2025-10-02, 02:09 PM
Hi everyone!
Me and my friends decided to do a bulk order of 10 Tangara boards because we are all big believers in the project. I'm currently in the phase of trying to get the orders done right on the JLCPCB website (can't beat those first time discounts on the PCBs) and I have few questions surrounding this phase.
Q1: I can't get the touchwheel cover to export correctly from KiCad into JLCPCB. I even downloaded the FabricationToolkit plugin which is supposed to do it exactly in the format the guys at JLCPCB want it in. When I texted customer support they said I didn't have a separate outline layer which I didn't really understand since the Edge.Cuts layer gets used for both the faceplate and mainboard correctly. Anyone else facing the same issue?
Q2: I can't decide between getting the whole mainboard assembled or just a single side, both of them seem to need interventions from the manufacture for either edge rails or tooling holes but I expect those won't interfere with the final shape of the board. I guess getting the mainboard fully assembled would come out the cheapest or atleast the easiest. I read in this thread that soldering on the QFN packaged ICs can cause issues so I was thinking i would get that side assembled and then hand solder the other one. How hard would it be to solder the components on the bottom of the mainboard?
Thanks for any tips!
Me and my friends decided to do a bulk order of 10 Tangara boards because we are all big believers in the project. I'm currently in the phase of trying to get the orders done right on the JLCPCB website (can't beat those first time discounts on the PCBs) and I have few questions surrounding this phase.
Q1: I can't get the touchwheel cover to export correctly from KiCad into JLCPCB. I even downloaded the FabricationToolkit plugin which is supposed to do it exactly in the format the guys at JLCPCB want it in. When I texted customer support they said I didn't have a separate outline layer which I didn't really understand since the Edge.Cuts layer gets used for both the faceplate and mainboard correctly. Anyone else facing the same issue?
Q2: I can't decide between getting the whole mainboard assembled or just a single side, both of them seem to need interventions from the manufacture for either edge rails or tooling holes but I expect those won't interfere with the final shape of the board. I guess getting the mainboard fully assembled would come out the cheapest or atleast the easiest. I read in this thread that soldering on the QFN packaged ICs can cause issues so I was thinking i would get that side assembled and then hand solder the other one. How hard would it be to solder the components on the bottom of the mainboard?
Thanks for any tips!
