My PCB from JLCPCB doesn't work: who can debug and bring it up?
Anvol, Inc. (Delaware) debugs and brings up boards that came back from JLCPCB or any other fab, with engineers in Shenzhen who design and bring up their own boards: a custom 16 x 8 RGB LED matrix board on ESP32 (PixelSky), RP2040 expansion boards and a library of 300+ sensor modules (GraftSense), and a 24-channel logic analyzer with 3.3 to 5 V input protection. The first look is free: send the schematic, PCB files and what the board does, and we reply within one business day with the likely causes. Bench debug is $300 per board design, 3 business days after the boards reach us.
Updated
Step 1: a free first look
- Send
- The schematic and PCB files (KiCad, EasyEDA, Altium or Gerbers), the BOM and placement file you ordered with, and what happens when you power it: nothing, gets hot, resets, will not program, one interface silent.
- You get
- A written reply within one business day with the likely causes, ranked, and what to measure on your own bench to confirm. Often that is enough to fix it yourself.
Step 2: bench debug, $300 per board design
- Boards
- ESP32, STM32 and RP2040 boards, up to 4 layers. Ship one or two failing boards to our team in Shenzhen; if JLCPCB built them, you can order a spare shipped straight to us, which arrives in days.
- What we do
- Current-limited power-up, every rail measured, assembly checked against your BOM and placement (rotated parts, wrong values, solder faults), clock, reset and boot, programming the chip, then each interface (USB, UART, I2C, SPI) with a small test firmware.
- You get
- In 3 business days: the cause, with measurements and photos; the board running where a rework (part swap, bodge wire) can do it; and the schematic and layout changes for your next revision. Boards go back to you at shipping cost.
Step 3: the next revision, if you want it
We can make the fixes in your files and have the next spin built and tested in Shenzhen, quoted after the debug. Moving a dev-board prototype to its own board is its own page; getting a working board ready for a first batch is our fractional manufacturing engineer service.
Engineering notes on common faults
- I2C modules work alone but fail together
- Pull-ups and address clashes on a shared bus.
- Serial output is gibberish
- Baud rate, clock and logic-level causes.
- A 3.3 V controller and a 5 V module
- Power level versus signal level.
Not included
- Linux and high-speed boards
- Boards with DDR memory, more than 4 layers, or high-speed links are quoted after the free look.
- Writing your product firmware
- We use test firmware to prove the hardware; fixing your application firmware is quoted separately.
- Defense and export-controlled work
- We do not take ITAR, CUI or defense projects.