Update shipping tips

_posts/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-price-hack.md

@@ -1,31 +1,46 @@
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-title: JLCPCB shipping price hack
+title: JLCPCB shipping prices
 author: peter
 date: 2024-02-16 03:13:46 +0800
 categories: [Electronics] # Blogging | Electronics | Programming | Mechanical
 tags: [electronics, JLCPCB] # systems | embedded | rf | microwave | electronics | solidworks | automation
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-I love JLCPCB, but shipping to Australia is often expensive so I don't go ordering PCBs regularly, instead I try to bundle them up in one order.
+There is a shipping option called "Global Standard Direct Line" which is the cheapest but has a longer shipping time.
 
-The other day I noticed on the JLCPCB quote page that it's possible to get PCBs shipped over for approximately $A2.30??? If this is true this would be a game-changer. Of course, this the "Global Standard Direct Line" option is definitely not a premium service, in fact in the past I've used them to order parts from LCSC because of the low price, but they did not deliver within this 16 business day timeframe, instead it was something more like a month.
+This is pretty good though if you are not a business and want to shave off as much cost as possible, it incentives making more revisions and shipping often, compared to bundling orders in one shipment.
 
 ![Shipping estimate](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/shipping_estimate.png)
 
-The maximum weight for this $A2.30 quote is 1.5 kg. This should easily be met, right?
+This shipping method has the following limits:
 
 ![Shipping maximums](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/maximums.png)
 
-Indeed, this order of two boards has a mass of only 0.34 kg.
+There are price breakpoints though, I have a board which has an estimated mass of 0.18 kg, and it costs 2.35 AUD to ship.
 
-![Order of two boards](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/order.png)
+![Shipping estimate no assembly](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/estimate_no_assembly.png)
 
-However, when I go to checkout the price is definitely not $A2.30...
+However, it looks like assembly really overestimates the mass of the parts (or are they really this heavy in total?). When using assembly, the mass goes up to 0.39 kg total, which goes over some price breakpoint and increases the shipping cost to 14.90 AUD.
 
-![Higher shipping cost](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/total1.png)
+If you want seriously cheap shipping then you should golf the final mass to be under 0.3 kg since this is where it changes to 14.90 AUD. 
 
-My inital thoughts was that the quote from earlier was a very crude estimation. However, only selecting one of the two orders results in the quoted shipping cost.
+![Shipping estimate with assembly](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/estimate_assembly.png)
 
-![Higher shipping cost](/assets/img/2024-02-16-JLCPCB-shipping-pric/total2.png)
+I will have to do some tests to see how the assembly mass is calculated (whether it is a constant mass for the number of items added or if each item has its own mass), since I really can't see some chips and passives adding 0.2 kg of mass. Also knowing how the shipping is calculated would be nice since it would let us know what the maximum amount of parts are to get 3 AUD shipping.
 
-This is great news. Breaking up an order like this, in addition to the massive shipping savings, means I take advantage of more SMT coupons since usually only one coupon can be applied per order. There is also the obvious benefit of no longer needing to bundle multiple designs together to justify the higher shipping, which means less scheduling issues when ordering multiple designs.
+For Australia, the two options you should only consider are Global Standard Direct Line or DHL Express, the others have higher costs and longer times.
+
+Here's some shipping data from some of my past orders and tests with random PCBs
+
+All prices in AUD.
+
+| Mass [kg] | Global Standard Direct Line | DHL express | S.F Express Standard | FedEx International Packet | UPS Express Saver | Notes                          |
+| --------- | --------------------------- | ----------- | -------------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------ |
+| 0.18      | **3.18**                    | Ignored     | Ignored              | Ignored                    | Ignored           | openGNSS, no assembly          |
+| 0.29      | **3.18**                    | **28.40**   | 31.42                | 31.72                      | 49.52             | Simulated mass                 |
+| 0.33      | 14.35                       | **28.40**   | 31.42                | 31.72                      | 49.52             | Simulated mass                 |
+| 0.39      | 14.35                       | Ignored     | Ignored              | Ignored                    | Ignored           | openGNSS, after assembly       |
+| 0.46      | 14.35                       | **28.40**   | 31.42                | 31.72                      | 49.52             | Simulated mass                 |
+| 0.67      | 23.39                       | 40.49       | 37.42                | 45.02                      | 67.74             | Simulated mass                 |
+| 0.8       | 23.61                       | 40.49       | 37.42                | 45.02                      | 67.74             | Neptunium Order after assembly |
+| 1.19      | 31.59                       | 63.01       | 43.06                | 64.40                      | 46.65$A           | Simulated mass                 |