Timeline for How do PCB manufacturers know how to orient polarized components?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 10, 2021 at 20:29 | comment | added | DKNguyen | @Joshua My trial run was 8 boards but they continued to put them together even after they sent us the trials. | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 20:11 | comment | added | Joshua | @DKNguyen: It was not for no reason I requested the initial run be a mere two boards. They didn't work, and we had to find out why. Eventually found the gerber file didn't match the schematic, and the schematic was correct. The boards didn't work. | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 18:09 | vote | accept | RGB Engineer | ||
| Nov 10, 2021 at 14:14 | comment | added | DKNguyen | @RussellMcMahon And make sure the guy you go over the instructions with is the same guy who is going to be using them. In my story, I did go over the instructions but apparently it wasn't the same guy who was doing the work. | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 11:31 | comment | added | MCG | We usually go through instructions with them, then ask for a single panel of PCBs to come to us so we can inspect and approve it before doing a full run | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 9:24 | comment | added | Russell McMahon♦ | @RGBEngineer - related to this. ANY TIME you have an instruction which involves text, diagrams and person to person information transfer in general, DO NOT just give them the more and trust then to read it follow them. Gon through them item by item in detail and ENSURE that they fully understand them. If you can get them to sign off the instructions so much the better. This not ensure they do it right, but can help ensure they fix it for no charge. I once had a whole batch of custom low force screen printed multi layer keyboards redone for no cost after doing the above | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 5:30 | vote | accept | RGB Engineer | ||
| Nov 10, 2021 at 18:09 | |||||
| Nov 10, 2021 at 5:03 | comment | added | DKNguyen | @RGBEngineer God that was a shit show. Had to send all the boards back and some sucker on their end had to manually desolder and flip all the ICs around and I'm pretty sure the high failure rates on that run were because not all the components survived the desoldering. | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:53 | history | edited | DKNguyen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:51 | comment | added | DKNguyen | This might be a much bigger problem for some components like SMD photodiodes which, due to requiring an unobstructed face, cannot have polarity markings on the component. In that case you really do have to go to the datasheet and look at the packaging information to see which way they come in the reel. | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:47 | history | edited | DKNguyen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 66 characters in body
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| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:42 | comment | added | DKNguyen | @RGBEngineer Actually, it was worse than that. I remember now. It wasn't text notes. It was actually a diagram of the board printed from the Gerber and all the ICs on the board with pin 1 labelled. The IC footprints being used had pin1 always to the top left of the RefDes when read upright but that's not obvious so I included a diagram. For that one, the diodes were not part of the diagram because I made sure the silkscreen contained a white polarity line or the actual diode symbol. There were no issues with the diodes. The human manually went through and sets up the machine for each component | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:42 | history | edited | DKNguyen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:39 | comment | added | RGB Engineer | Yeah, I have also had components placed backwards on PCBs before - I guess it comes down to having clear symbols on the silkscreen and good manufacturing notes. What did your notes to the manufacturer usually look like? place the positive terminal of the component on the side with the "+"? | |
| Nov 10, 2021 at 4:35 | history | answered | DKNguyen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |