onboard glo driver?

[Flynn]

l over 100 items from AliExpress now, with no issues whatsoever and never been scammed but you need to be careful when placing orders.

I reckon I'm a way's ahead of you there Shaun, I cannot say I have always had a good experience but the overwhelmingly vast majority of purchases have been good. Aliexpress do have a customer service department that works and they will deal with problem trades and I have always found them to be fair in their dealings, the thing is to be fair yourself, it is no good complaining if you mis-read the advert or made some other mistake with your order, as you say 'you need to be careful'. I have just received a refund for a mini table saw that was not up to scratch..... but it took 2 months. I could have bought it locally (it would still have come from China but it would then have been the local shop that took the risk) and it would have taken 2 days to take it back but the price would have been three times what I actually paid for it.



After the 2 months I decided I could live without it.


Edit - Flynn could you upload any more videos to YouTube and link them like above, please. It saves the forum storage and traffic limits. Thanks Mike_K

[IanH]

@bluejets I only did an internet search. All the suppliers here (and I'm guessing anywhere else) require a gerber file for a quote. There was one (forgot the name now) that said prices started at $86, but the rest of them I don't know. No idea what the postage from China to Australia is.
@flynn I've bought a lot of stuff from Banggood and I've found them pretty reliable (except for a bunch of nrf24l01 boards I bought, not one of which worked. Let me rephrase that. I couldn't get any of them to work. And yes, I tried Phil_G's code too. I've bought a couple of things from aliexpress before and been reasonably satisfied (although one item took eleven months to reach me) but for this purchase I found the Aliexpress customer service department worse than useless. They completely failed to understand that the ad was deliberately misleading, showing pictures of two pickups, talking about bridge and neck pickups in the description, and providing no option to choose to purchase only a bridge pickup or neck pickup, the only option was to buy the item, i.e. a pair of pickups. I received a bridge pickup and there was absolutely no way to buy a neck pickup from the seller. I know, I tried. I spent months emailing the seller, who replied to every email "we sent you what you ordered". So I raised an issue with their customer service department. It became pretty clear after about 5 emails, that they had received the same reply from the seller, and that they were not remotely interested in taking any action whatsoever on my behalf. So I gave up. I'm not the only person who has had problems with them, I know several members of my club have also been ripped off by aliexpress vendors. Banggood seems to be marginally better.

[bluejets]

No idea what the postage from China to Australia is.

Many Chinese sites will tell you your postage options.
I use JLCPCB and there is a section when ordering to pick whatever postage you require.
The cost I showed earlier was inclusive of the $2.75 or whatever postage if one is prepared to wait, usually 12 to 14 days, pretty quick I'd say.
The $2 some say for the pcb's is bulls**t, as it costs more if one does the panelize and the required engineering and "design rules check" fees.
Usually, as I said previously, total cost is around the $15 (AUS) all up for (in this design case) 20 pcb's.
Naturally one can forget the panelize and costs will come in lower but you will only get 5 pcb's.

[Flynn]

The $2 some say for the pcb's is bulls**t, as it costs more if one does the panelize and the required engineering and "design rules check" fees.

Not so in my experience, here is a panelised order I made a day or so ago -

Panelised (so there will be 2 boards per PCB so 10 boards delivered for $2 plus $1.53 shipping to France and $0.71 duties and taxes..... I really cannot think of better value for your money anywhere else on this planet!

Do your own design rules check, it is built in to Easyeda and is just a button press!

[Flynn]

@bluejets I only did an internet search. All the suppliers here (and I'm guessing anywhere else) require a gerber file for a quote. There was one (forgot the name now) that said prices started at $86, but the rest of them I don't know. No idea what the postage from China to Australia is.
@flynn I've bought a lot of stuff from Banggood and I've found them pretty reliable (except for a bunch of nrf24l01 boards I bought, not one of which worked. Let me rephrase that. I couldn't get any of them to work. And yes, I tried Phil_G's code too. I've bought a couple of things from aliexpress before and been reasonably satisfied (although one item took eleven months to reach me) but for this purchase I found the Aliexpress customer service department worse than useless. They completely failed to understand that the ad was deliberately misleading, showing pictures of two pickups, talking about bridge and neck pickups in the description, and providing no option to choose to purchase only a bridge pickup or neck pickup, the only option was to buy the item, i.e. a pair of pickups. I received a bridge pickup and there was absolutely no way to buy a neck pickup from the seller. I know, I tried. I spent months emailing the seller, who replied to every email "we sent you what you ordered". So I raised an issue with their customer service department. It became pretty clear after about 5 emails, that they had received the same reply from the seller, and that they were not remotely interested in taking any action whatsoever on my behalf. So I gave up. I'm not the only person who has had problems with them, I know several members of my club have also been ripped off by aliexpress vendors. Banggood seems to be marginally better.

