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PCB design and manufacturing


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#1 BitFlipper

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Posted 11 June 2011 - 06:48 PM

I know this topic has come up numerous times but I didn't see anything mentioned about this service. They claim most 2-sided boards are shipped the next day, and they claim very low prices, $51 for 3 PCBs.

Has anyone used that service? Are there better services around?

Mostly what I want to do is design relatively simple 2-layer PCBs, and then have only 1 (or a few) manufactured for me.

#2 Mark H

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Posted 13 June 2011 - 05:58 AM

I've not heard good things about them. They don't run flying probe checks and such on their boards such as PCBCart do, nor do they check sanity of the design. BatchPCB isn't much better but they are a lot cheaper. They don't do sanity checks on their boards either, and their boards are made with similarly poor tolerances/quality. As far as I'm concerned, PCBCart is the only option for getting PCB's made. They have flying probe checks, they will check your PCB to make sure you have a copper layer (saw one at a engineering get together the other day from BatchPCB that had no copper hahaha), run a probe test over it and manufacture to excellent quality standards.

#3 BitFlipper

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Posted 17 June 2011 - 04:19 PM

OK thanks for the info. I checked PCBCart and for 2 boards (2.5" x 4") it is $90 (this includes a one-time tooling cost and 8 day lead time). I also have a follow-up question. Which services provide sourcing of parts and full assembly? I notice that it is hard to find ICs in DIP form these days, most are surface mount now. Not ideal for hobbyists but I figure if there are good services that will do the full assembly it might actually be better anyway. Any suggestions?

#4 BitFlipper

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Posted 17 June 2011 - 06:13 PM

From looking at the services, it seems if I want quick and dirty prototype boards then ExpressPCB might not be a bad choice since they claim they ship boards within 1 to 2 business days. Since the boards I'm initially looking at aren't very complex, not having them tested probably isn't the worst thing in the world.

I was contemplating wiring up a prototype using something like this, but then I realized for a bit more money, less effort (since I don't need to wire up the protoboard) and not much more time I can get a properly laid out board.

Basically for prototyping, my priorities are in this order: Turn-around time, Quality, Price. Most services seem to have much longer lead times than ExpressPCB.

I guess it can't hurt to try out the service and see if it works for my purposes. It would be interesting to hear from people that tried their service to hear if they at least stick to their claims.

#5 ajcg1973

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Posted 17 June 2011 - 08:51 PM

I have used their services on a couple of projects a few years ago and I really liked them. The $59 dollar service is fast and I haveven't ever had an issue with the quality or service. I wouldn't hasitate to use their services again if the need came up *but* a couple of things. The $59 dollar boards have to be under a certain size ~3 x 5 I believe, I also believe you *have* to use their software (provided free but fairly limited part support) and finally for $59 dollars you don't get a solder mask and silk screen. I have actually used the top copper layer for notes on a few occassions. If you can live with the three downsides then I can assure you that you will be very happy with them. Due to the limited parts support, I have looked at using pcb123.com. They also have their own software but they seem to cost a little more than ExpressPCB but the parts support is much greater.

#6 BitFlipper

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Posted 22 June 2011 - 09:21 PM

I've been looking at Advanced Circuits and it looks like it could be a good choice. They have their own software called PCB Artist, but it doesn't contain any Netdiuno parts.

For schematics it supporst the following file types: *.sch, *.ssl, *.lup, *.sgf, and *.fab. For PCB layout symbols it supports: *.pcb, *.psl, *.lup, *.fgf and *.fab.

Is there any place I can find Netduino in any of these formats?

#7 Caffeine

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Posted 23 June 2011 - 12:27 AM

Batch PCB uses GoldPhoenix in China for their manufacturing. I go directly to goldphoenix as for the boards I make it turns out much cheaper ($110 US for a 10x15in panel, double sided, pth, single sided silkscreen, no limit on holes etc)

The quality of the boards is generally very good. On the last order I did (for a full panel) they actually shipped me two panels because there was a small manufacturing error on one of the boards. They do do sanity checking too, a coupelof orders ago I forgot to include my nc drill file, they contacted me back within an hour of submitting the order to confirm whether I actually did want a board with no holes :unsure:

#8 greg

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Posted 23 June 2011 - 03:10 AM

Batch PCB uses GoldPhoenix in China for their manufacturing. I go directly to goldphoenix as for the boards I make it turns out much cheaper ($110 US for a 10x15in panel, double sided, pth, single sided silkscreen, no limit on holes etc)

The quality of the boards is generally very good. On the last order I did (for a full panel) they actually shipped me two panels because there was a small manufacturing error on one of the boards. They do do sanity checking too, a coupelof orders ago I forgot to include my nc drill file, they contacted me back within an hour of submitting the order to confirm whether I actually did want a board with no holes :unsure:


Wow thanks for the link. I like the fact that it's not per-board it's per-area. Sure, sometimes you may only want one or two boards but who couldn't use extras for a decent price? If you've got a 3x4" board they'll make you 8 of them for $100? Including shipping? That's fantastic. Love it.

Ah - the catch is no testing on 2 layer boards with a 15% fail rate. 4 layer and higher they test and have a 2% fail rate. Still, using the example above you'd have 1-2 boards fail per batch. Even with 2 failed boards you're talking about ~$18 per board. Not bad at all.

#9 Roceh

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Posted 24 June 2011 - 12:14 PM

Wow thanks for the link. I like the fact that it's not per-board it's per-area. Sure, sometimes you may only want one or two boards but who couldn't use extras for a decent price? If you've got a 3x4" board they'll make you 8 of them for $100? Including shipping? That's fantastic. Love it.

Ah - the catch is no testing on 2 layer boards with a 15% fail rate. 4 layer and higher they test and have a 2% fail rate. Still, using the example above you'd have 1-2 boards fail per batch. Even with 2 failed boards you're talking about ~$18 per board. Not bad at all.


I've found seeedstudio http://www.seeedstud....html?cPath=185 to be cheapest for small prototyping even with the import duty & delivery costs. $35 for 10 boards of a max size of 10cm by 10cm.




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