Least cost small quantity PCB manufacturers?

..and of reasonable quality; 2-sided silk optional?

Thanks.

Reply to
Robert Baer
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We use PCBWay for protos, including stuffing. For real things we use PNC in NJ.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
pcdhobbs

Try Oshpark ?

boB

Reply to
boB K7IQ

Incredibly inexpensive; hope they can parse/use ExpressPCB files (.PCB, .DXF). Which takes me to a program that can understand DXF files for verification.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Thanks,sent them a query.

Reply to
Robert Baer

I don't think they work with proprietary file formats. The standard for PCB manufacture is Gerber files (no fixed extension). Why would you use layout software that doesn't output Gerber files? The reason why ExpressPCB doesn't output Gerber files is because they don't want you to use anyone else to make your PCBs.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

for PCB

layout

I think PCBWay accepts Eagle files as well as Gerbers.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
pcdhobbs

How would you rate the quality from PCBWay?

Reply to
John S

We've ordered probably 8 lots of boards from them and never had an issue. T he resolution of the silkscreen isn't terrific, but overall they're very se rviceable. Their stencils are stainless steel epoxied to these super beefy aluminum weldments, which are easy to use for hand-stuffing.

We're going to send them our first couple of fab + stuffing orders in the n ext week or so.

Our previous CM jobs have been with PNC.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
pcdhobbs

Thanks for the report, Phil. We'll look into it. For prototypes we're not too concerned about the silkscreen resolution.

John S

Reply to
John S

What's "small quantity" and what's a "real thing"?

For me a "small quantity" would be 5. A "real thing" would be 500. Who to use for those situations?

Reply to
bitrex

Yup, no point getting fewer than 5 protos. That way if one starts to get flaky you just use another. The spares often come in handy for checking out new ideas anyway.

Since we're a small operation at the moment, "real" means 25 or 50 units of some proprietary thing that we don't want to send to China for IP or speed reasons.

PNC is a good outfit. They're pretty new, so their equipment is recent and their pricing is good for an onshore vendor. Most importantly, they do good work and their support folks are knowledgeable and super responsive.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
pcdhobbs

Aight I'll give 'em a shot! :-)

Reply to
bitrex

These guys are VERY supportive. Pointing to helpful articles, etc. Seems now i can draw my board outline with minimal problems. Steep uphill learning curve.

Reply to
Robert Baer

I used ExpressPCB because it was so simple and took ZERO learning time to (in effect) use from scratch.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Yes, they do. Thanks

Reply to
Robert Baer

Cannot say, have no useful board files (yet).

Reply to
Robert Baer

Did you not realize you would have this problem downstream? Did you find a way to generate Gerber files?

If you want pretty easy to use layout software you can try FreePCB. Mostly it is intuitive other than when you want to add stub traces. There is a forum where you can get questions answered easily and a Yahoo group. At least it lets you generate Gerber files.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

Eagle leaves a lot to be desired.

I go to add mounting holes, put in the hole's size, and find they reverted to a default size near 0.02, so i had to fix them. Had similar problems with trace widths.

Would be nice to be able to fix the damn trace width table; no clues given for that.

What i dislike is the fact that traces that were routed to a pad, DO NOT "snap" to pad middle. In act, NOTHING "snaps" to anything else except to the grid.

So far,i have spent three times the time used to make the scaled BMP files; shame that the "foil" scheme is not useable by OshPark.

Seems there is something wrong; I made U4..U7 by using Duplicate from U3 and got error message about the license. The "help" gave no clue about the problem. Then I added R1..R4 and the nearby traces, no problem. Note 4 resistors use way more pads than U3, and i made R2..R4 via Duplicate as well. Not consistent.

Another inconsistency is the fact that everybody keys off pin one of a part for placement (example: pick-and-place) and measures; Eagle uses the muddle of the part. Have to waste time calculating the offset for placement. That also has repercussions when i have to move the part to fix its placement.

Helpful comments appreciated.

Thanks, R. Baer

Reply to
Robert Baer

or PCB

ayout

This thread prompted me to try PCBWay. I sent them an easy design to test: 2 layer, 1oz., 2cmx2cm, white soldermask, black silkscreen, nothing speci al.

I chose to get 50 boards, and the fastest shipping (DHL to USA). The order came to exactly $41. The cheapest I could have gotten them for was $17, d elivered, for 10 units. I ordered them June 29, and received them today Ju ly 5th. 6 day turn including shipping, from China!?

I did, however, get what I paid for:

formatting link

Those pads are large (0805) and with generous relief. Those vias are 0.6mm . The silkscreen is next to useless. Not very impressive, and I would never use these for production. For prototypes maybe ok, and for hobby use the price is amazing.

Reply to
DemonicTubes

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