We love it when PCB orders run through the assembly line smooth as butter. Inevitably, however, sometimes things do get delayed. On today's episode, we sat down with CircuitHub Production Manager, Rob OConnell, on the biggest showstoppers that cause orders to run late and some things customers can do to prevent this from happening.

Chris' KiCon 2019 Talk - Your Manufacturer is Stupid
The Perfect 0402 Footprint

pickplacepodcast.com

First articles, also known as batch run or first-run amongst other terms, is when a customer requests the first several finished PCBAs from a production run be delivered for inspection before the entire quantity is built. In this episode we go over when it's appropriate to request first articles (and when it's not), the difference between first articles and prototypes, examples of how using first articles has benefitted our customers. Chris also introduces us to his fascinating new theory regarding the pen industry.

How to request first articles from CircuitHub

pickplacepodcast.com

Worthington is in the process of upgrading its pick and place machinery. In order to do that requires a long process of evaluating potential new suppliers. Chris walks us through what that journey is like, why a contract manufacturer may need to upgrade its equipment, his recent in-person visit to one of the suppliers they've narrowed down to, and more! 

pickplacepodcast.com

This episode is dedicated to fiducials which, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, are the small copper dots you may have seen on your bare PCB. We get into the details of what they are, where and why are they are used, and how you can use them in your design. 

https://www.worthingtonassembly.com/blog/2014/12/29/what-are-fiducials-and-why-are-they-useful

If you are already using fiducials in your designs tweet us a photo or screenshot of them with the hashtag #fiducialsFTW :) 

pickplacepodcast.com

To celebrate reaching 10,000 downloads of the podcast, Chris and Melissa mix things up and interview each other so that you can get to know your hosts better! 

We talk about what we were doing before joining CircuitHub and Worthington, our journeys towards getting there, imposter syndrome, our love affair with Grape Nuts, and more! 

pickplacepodcast.com

We're very excited to be joined on this episode by Ben Jordan.  Ben, who was previously at Altium for many years, now works at Autodesk as a Senior Product Manager for the Fusion 360 Electronics product.

We chat about:

• Why we call them DuPont headers
• Machine pin headers are awesome
• A brief history of Altium's founding in Australia as Protel Systems
• Chris' love for Australia
• Lots of Ben's dad jokes
• The Coriolis Effect, Ben's new show with Bil Herd 
• Fusion 360 - the benefits of using a unified ECAD-MCAD-SIM software platform
• Chris has finally found a perforated cardboard tab that actually works:  https://www.packworld.com/issues/sustainability/article/21136720/nespresso-coffee-capsule-made-from-80-recycled-content
• Ben's pet peeve - people who abuse nonstick pans

pickplacepodcast.com

As a continuation of last week's episode with CircuitHub CAM Engineer, Dave Wilcox, we discuss the basics of what happens during the PCB drilling process.  We also drill into some fun topics including the confusing inconsistencies regarding the recommended tolerance on JST connectors and why NC drill data is so difficult to interpret. 

Listen to these other great episodes with Dave!
The PCB CAM Process
Bare PCB Materials
An Overview of Bare PCB Fabrication
Inner Layer Production

pickplacepodcast.com

We're joined again by CircuitHub CAM Engineer Dave Wilcox to talk more about bare circuit board manufacturing. In this episode we Dave teaches us what happens during the inner layer production process. 

Check out more episodes with Dave!
The PCB CAM Process
Bare PCB Materials
An Overview of Bare PCB Fabrication

pickplacepodcast.com

In today's episode Chris, a self proclaimed novice engineer, touches on the layout process and how small decisions can have a significant impact on assembly.  We provide some on advice on the best proximity of vias  with adjacent pads and plated thru-holes, edge clearance,  fiducials, and more.

Useful articles:
https://www.worthingtonassembly.com/blog/2014/12/29/what-are-fiducials-and-why-are-they-useful
https://www.worthingtonassembly.com/blog/2018/6/20/recessing-your-pcb-edge-for-perforated-tabs

pickplacepodcast.com

Although we like to keep our episodes targeted towards anyone who is interested in PCB assembly as a whole, we know that many of our listeners are CircuitHub customers. In this episode we sat down with John Jacquinet, who is an Account Manager at CircuitHub.

We talk to John about how his work experience as en electrical engineer influenced his views when moving over to the assembly side, how to take advantage of the Account Manager team's help at CircuitHub, and customer best and worst practices.

P.S. If you're only interested in listening to Chris' 15 minute rant regarding poorly designed pull tabs, feel free to skip to 59:30.

Useful documentation:
http://docs.circuithub.com/en/articles/62935-how-do-i-consign-parts-to-the-factory
https://circuithub.com/pcb-stackups

pickplacepodcast.com