I’m still in progress with the assembly of the beta units. Unfortunately I’m out of town this week and can’t make further progress until I get back.
One thing I’ll do though is submit an order for the latest CFOC2 revision (the one w/ an IMU) now that JLCPCB is up and running again 100%!
Hmmm. Looks like JLCPCB has an option to assemble only 2 out of the 5 PCB minimum. Seems perfect if you ask me…
I want to have this and test it 
Nice project…
Just putting some pricing into perspective. Using JLCPCB’s assembly service with the intent to have them assemble as much as possible causes one to have the “extended components fee” tacked on. This is $3 per component they have labeled “extended” which essentially means a component they don’t typically keep loaded in their pick and place machines. They have to do extra work to load up the “extended” components. This fee is $15 in this particular order. Would have been $18 if they had the DRV8301 in stock but they don’t as of this moment. Now one can avoid the “extended components fee” by choosing to purchase and populate those specific components them self. Not hard but it it will take a bit more time. Of course this pricing gets much better per unit with the more you have made. The “extended components fee” carries much less weight and becomes much more worth it. Making this in larger quantities is where the “cheap” in the Cheap FOCer really shines. Even so, this order of the 2 assembled PCBs is $60.76USD before shipping.
So JLCPCB isn’t going to have everything to complete the CFOC2. One will have to order anything that’s left over (FETs, large caps, connectors, possibly the DRV, ect). I loaded a cart in LCSC of these left over components for 2 CFOC2s which came out to about $21. Thankfully I’m grandfathered into LCSC’s old shipping deal. They used to offer free shipping if you had a corresponding order with JLCPCB but they had to nix it due to tax reasons. Now they just heavily discount the shipping if you were a member at the time of the old deal.
So there you have it. You still have to account for the other hardware such as cables or the heatsink but at the end this will run you about $95 or so after shipping and hardware if you only make 2 units. Still cheaper than 2x VESC 6. I’m sure the community could come together and do group orders of this to get the better price points. Yall would have to figure out the shipping everything to the individuals though.
This is awesome info to have, thank you! Do you plan to run any group buys yourself?
Nope! I’m leaving any and all manufacturing and/or production of these things to whoever else wants to do it. I’ve got other projects I need to put attention towards. @Davewesh has mentioned possibly producing these but that’s not confirmed.
As @shaman mentioned, this is something we’ve discussed and I’m not opposed to taking that task on. The point of perspective is that there needs to be a demand for pre-assembled controllers, and depending on expectations if a warranty is offered.
Keeping in mind, my time isn’t free and the last bit of assembly and testing of each controller and any warranty offering would be an expendature for me and by extension those that want to buy one pre-assembled.
If in light of that there is still an interest, I’ll be happy to do group buys(regularly), or keep stock on hand.
Edit: This would likely be a US only thing. Maybe a few tests for EU/CA/ETC if all goes well I’d consider opening it up.
I can’t speak for others, but I’d love to be able to place a single order to buy the board and all components. I’d actually like to do the assembly myself.
You would be able to do that once I release the project files and gerbers. $2 for the PCBs and then all the components from LCSC. I would like to create an LCSC BOM that you can upload to their website and it auto-loads a cart with everything you need. The problem is that components go in and out of stock kind of often so this LCSC BOM would have to be updated frequently.
if someone wanted to make them, should get a large stock of all the components so they don’t have to worry about suppliers.
Whenever that first Group Buy happens put me down on that for at least two!
I am so excited that finally we have a cheap alternative to flipsky - made in house - open sourced - and likely an even better one than their stuff to start with. Great work @shaman!
I appreciate the support everyone! Progress is slower than I would like but its coming along. I’m working on the GitHub page while we wait for the shipping, testing, and stuff. My intent is to have the full assembly (including hardware) well documented so that assembly can be made without errors that would cause the controller to malfunction. The GitHub page will remain private until its time for release.
how does the cost of jlcpcb smt assembly scale? it was $60 for two units, roughly what would it cost for ten units?
Remember this isn’t including all the other components it still needs but its $114.61 for JLCPCB’s part. Scales pretty well
thank you for getting back to me! that’s nice 
so its the same $15/$18 “extended component fee” regardless of how many boards i have populated with the same “extended components”? sounds like i can do ten boards for $115+$210+shipping+ local assembly. me likey!
more like $115 + $105 + $hardware + shipping. The $21 from before was for 2 controllers not just 1.
and you are correct about the extended components fee. It’s the same regardless of how many boards. That’s why I said its more worth it for higher quantities.
I have thought about this myself, again all things considered - it really just depends on the demand for the controllers in a FAAT (Fully Assembled and Tested) scenario.
If there was/is actually a driving demand where group buys are more effort than its worth, I may just front the cash to hold a backstock, which based on the quote I got isn’t much of a financial burden for me if I’m looking at holding 50-100 or so at a time.
Again this comes down to the driving demand and factors, if it’s clear that the drives are popular and people want a FAAT CFOC2 there are the usual components that one would want to stock up on. Based on the trends of stock from JLCPCB (LCSC) extra DRV’s, bulk through-hole components and what have you.
Heatsinks, Hardware, Materials, are also bulk priority if we get to that point. As well as maybe some “finishing” work - such as Connectors, Custom wirelength, Cable Sleeving, and Potting.
Casement with built-in heatsinking, is something I’d consider working on if @shaman hasn’t already gotten to that point, but this would end up bringing the cost well above what I’d think is palatable.
I mentioned briefly warranty as well, this is something I’d want to talk to a few choice people on the forums with. The most interesting idea is simply a replacement/exchange/repair policy based on how many boards a particular customer has ordered and has already replaced/exchanged.
I will say, as Shaman gets closer to release of the CFOC2 I’ll create a thread to gauge interest. Though, anyone with interest, questions or opinions on this feel free to reach out to me directly. This will be the last time I discuss this on this thread as I don’t want to take away from the main discussion topic of this thread.
Edit: Spelling Mistake from SFOC to CFOC (We’re not talking about the Serious FOCer here 
)
Good news! JLCPCB restocked the DRV8301! I hope they keep restocking it like this. Makes springing for the the SMT assembly that much more worth it.
So it would be possible to get a ready to go board from them and only need to solder the big stuff - caps/ports etc? 
