So I have a pcb I need etched that has many vias. It's a pretty simple 3 layer(or potentially 2).
I've seen some cheap chinese sites but of course
Seems the most professional(by the looks of there web site anyways)... they also seem pretty expensive for simple stuff.
Something like
Seems a bit scary but is definitely one of the cheapest I've seen.
Has anyone had any success lately with good quality but decent prices?
I make my own pcbs. No vias. I use pins.
If I ever needed pcbs, I'd try these guys.
btw The US and Can exchange is looking equalized.
D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada
I've been using
Dave.
Where are you located?
. . The college has been using pcbcart for some time now and we find them to be very competitive in price, absolutely EXCELLENT quality, very professional service, and quick delivery.
Jim
-- "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." --Aristotle
I recently got some boards from Advanced Circuits, and I was happy with their service. They have a nice first time buyer special...
Charlie
Their $33/ea 2-layer and $66/ea 4-layer PCB prices -- with no minimum for students -- is great.
They used to let commercial entities order minimum of 3 at the $33 or $66 price, although they upped it to 4 not too long ago. Still, quite inexpensive if you're running a business and would otherwise be paying techs to manually solder up a test board.
You have to shop your individual design around to see what's cost effective for low volume stuff. If you want a dozen copies of a small PCB you'll find it hard to beat BatchPCB (they use goldphoenix). If your PCB gets bigger you'll find their per-sq-in prices are way too high and you'll want to move to places with stock prototype sizes (about the size of your hand). If you go bigger than that you'll want yet a third group. If you need an unusual cutout the balance will shift again...
Personally I've used:
BatchPCB for small stuff (can't beat their sq in pricing for small boards). The quality is very good.
CustomPCB (Malaysia) for their 4x5.5" service, 2-sided with mask. The quality was marginal (plated fiberglass shavings in the holes, 6+mil offset on the holes, iffy etching). The service was good.
Sierra Proto Express for reasonable prices on small quantities of 4-layer boards. Excellent quality.
For prototypes I've been using pcbexpress
Most board houses will want you to use an even number of layers unless you want to pay a premium.
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Used them twice. As you stated, etching was poor (overetched, some tracks O/C!), "silver"-plating wasn't solder-friendly, layer registration was poor. Service was average, and unrepentent. Into the never-again category.
Now we use pcbcart, who are as others describe.
That price is for bare boards with plated vias. Solder mask may not be included.
That price includes mask and silk, both sides. You're confusing it with their "bare bones special" which does not.
No, $33/ea is for a two-sided board, both sides soldermasked and silkscreened, trace/spacing down to 6mils, holes down to 15mils, up to 60 sq. in.:
They do get you on shipping -- it's ~$20-$25 for FedEx/UPS 2-day, which is definitely a little "opportunistic" for what's normally a rather small package.
---Joel
Prices and niceness are far better than the last time i had to go to an outside board house. About 12 years ago board prices killed the project, about 25 years ago the same price for a smaller size limit forced us to use "in-house" services which where slower and not as good.
ey
I use PCB Train for very quick double-sided prototypes - =A330 for 24 hour turnround:
Leon
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