Impact of Tariffs on PCB Fab

I finally threw in the towel for the strange (to me) optical encoder circuit on the vending machines and laid out a more conventional circuit. Since these machines are 25+ years old, the LEDs in the photo interupters may be getting pretty dim too – they're on when the .machine is powered up, so they have a lot of hours.

The schematic shows a pretty standard arrangement for an optical encoder. A buck converter module drops in 24 volt supply voltage to 5 volts. A Schmidt trigger conditions to signal to a PIC18F timer input. I've added an n-channel MOSFET so the LED can be powered only when needed; the gate is pulled high so this feature can be ignored if desired.



The PCB is mounted with screws through the encoder ears. The encoder fits in the exact space of the original. I've used a 5mm removable terminal block for connections, but I'll probably just solder a short pigtail to a Molex plug to mate with the existing cable.



I've ordered the boards from Elecrow. They do not charge extra for v-scoring. In a less than 100mm × 100mm panel, I can get 6 boards

Cost to build 5 panels of 6 boards (30 total): $1

DHL shipping: ~ $25 (seems like it's increased by ~ 30%)

Tariffs: ~ $25

Total charge: just over $51.

Tell us the funny part!!

If Donny wants you to make in the good ol' USA.!! How much?

Ian Rogers said:

Tell us the funny part!!

Click to expand...

I wish there was a funny part. With Congress passing his budget today, millions of people will lose their health-care, many rural hospitals will close, food assistance programs, including school lunch programs will end (Meals On Wheels for the elderly have already been cut, even though the cost was less than trump's golf trips). Very small tax cuts for the middle class will end in a few years while massive tax cuts for the uber-wealthy have been made permanent.

I could go on, but I know I'll be banned if I do.

The one absolute true of trump and all of his actions is that cruelty and fear is the goal. Those people cheering this budget bill are the lowest scrum of the earth.

For The Popcorn said:

I wish there was a funny part. With Congress passing his budget today, millions of people will lose their health-care, many rural hospitals will close, food assistance programs, including school lunch programs will end (Meals On Wheels for the elderly have already been cut, even though the cost was less than trump's golf trips). Very small tax cuts for the middle class will end in a few years while massive tax cuts for the uber-wealthy have been made permanent.

I could go on, but I know I'll be banned if I do.

The one absolute true of trump and all of his actions is that cruelty and fear is the goal. Those people cheering this budget bill are the lowest scrum of the earth.

Click to expand...

Great laugh and best Independence day in the past 4 years. Thank you for echoing Hakeem Jeffries.

Has ETO been bought by Facebook?

You're on the wrong side of history jpanhalt .

I just recieved my order from PCBway to Canada, 2 bucks for 5 boards 8. for Global Shipping, no tarrifs.
2 weeks delivery!

Could Canada adopt Washington, Oregon and California please?

I backed the mini desktop Cubiko CNC machine from Genmitso several months back and they have finally started to ship. I was dreading the tariff but they are being delivered in the US without additional charge. Looks like, with my backer number in the 2000 range, it's going to be mid August before I get mine

I am relieved about the tariffs, especially when that amount could have been more than I paid for it.

Ian Rogers said:

Tell us the funny part!!

If Donny wants you to make in the good ol' USA.!! How much?

Click to expand...

Weeeell...If one plans to use ExpressPCB, based in Oregon AFAIK, which I used for many, many years until I discovered Chinese vendors.

As an exercise, a few minutes ago I re-quoted a board that I had done many years ago. Nothing fancy 2-sided, 1-Oz copper, 67 X 95 mm, HASL, Silkscreen only on top, No routing or scoring of any kind nor any special features. Two day production service for 6 boards, ground delivery within the continental US.
Check the image below, and weep like small child. Yes. US$223.30

For The Popcorn said:

Cost to build 5 panels of 6 boards (30 total): $1

DHL shipping: ~ $25 (seems like it's increased by ~ 30%)

Tariffs: ~ $25

Click to expand...

God only knows what happened. The Tariffs should have been only on the PCB not on the shipping. It is clear the 100% tariff was on everything.
I have been shipping out with an invoice for just the product (hardware). Then a separate invoice for the labor and shipping. Customs does not see the second invoice. Last year I would list everything and the 10% tariff was applied only to certain line items, not labor or shipping. This year customs seems not to know what to do. They tell us all the supervisors are fired, the book they use is badly out of data and no new data comes from above. They look on "X" to know what Trump said yesterday. What an insane way to run a country.

You might try, get a DHL account and pay for the shipping through that. The invoice might have zero shipping that way.

A while back, so not current pricing, I compared the cost per board between Chinese fabs and Advanced Circuits in the US. To match the Chinese price for TEN boards, as I recall the quantity of boards to make the PER BOARD price equal to the Chinese TEN BOARD price was over 750 boards.

The Chinese tariffs are doing great harm to US makers. Obviously in electronics, for circuit boards, components and all the fantastic modules/breakout boards but also in 3D printing for filament and printers, CNC machines, hardware, etc.

ronsimpson said:

You might try, get a DHL account and pay for the shipping through that.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea. We had talked about investigating that but it fell through the cracks.

I suspect a lot of the (apparent) DHL increase is for brokerage fees resulting from the increased hassle of dealing with the current situation.