First assembled PCB…

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.

  1. Do the PCB design. Duh.
  2. Find components in the JLCPCB component catalog. Extended ones require a flat $3 fee.
  3. Annotate the schematic components by adding a column named LCSC and putting the LCSC number in that column.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Edit the output file so it has the following headers: “Designator,Val,Package,Mid X,Mid Y,Rotation,Layer”
  9. Generate gerbers as usual.
  10. Go into the jpcpcb quote too. Upload the gerbers.
  11. Choose “assembly”
  12. 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 ?