component catalog. Extended ones require a flat $3 fee.
- Annotate the schematic components by adding a column named LCSC and putting the LCSC number in that column.
- Create the BOM from Tools->Generate BOM. This will fail if you have any spaces in your filenames as the xslt processor they use has issues, but it will create a .XML file in your design directory.
- Go to d:\data\electronics\bom where you will find msxsl.exe. It will work correctly. Modify a batch file to use that file and generate the output CSV file.
- Edit the output file. You will need to edit it to remove parts and columns you don’t need. I imported it into excel and then saved as a .xsls file.
- In the PCB editor, choose File->Fabrication outputs->Footprint position. Format = csv, units = mm, files = one file per side, footprint selection = with INSERT attribute set. This will generate a front and back file.
- Edit the output file so it has the following headers: “Designator,Val,Package,Mid X,Mid Y,Rotation,Layer”
- Generate gerbers as usual.
- Go into the jpcpcb quote too. Upload the gerbers.
- Choose “assembly”
- Upload the BOM and placement files, and look at the rendering. Carefully validate the rotation of active components; there are apparently two standards. If you need to modify the placement, go edit the output from step 7 and edit the rotation column.
So, what do you think ?