JLC's placement preview caught three parts rotated wrong on the siebenuhr controller v3 quote, one of which would have shorted USB VBUS. Neither package had a rule, because KiCad angles and JLC angles disagree per package and the only fix is a hand-kept corrections table plus a person looking at the fab preview.
Recurring agent failure issue in pcb-kit (somebox)
What engineers report
A recurring agent failure problem in pcb-kit (somebox) that mostly hits the electrical engineer.
Failure pattern: validation / failure
Analyst note
From the Grok pain-radar digests, Nov 8-9 2026 (Nov 8 8:41 AM ET through Nov 9 6:41 AM ET digests plus the Haitch editions). Verified live 2026-11-09: issue/PR read; title and state confirmed.
What it costs a team
Modeled annual cost
$30,000
For a team of 5
Prototype delay
3 days
Modeled schedule slip per occurrence
Time lost
240 min
Per engineer per month, about 1 incidents
How the cost is modeled
240 min/month × 5 engineers × 12 months = 240 hours × $125/hour = $30,000
A modeled estimate with medium confidence. Swap in your own team size and loaded rate to size it for your team.
Engineering tools that address it
No engineering tool profile lists this error yet. Browse tools that connect to pcb-kit (somebox).
Evidence
More recurring errors in pcb-kit (somebox)
- Real JLC assembly orders kept landing SOT-23, SOT-363, and SOP-4 parts a quarter or half turn off their pads, a trimmer wiper ended up on an end pad, and a second order caught USB-C at 180 degrees.ECAD · impact 74
- The placement preview for a real JLC order still had four parts a quarter or half turn off their pads, the HRO USB-C rotation was wrong on every board using it, and the BOM page left rows unticked at quantity 0 when designators ended in a letter.ECAD · impact 74
- JLC placement rotation mistakes were caught only by zooming in on the preview, and on a clock board, 528 LED rows collapse into one line.ECAD · impact 66
- KiCad's EasyEDA importer points every 3D model at EASYEDA_MODELS/<title>.step and writes no file there, because EasyEDA's STEP URL returns 404, so imported boards show bare pads in 3D. EasyEDA's outline also sits 0.15 to 0.5 mm off the model origin on USB-C, switches and JST parts.ECAD · impact 66
- pcbkit fab always exported Gerbers with --subtract-soldermask, erasing silkscreen placed in mask openings on purpose. One black-mask diffuser board with white numerals in the windows had to bypass the tool and call kicad-cli directly.ECAD · impact 66
Sourced from public community reports. Costs and delays are modeled estimates, not measurements. Know a better source or a fix? Tell us at hello@productflo.io.