Ok i can verify the JLCPCB produced boards are working. I already flashed the firmware and testeted the focpill. Power Hardware is working as well. I still need to assemble all the boards with fets and capacitor to verify the rest of the hardware. (Already ordered them)
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Nice, did they have all parts from the list in Stock? When I was trying out the order process last week, 2 LEDs were out of stock from basic parts and I would have had to swap them to more expensive „Extended parts“. I don‘t know what the price difference would be, I guess not much.
I also noticed that 2 inductors of the power board were not shown in the online 3d graphic simulation of the PCB. I guess this is due to missing case definition data and not a real problem.
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Yes, the two inductors are not shown in the graphics, but they are actually there. Not a real problem.
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The cost of the parts themselves probably isn’t much higher but each Extended part number you add to the BOM adds a $3 surcharge IIRC.
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Hi Mr Shambler.
Be very careful when mounting the MCU board (pill). I’m trying to figure out what is the best way of doing it. The pins of the JST connectors should pass through both pcbs (main and pill), and you should sandwich these together very close (clearance of less than 0.5mm). So some of the pinholes of the two pcb are actually connected together using the pins of the JST. For the smaller JSTs, you can attach and solder them on the back side (pill side), and then afterwards remove the plastic socket temporarily for soldering on the other side. BUT for the large JST, you’re not able to remove the plastic socket after soldering, without destroying it, so you need to pull the pins halfway out, and then solder it. See image below.
In particular the GND pinhole need a lot of heat for soldering, and you might end up putting too much solder on the pin, so you can’t re-attach the plastic socket properly. However, you can scrape off this solder on the pin using a hobby knife.
Here is an example of where there was too much solder on the pins of the 3-pin JST.
The process of mounting these pcbs together can be very tricky. I don’t know how many points of credit I will get for this design choice from the professionals. Any solutions for achieving an ultra low board-to-board connection height are welcome. Very Welcome indeed.
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I’ve had good luck using standard headers between the boards. The black plastic blocks typically end up giving me 2.5mm or smaller board-to-board spacing.
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Does anyone have experience with ordering PCBs with “Castellated Holes” at JLCPCB?
I found a document on their site about this, but sure if it is an old document or what.
https://jlcpcb.com/quote/pcbOrderFaq/Castellated%20holes
I this document the describe two options - an expensive one, and a free (how I read it) one. Anyone?
Castellated Holes on the edge of the Pill would solve many problems I think. You would not need all these pins, and you should also be able to de-solder a board with castellated holes (?)
Castellated holes:
But the problem here is the JST connectors… Unless off course you then pull out the pins of the JST sockets and mount the remaining plastic socket directly on the pins of the standard pin headers. Probably same dimensions. hmm.
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Cutouts in the top pcb for the connectors to stick through?
Yes, actually - maybe a bad design choice…
Well, not CAN and HALL
Standard pin headers is probably OK, and then mount UART and ADC “plastic” sockets directly on these on the top-side pcb. I will test this procedure.
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I assume the need to mount the boards with < 0.5mm spacing is for electrical noise, or is it a mechanical issue?
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I have a whole new mounting procedure, thanks to Battery_Mooch. Just use standard pin headers, and the pins around 1.5mm out at those terminals where there’s going to be a JST connector, then the pins of the standard pin headers will be the pins of the JST (where its original pins have been removed). No board spacing < 0.5mm, just the normal spacing of a standard pin header. This procedure works. I will update the Assembly Procedure as soon as possible.
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Just normal standard pin header spacing. No noise issues.
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jlcpcb having a supply issue at the moment with green and blue leds in their standard component library, so I went for their yellow leds instead.
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Excellent! That’s great news.
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