board manufacturing
Bobb Fwed
Posts: 1,119
I'd imagine this has been covered before, but I was wondering where the best place to get a board manufactured would be at?
I plan on having a couple hundred manufactured up front, and a few hundred made up each year (just in case that makes a difference on manufacturing process or options I have available).
I have no experience with board layout (only PCB layout), but I would imagine with the device I have developed it shouldn't matter too much as long as common precautions are taken.
Do I have to send a silkscreen layout to the company, or just an electrical diagram? If the silkscreen layout is needed, maybe I can get some pointers as to standards and common mistakes.
Also, if possible (and now I may be asking too much in one post) I would like it in a "case" or something to protect the circuitry and have ports (resembling 2.5mm headset jacks) attached to "case" where other devices I have can plug in and communicate with the board (and µController).
I am pretty flexible on the price as long as I can get all of this done, and get them manufactured on demand (as I need them).
Any help would be much appreciated.
I plan on having a couple hundred manufactured up front, and a few hundred made up each year (just in case that makes a difference on manufacturing process or options I have available).
I have no experience with board layout (only PCB layout), but I would imagine with the device I have developed it shouldn't matter too much as long as common precautions are taken.
Do I have to send a silkscreen layout to the company, or just an electrical diagram? If the silkscreen layout is needed, maybe I can get some pointers as to standards and common mistakes.
Also, if possible (and now I may be asking too much in one post) I would like it in a "case" or something to protect the circuitry and have ports (resembling 2.5mm headset jacks) attached to "case" where other devices I have can plug in and communicate with the board (and µController).
I am pretty flexible on the price as long as I can get all of this done, and get them manufactured on demand (as I need them).
Any help would be much appreciated.
Comments
Perhaps we could talk off line about PCB and PCB-Assembly (PCBA). For making just PCBs there are many great companies on-line that offer excellent pricing. I like PCBCart.com myself. For assembly, if you wanted to use manufacturers in China, I can offer some advice. If you want to use a USA based place, there are couple different houses that I have worked with. One place to check out is Screaming Circuits. I have not used them myself, but that is because I live in Hong Kong. When I move back to the USA someday, I expect I may use their services for short runs.
Tell me more about what your needs are.
I shoudl also add that I think there is a gentlemen on the forums (Brian Carpenter?) that is setting up for small product runs.· Maybe he is trying to do more of this type of business, I am not sure.· Maybe he can help you out.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com·- Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto fo SunSPOT, BitScope
www.sxmicro.com - a blog·exploring the SX micro
www.tdswieter.com
Thanks for the mention. The machine is now up and running and i just completed 12 hours of training. All is great. PM me if you are interested in short runs
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It's Only A Stupid Question If You Have Not Googled It First!!
This is great to hear that you got your machine up and running. Tell me more about what your plans are? Are you starting a business for doing small runs or is it just a hobby/helping out sort of thing?
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com·- Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto fo SunSPOT, BitScope
www.sxmicro.com - a blog·exploring the SX micro
www.tdswieter.com
As you may know. I have the pick and place machine that has built all the bs2'a up until recently. I had David Carrier, who has run the machine for the last couple of years, over today for training. My intention is to do small runs for hobby and also professional assembly for businesses. I have a friend that is using a PRop chip for a product that will be going to market shortly. He is requesting 250 units a month. this is the type of thing i am looking to do. I am also using it to assemble Terry Hitt's Mini propeller development board. it will do a panel of 4 in 3 min. im a happy camper.
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It's Only A Stupid Question If You Have Not Googled It First!!
Brian,
Even though we are competitors, I wish you luck with your endeavor. We have had some limited success already with the assembly business. I didn't know you were looking into starting a assembly business......if I had, I would have used you instead of starting this one.
James L
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James L
Partner/Designer
Lil Brother LLC (SMT Assembly Services)
I kinda fell into it with the acqusition of the parallax pick and place.
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It's Only A Stupid Question If You Have Not Googled It First!!
Ah that is alright......you will find there is plenty of work for our target audience.
We are waiting on a very large contract (lots of bureaucratic red tape), then we will be adding a vapor reflow for more precision.
I still wish you luck......I have learned an unbelievable amount since we started. We are still getting customers....so it looks like it wasn't a bad choice to start.
James L
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James L
Partner/Designer
Lil Brother SMT Assembly Services