PCB manufacture

wrote

I've recently created my first PCB design in Protel and need to find a company to produce it. The board is 114x114mm and double-sided, and I would like to have a solder mask applied. I thought of Futurlec

Therefore,why do you think "about AUD80 INCLUDING POSTAGE seems a bit expensive???

The mind boggles!!

Brian Goldsmith.

Several people on a discussion group thought it seemed a bit overpriced, and it is a fair amount of money to me for this sort of thing. However they either made their own PCB's or ordered in larger quantities. I forgot to mention in the original post that I only want one board made up. Jack

Wow, does that include setup? Yepp, just looked. Prices certainly have come down in the last few years. Last time I got a single (well, 5 was the same price) PCB made was about $300, and I thought that was cheap! I don't know how these people can make a profit on these small quantities. I guess it's being subsidised by their larger orders, which they hope you'll one day become. You're getting a pretty good deal.

Take a tip, get 2 made. You'll want the second one (blank) to look at while you're debugging the first (loaded).

Cheers, Alf

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Yes futurlec is cheap. I bet they make the boards in indonesia. I have ordered from them before and the parts I think came from korea directly.

Or, maybe managing sweat shops in modern Thailand that employ 9 year olds for next to no pay for 14 hours per day.

But you will have to bribe a few officials first.

.......... Phil

Alright thanks for filling me in on this.

You won't get a board made in Australia for anywhere near that price. Futurlec are one of the cheapest around.

You might like to try EzPCB:

Making a board, especially a PTH solder mask one is an expensive and time consuming process. If you want it cheaper, do it yourself, but you won't get PTH or solder mask.

Cheap services like Futulec are available because they combine your design with others and make it on one large panel, thus sharing the cost around.

Want one made by a local supplier? try $300. Want one made in a hurry (1-2 days)? add another few hundred bucks.

Postage time is nothing, they ship by plane these days :->

Dave :)

All true. And dont forget the cost associated with a DIY non-PTH PCB, wherein you will spend all hours (days) tracking down dodgy DIY vias and solder shorts (no solder mask). If, of course, your time is worth anything (many hobbyists dont think so)

$80 is astonishingly cheap - I would have budgeted $200 - $300 here in NZ.

Cheers Terry

I normally budget about $300.00 dollars for two panels 8 inches x 12 inches.

You might try Jemal PCB in Perth (Tel: 08 9356 1997). They were talking about offering a prototyping service for one off boards but I would say the cost would still be about $80.00 and you will have to wait until they get enough protos to batch together for production.

Alan

I have some boards on the way from

Clifford Heath.

????? boards are made in Thailand ........

you could try RCS DESIGN

"sideshow bob" while reading the NewsGroups, found courage and express out opinion in news:42e096bc$0$25427$ snipped-for-privacy@news.optusnet.com.au:

And got lectured by Bob for free.

For sure. The advantage of DIY though is that you can have the board within an hour or two, which is sometimes quicker than just raising the purchase order within some organisations :->

If you know you are going to make it yourself then you'll often design the board to suit DIY. Surface mount means less holes to drill, (some boards can have NO HOLES at all which is really nice) and you can use components legs as vias etc.

You can't beat a proper PTH solder mask board though, $80 is dirt cheap and well worth it, even for the serious hobbyist these days.

Dave :)

F*ck you are smart

Ahh, d*****ad, read the first line you wrote.

Yes it does. Why do you always post the blatent obvious??

F*ck off dickweed. Try posting something useful for once in your life.

"The Real Andy" wrote

F*ck off dickweed. Try posting something useful for once in your life.

It is blatantly obvious you cannot spell correctly and you are a very abusive person. How's that?

Brian Goldsmith.

PS. The mind still boggles!