Getting the board made

Rene

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Hi, just put multiple images on your original design.

Ok, how about vendors in the US? I expect the shipping costs and delays would make overseas vendors impractical for protos.

All of the vendors I have found that have low pricing specifically prohibit this. I even got a call back from one and he argued that the "industry" could not afford this. He seemed to think that it was reasonable to charge me $13 each for 0.3 sq inch boards. :)

I found one that *requires* you to panelize boards that are below a minimum size. I have been told before that they have trouble doing the routing on very small boards since it is hard to hold them while the last ones are cut out.

I might try to send them my files panelized anyway and see if they actually look at them. Or I could disguise them by adding traces between the rows and columns, but what a stupid thing to have to do!

Fast and friendly service, good people, excellent work. We use them exclusively for prototypes.

Most PCB suppliers prefer to do their own panelisation.

Olimex:

are quite inexpensive. They are in Bulgaria but you should still find them cheaper than US suppliers even when postage is added. They use Eagle themselves, and I think they can work from Eagle files. Quality is fine for prototypes. Not very high tech (8/8 design rules and quite big vias) but that is probably OK for you.

Leon

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Leon Heller, G1HSM
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My low-cost Philips LPC210x ARM development system:
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;-) I researched 20+ PCB houses for a 1" x 2" PCB some time back, and I found the same thing. That, and the magic price seems to be $100 per order.

seems to be the exception. They get high marks from a lot of folks, they'll do orders as small as one board for cheap, and they panelize / de-panelize for free. If memory serves, they charge by dimensions, with a minimum billing unit of 1" per board (though they'll mill smaller).

Yes, they are European, but the only board house I found that fits the bill. For $26, it's worth a try. The shipping delay/cost to USA doesn't appear to be significant.

Also, I've been very happy with the work from

(another recommendation here), but they don't allow panelization. However, they do have an excellent tool you should try at - it'll run a pre-flight check on your gerber files.

Advanced Circuits (4pcb.com) does do good work just document your order and instructions very well. I've had nothing but excellent end product from them but their office staff is problematic, especially one lady who intentionally charged my credit card from $550 more than authorized. I had to threaten them with filing a federal interstate fraud complaint to get it reversed. And that was not the first incident with them.

By the way, if they check and discover that you've put your designs into an array they'll charge another $50/order. Reasonable I think.

-- Regards, Albert

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Ok try this lot.

Le 05/01/2004 23:47:09, Ralph Malph a écrit:

Olimex

and they perform panelization for you per your instructions (for free). They accept Eagle files directly.

Not in US, but US is not the world, and express shipment is here to balance cost vs leadtime.

-- Christian - Grenoble

Olimex approves multiple simelar images - no problem I have done this several times :-)

Cheers

Klaus

Oops, As European, I assume everyone else to be European too and therefore the world ends at the boundaries of Europe. ;-)

Rene

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Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
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Try

They were ready to satisfy all my demands

2 years ago. They are in Bltimore, MD

One more I have used numerous times.

Hmmm, was this a friendly jab at Americans? I have even seen us criticized for using the term Americans since that really should apply to countries in two *continents*. I don't mind. I certainly can't say we aren't guilty of thinking that the US is at the center of the map.

Sort of. Almost. Without telling us that you're interested in american companies, you assumed that you'd get american companies. Neither your sender adress, nor your signature didn't hint your location. I likewise didn't think any further and assumed you to be european. Sorry about that.

Rene

I've used APC's proto service to make a panel containing three boards

- I panelized them myself, and had to cut the finished boards apart when I got them back. That way, the job looked like one board to them

- if I wanted them to cut the panel, then they'd see it as three boards, and probably charge accordingly.

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They also have a cheaper service if you don't need solder masking. the website is

by the same company Advanced Circuits.

Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.

small

AP Circuits does not care if you put multiple boards on a panel, as they charge by the square inch. However for prototypes, they do not route the outline, and only cut it roughly with a shear.

They are a good company to use, as long as you don't want solder mask or ident, as then they start getting too expensive.

Just my $0.02 worth,

Mike Anton