I did say you have to honest with yourself if you expect Ali customer service to help you. In your case it sounds like you ordered the item without being 100% sure you knew what you were buying, it may well have been a dubious advert but the onus is on the purchaser to move on if that is the case. I have also in the past been 'duped' by a misleading advert but when checking on what I ordered I had to agree that it was my fault I had ordered something that was not exactly what I wanted.
The thing that puts me off Banggood, and it is only a tiny thing, is the way they add a charge to deal with lost parcels - like it isn't already their responsibility to resolve lost parcels.
I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will say they have had a bad experience with Ali or whoever.... they have a substantial number of trades every day. I have had bad experiences in my local co-op.

[IanH]

@Flynn Nope. The ad was deliberately deceptive. I was 100% sure about what I was buying, the ad was very clearly for a PAIR of pickups.
Here's the ad. Note the description mentions in several places two pickups, or neck and bridge, or pair. Try the "buy" button. The item is no longer available. As I mentioned in a post there was no option to buy a single pickup, just the item as described in the ad.
So yes, if you are buying from aliexpress, or indeed any other online seller, study the ad very carefully. They are invariably written in Chinglish, which makes it far more difficult to discern the meaning of the text. Why these sellers can't employ native English speakers to write their copy, or at least edit it, I don't know. Ideally only choose sellers you trust, a seller you've bought from before, or maybe you know someone who has purchased from them before and were satisfied with their transaction. Otherwise it's a risk, and you should be prepared to kiss your money goodbye. I'm an age pensioner and my budget is very tight, so maybe I'm a bit more risk averse than most. And a bit more angry when I get ripped off.

[Flynn]

Fair enough Ian, I too would have expected two items from that advert. I also notice the 'free returns within 90 days' which, from my experience means nothing and will not be honoured. Like you say, it is a risk buying from China (and I would say all the outlets suffer from this) but the stuff you buy from the UK is bought in by the UK shop from China because it is pretty much all made there so you pay for that service, sometimes excessively.

Anyhow, sorry for the thread hijack.

[Shaun]

Hi Ian,
I've just looked at the advert and pressed buy now; it defaults to one pickup for £13.29. there are other options for two pickups at £21.59.

The advert picture does show 2 pickups but as mentioned previously you need to be careful and make sure you buy what you actually want. I have nearly been caught out by this before and you need to check before committing to a purchase. Alnico 2 doesn't refer to a pair it is the reference to the magnet used in them. The wording is a little ambiguous as it mentions pickups and there's 2 shown in the picture but at the point of purchase it's clear pricing for one or two pickups and 2 options for colour.

How much did you pay £13.29 or £21.59 (before tax etc)
If you paid £21.59 and only got one pickup then a mistake was made by the vendor and you paid too much.

Shaun.

[Phil_G]

The ad was deliberately deceptive. I was 100% sure about what I was buying, the ad was very clearly for a PAIR of pickups.
Here's the ad. Note the description mentions in several places two pickups, or neck and bridge, or pair.

Hi Ian, I dont know if they've changed it since your purchase, but using your link, that item is currently showing exactly what you'd expect from a multi-option item on Aliexpress.
The selection is made using the 'Color' button and as you choose a different 'color' you'll see the five options:
1) 7.5k single neck pickup, @ £13.20
2) 8.6k single bridge pickup, @ £13.20
3) neck & bridge pair, 7.5k and 8.6k, @ £21.52
4) 15k single bridge pickup, @ £13.20
5) neck & bridge pair, 7.5k and 15k, @ £21.52

This is how almost all product selection works on Ali, the platform only gives sellers 'color' as an option to list multiple variants.
Its rubbish, I know, but unfortunately thats all the platform offers - I've got this wrong before with the same outcome.
If you didnt actually select color 3 or 5, expecting to pay £21.50 then it would probably default to 'color 1' a single neck pickup at £13.20
Its also as well to double-check your selection again on the checkout screen as sometimes it can forget an option and default again.
Not very intuitive but thats all normal Ali operation, I dont see any deception from the seller - unless, as I said, they've changed the ad since your purchase (which is quite possible!)




... but this is all by-the-bye as we're going homebrew in the true spirit of mode-zero
If the PCB option is too expensive you could always do a Veroboard (stripboard) layout?

[bluejets]

Do your own design rules check, it is built in to Easyeda and is just a button press!

Be aware I have always done the design rules check before sending off the gerber BUT..............
On one occasion they picked up a problem when the panelize was applied.
So, my advice is , get the check done by them before final ordering is applied.