Hey,
it would be nice to be able to print unique serial numbers in the Silkscreen of ordered boards. With JLC for example, you put a placeholder string such as “SERSERSER” on the board, which then gets replaced by a unique number during production. This would greatly help being able to differentiate the boards later, especially since the silkscreen is far more durable than just stickers on the boards, which is the alternative i currently see.
greetings,
Erik
Thanks for your input. We currently only support serial numbers on custom requests. Can you give me some insights into what you use the marking for? Is a human-readable marking sufficient, and what kind of stickers do you currently use?
Currently, standard-Label-maker stickers (Dymo-Devices) are used. Human-Readable would be sufficient. The use of the markings is to track/identify the unique PCBs, especially as some of them are in differnet assemblies → Input-board 1,2,3 are together with Control-Board 2 and Sensor-Board 7.
As we’re in construction, the boards sometimes are used in rough conditions and it would be nice to be able to say “ah, well, board with ID xy had the issue z after … happened to it”
Basically, currently I use the silkscreen to print a batch and a revision number on the board and then label an ID with a dymo on them →
Revision 1, Batch 3 (which are static per order and thus can just be put on the board “hard-coded”) and then simply an incrementing number to identify the unique board
It would be really nice if you could choose some standard text like “{SERIAL_NUMBER}” to put on the silk screen to represent where a serial should be placed. One of the more frustrating things about choosing your manufacturer as of today is remembering to put JLCJLCJLC, WAYWAYWAY, or remove the silk screen text all together for Aisler/OSHPark. Perhaps if you use something that doesn’t include your name like JLC or PCBWay do, you might start a good trend.
yes, a general string would be really great indeed