Comments about new BatchPCB WebSite...

Archive BatchPCB
1

The new site looks good however - there is not as much status information being shown about :

-Status of Panels

  • %full ,

-Which panels have been shipped back.

-Which panel an order /my order is going into.

I think all of that was on the old site…hopefully you guys will add that status info back into the new site.

Duke3k

2

Bring back the round up to the first inch instead of the second inch.

Thanks

3

Also, how do you delete PCBs in the new web site? Can’t find a button for that any more (using Opera). Sure is pretty though!

John Wilson

D Bit

4

Have the guts of the “upload” processor been changed? I’ve been drawing my “.oln” files for ages with a line of width 0, because if the width is non-zero then it’s (incorrectly!) included in BatchPCB’s square-inchage for billing. But now it seems to think there’s no outline at all and shrinks the PCB to the outermost pads, which isn’t right either.

Thanks,

John Wilson

D Bit

5

+1 on the status.

The new site looks great but breaks my gadget. If you bring back the status I can update my gadget.

http://www.mobilewill.us/2011/11/batchp … adget.html

6

The new site is a downgrade.

  1. Status information +1

  2. Ability to delete PCBs +1

  3. All PCBs should appear on the PCB page, or it should be paginated so you may access the old ones. Right now only the first 12 are accessible. The old list was the best format because you can see all your designs right away. New one is too much flash without enough substance.

  4. DRC fail: I uploaded a design that went to “failed” status within 60 seconds. Did it really go through the bot? I never got the failure email, and it was a pretty simple design that had already passed my DRC checker.

7

Agree about the downgrade. I understand every company feels pressure to redo their web site every few months so people won’t think it was stale, and yes the old site had a few glitches (at least with Opera), but it worked! I’m sure its age wasn’t losing any sales at all … but the upgrade hiccup sure is. I suppose the database can’t be shared between old and new? The website is the bottleneck for BatchPCB’s whole business – the new one should have spent a few weeks/months as beta.batchpcb.com before becoming our only choice! Maybe that could still happen???

John Wilson

D Bit

8

Hi there friends, I’ll try and address each of your concerns here, hopefully I won’t miss any.

  • - **Panels** - A Panel status page is coming, but it isn't at the top of the list. It will include an estimation on % full, as well as shipment status for all open panels. There are a few more pressing issues that I need to get to before I can get to things like this. We were under the impression that the panel status page wasn't used by the customers, so we got rid of it. Panel numbers have been added to your order page, so if you're watching the twitter account, you'll be able to tell which panel your order is on.

    MobileWill and your gadget - I don’t have a windows computer to test, but its great to hear you’ve made a gadget for the Panel status. When the panel page is up, you should be able to query for JSON data as to the status of things instead of needing to parse the HTML manually. I’m making a note about this specifically and I’ll send you an email with more details.

  • - **Deleting / Deleted PCBs, Browsing PCBS** - I'm looking at this right now, should be up by the end of the night. The grid view, however uncomfortable, is going to have to stay as the only option for now. Adding a list view is a high priority.
  • - **Sizing / Upload Processor** - See below, the upload coding has been redone completely. The new site causes the DRC to run right away, as soon as it is available. Previously the DRC ran on a 5 minute clock, processing a maximum of 1 board every 5 minutes. We also have the ability to run 2 or 5 or more DRC bots concurrently, but they haven't as of yet been needed. As a result of this, you should see your boards get checked much faster as the site continues to grow. Yesterday (Thursday, Sept 6) the DRC was not running for about 6 hours and had a backlog of 60 boards. After reenabling it early this morning, it had processed all the boards in the backlog in 8 minutes, something the old website would never be able to do.

    Rounding and sizing issues are being looked into. If you have a specific PCB you’re concerned about the size of, please send an email to support@batchpcb.com with your batchpcb email, pcb ID number, software used to export the gerbers, and the size you were expecting the board to be.

