I've been assembling guitar effect pedals and usually do it manually, aligning the pots by eye. While this works visually, it's definitely not perfect to the millimeter due to the play between the pads and pins. Recently, I tested out JLC's service where they had already assembled the PCBs, and everything was flawlessly aligned! I doubt they made a custom jig for just my two test boards, so I'm curious about their alignment process. How do they ensure such precision in component placement?
1 Answer
It likely comes down to the skill of the workers handling the assembly if it's done by hand. These people have a ton of experience and can align components much better than most.