Jlcpcb and tariffs

[szukalski]

Anything you sell in EU needs to be lead free, so if you want to do it legit then make them lead free. Probably less of a concern if you're state side but if you were in the EU, then you'd need to be able to prove compliance if the matter rose.

I simply removed my EU shipping from my profile in Reverb.

That’s seemed the simplest and least time consuming course of action.

Yup. Even harder when you want to have your own website for selling in the EU. Demon mode if said website is in Germany.

 

[szukalski]

"Fun" fact. If you sell products from Germany in any type of packaging then you need to track usage and pay a tax on the packaging to offset the recycling costs. I think France does similar. Just to add to the overhead..

 

[Big Monk]

"Fun" fact. If you sell products from Germany in any type of packaging then you need to track usage and pay a tax on the packaging to offset the recycling costs. I think France does similar. Just to add to the overhead..

Yeah. Margins are already razor thin as it is so I’ve just given up on the EU.

I only shipped a handful of units there pre-regulations update anyway so it wasn’t a huge loss.

 

[yazooligan]

Great stuff, folks. Thank you for sharing. After reaching out to several shops in my state that I thought did PCB fabrication I got several replies telling me they farm out their actual board-making but would be happy to quote me fully assembled boards. Since wiring everything myself is part of what I'm selling, it looks like JLCPCB for me. I'm going to go the lead-free route for now just in case someone overseas takes an interest in my little project. Thanks again for the great info!

 

[Big Monk]

Great stuff, folks. Thank you for sharing. After reaching out to several shops in my state that I thought did PCB fabrication I got several replies telling me they farm out their actual board-making but would be happy to quote me fully assembled boards. Since wiring everything myself is part of what I'm selling, it looks like JLCPCB for me. I'm going to go the lead-free route for now just in case someone overseas takes an interest in my little project. Thanks again for the great info!

It is very telling that even with 175% Tariffs, JLCPCB was never in any danger of me leaving.

 

[Stickman393]

I've been shipping to Europe with zero changes to my process, packaging , or documentation. One customer (in Austria I think?) said the package was on hold and that customs was requesting a "declaration of compliance" before releasing it. I did a little reading and was able to put something together that they were satisfied with and they released the package. I don't think I've had any shipments returned or destroyed because of the new EU laws.

Sounds like they're primarily interested in the big fish, then. Or rather, folks with consistent imports. Makes sense why chase bliss had to alter the way they did things a bit.

Doing a bit of reading...the official page makes it sound *really* in depth. BOM, drawings, compliance documents for each component...not entirely unlike UL listing, but it looks like they don't check your work as much.

Had some fun times with UL listing in previous years. Got couple of control panels from a manufacturer for a pair of 2 story house-sized air handlers that were UL listed, and engineered in such a way that dehumidification did not operate when enabled.

So...the manufacturer fucked up. They wouldn't admit to it: They claimed they had fully tested the units before they sent 'em out. Which I would have been more likely to believe if I didn't find entire sub-panels within the AHUs that were left unterminated. Airflow proving switches left capped and unconnected. You know. Basic stuff required for functionality.

I found the flaw in their electrical schematic; all it took was the addition of a normally closed set of contacts to fix the issue...but doing so would have voided the UL listing. Cause the schematic that was on file with UL did not have that set of contacts, and any deviation from the stated schematic is not allowed.

We then had to engage in the brain-splittingly idiotic discussion of wether a UL listing or a functioning unit was the more desirable outcome.

Talking through an electro-mechanical sequence of operations with folks that don't understand such concepts and are *really* invested in manifesting a working piece of equipment out of sheer bloody-minded stubornness is my favorite thing to do. Honestly.

Anywho...uhh...where was I...

 

[vigilante398]

Cause the schematic that was on file with UL did not have that set of contacts, and any deviation from the stated schematic is not allowed.

This sentence hurts me on a deep, meta-physical level because that is exactly how we operate at my job as well.

 

[vigilante398]

It is very telling that even with 175% Tariffs, JLCPCB was never in any danger of me leaving.

Yup, I was open to leaving, but every alternative I found was more than a 175% increase in price while also being slower.

 

[Robert]

After reaching out to several shops in my state that I thought did PCB fabrication I got several replies telling me they farm out their actual board-making but would be happy to quote me fully assembled boards.

I've found this to be the case with quite a few of the US-based PCB fabricators... PCB fabricated in China, component placement done in the USA.

It is very telling that even with 175% Tariffs, JLCPCB was never in any danger of me leaving.

Yup, I was open to leaving, but every alternative I found was more than a 175% increase in price while also being slower.

I went through the hunt for a stateside fabricator years ago... I didn't even bother this time around.

 

[Big Monk]

Yup, I was open to leaving, but every alternative I found was more than a 175% increase in price while also being slower.

Not to mention what I quickly realized would be to a of process based intangibles.

Time to build is that metric that isn’t always quantifiable but you know it when it increases.