  • - **General notes** - With the exception of the C program that runs our DRC, the entire website has been recoded from the ground up. The old code was too difficult to maintain and I've worked to switch over to a new framework which is popular in the web programming community for ease of maintenance. Our internal and user testing didn't find this new site to be anywhere near as flawed as it has so far proven to be, and I regret that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience to you all and all of our customers. However, despite the flaws and missing features currently at the front of attention, the new framework has already proven to be incredibly flexible and powerful as I'm fixing these issues we're seeing and hearing about.
  • - **DRC Emails** - These are top priority and will be back soon.
  • - nhmfl_ecg - Your board did likely did go through the DRC that fast. As to its point of failure, I'm happy to look into it further if you want. Send the ID of the PCB to support@batchpcb.com and I'll have a look.
    • 9

    No, no, no. I need to be able to obsessively check what the last panel shipped was to see how soon my board will be shipped. Without this information, an panic attack ensues. Please make the status information your top priority!

    I am, however, extremely pleased at how well the site renders in Firefox on my mac.

    10

    robacarp:
    We were under the impression that the panel status page wasn’t used by the customers, so we got rid of it.

    I suspect I’m far from alone in totally obsessing over my panel’s status while it’s in the works! Please bring it back to where it was, and of course it would be even nicer if we could get an idea of all recent panel shipments, since once they start shipping out of sequence we have no idea where we stand.

    Thanks for working on all this!

    John Wilson

    D Bit

    11

    The images for my last design don’t show up. My last order (25705) says “processing”. The page just says “No Image Rendered” for all layers (and boards!). Can someone please answer:

    1. Why can’t I see my images for my board(s) anymore?

    2. Is the order actually processing with correct artwork?

    3. How would I know?

    I sent email to support at sparkfun, but no replies, which s**ks when it’s a paid for order.

    12

    marketplace search?

    panel status?

    ugh. why let it go live when its so lacking??

    13

    Add me to the list of people who use (or rather used to use) the Status info. I depend on it for an estimate of how rapidly orders are being processed and hence use it to decide whether I’m going to have by boards fabbed by BatchPCB or elsewhere. If there’s no info at all about the batches, I’ll probably always opt for “elsewhere”.

    Just my $0.02 worth, of course. Not like I’m a huge customer or anything.

    –Adam

    14

    Also, what happened to Paypal?

    15

    Any idea on when these bugs will be fixed?

    I have a 3.00 x 3.00 inch board that is being reported as 2.70 x 2.58 inches. I have tried to upload several iterations of the Gerber files with the outline on different layers, none report the correct board size. (I could use that ability to delete about now)

    I don’t want to place my order unless I am confident that they will be made correctly.

    16

    Please include my in the list of users who find the STATUS INFORMATION VERY VALUABLE. Please make this a top priority.

    17

    Poor execution, BatchPCB.

    Board sizes are still wrong. Every board I upload is about half the size is should be. For example, an 8 in² board is showing up as 4 in², and while it’s compelling that I’d potentially get it for half price, I have no assurance that the board would be cut correctly or that my order would not be cancelled. And my emails are going unanswered.

    I’ve been a loyal customer for years, back when batchPCB was the best deal around - this is no longer true, there are many other similar outfits now, one of which is getting my business today. Sorry.

    18

    You guys are still working on the site, right? I see no visible change since Friday (all problems remain), and my email then to support asking for sizes to be corrected on specific designs has had no effect. Had to go elsewhere with my current crop of boards but I’d really like to come back to BatchPCB…

    19

    blu:
    Poor execution, BatchPCB.

    Just uploaded a couple PCBs.

    I emailed support to get expedited service, was told, “At this point the expediting function is on hold for the rest of the week.” :o

    Maybe test offline before going live??? just a thought.

    Miss the ugly old “usable” site.

    -r

    20

    Hey all,

    Yes, I’m still working on the site. Recently I’ve been tweaking our internal workflow of the site so that when orders come in and panels are received, our processing is smooth and straightforward.

    While you may not see big sweeping changes to the site, I can assure you things are changing. I appreciate the loyalty some of you are demonstrating here with comments of “I’d really like to come back to BatchPCB” and I assure you that your suggestions are heard loud and clear. I’ve only got one spot for ‘top priority’ though, and right now I’m sorting out some issues we’re having with FedEx and USPS.

    Several people in this thread have commented that they’re not getting email replies. If you’d like to contact us via email, please email support@batchpcb.com rather than a sparkfun.com address. While BatchPCB is owned by SparkFun and exists in the same building, an entirely different (and smaller) customer support team handles the BatchPCB requests. The SparkFun customer service handles a lot of volume, especially this time of year – you’re likely to get a quicker response by emailing BatchPCB directly.