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Circuit board production companies. Who do you use? — Parallax Forums

Circuit board production companies. Who do you use?

Don MDon M Posts: 1,653
edited 2011-01-03 08:54 in General Discussion
For those of you that use a company to make your circuit boards -

Who do you use and why do you like them?

I have my design just about completed in Diptrace and need to move on to production soon. I am just looking for circuit board production at this point as I will populate my first run myself.

Thanks.

Don

Comments

  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,653
    edited 2011-01-02 07:42
    Where does Gadget Gangster have their boards made?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2011-01-02 07:59
    I like PCB-Pool. The service is excellent and the board quality is superb.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2011-01-02 08:17
    For prototypes that can wait a bit, batchpcb.com
    For small production, Gold Phoenix.
    Tried PCB Fab Express a couple times, quit when they mixed up my boards with someone else's.
  • Chris_DChris_D Posts: 305
    edited 2011-01-02 08:47
    I have only had one board made by a service and that was https://www.protoexpress.com/chklogin.jsp

    I used their "No Touch" service which was affordable. Everything went okay except that the tin coating on the board was a bit heavy resulting in shorts on a 100 pin tqfp. It wasn't really a problem because I had to solder the chip on anyway.

    Chris
  • RoadsterRoadster Posts: 209
    edited 2011-01-02 09:40
    I have used this place once http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order, its good for small proto's with silk screen and solder mask.
  • Lord SteveLord Steve Posts: 206
    edited 2011-01-02 09:48
    I have used both BatchPCB and Advanced Circuits and had no problems concerning quality with either. (BatchPCB is really slow, though.)
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2011-01-02 11:55
    I use Advanced Circuits. They do good work, their price is competitive, very fast turnaround and my money stays in my own country.

    Rich H
  • SeariderSearider Posts: 290
    edited 2011-01-02 18:25
    You should be able to use the forum search function to find a number of threads that answer this basic question.
    I use http://www.pcbcart.com/ . they are easy to work with and I have never had a quality issue. One time they identified an error in one of my files and let me know before they made any boards allowing me to correct it without cost.
    The best board house for you will depend on several factors, here are a few to consider. Different shops have strengths and weaknesses depending on what you need.
    1. your location (shipping cost)
    2. The size of the boards you want to make (some shops only have great pricing on small boards or standard sizes)
    3. How complex the board shape is (are there interior holes, non-rectangular outline)
    4. The material that needs to be used (flexible, FR4, other)
    5. Trace Thickness (1oz, 2oz, 3oz...)
    6. Speed (how fast do you need them)
    7. Do you need a stencil for solder paste ?
    8. Quantity needed

    You get the idea.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-01-02 21:01
    I have had my boards made in China as any and all quotes I got in Taiwan were way too high and they wanted huge production runs. And shipping from the US is expensive. Also the Chinese company has a USD Paypal account, so I pay from my US credit card. Several outfits are having fab in China and just charging a markup for handling it - Futurelec and Sparkfun appear to be two of these.

    So far I've had one run of 25 boards for about $120USD down without any quality problems, but there were a few first time delays as I had to find out how the Eagle files worked with their production equipment.
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2011-01-03 05:20
    I use Olimex www.olimex.com
    In my case shipping is quite cheap.
    It had advantages and disadvantages, and it depends on your need.
    The only make eurocard size or a panel the size of 4 eurocards.
    Holes in your file are tool drill size, not finished.
    You can have 1 or 2 layers. For 2 layers you only have one option, double solder resist, top silkscreen, plated holes.
    On the other hand for a single board they are cheap, and if you compose you panel of many boards (same or different design), and provide straight cut and clearance they will depanelize it for you, for free. You have not setup fee.
    If you use the 10 mils option they are rather fast too.
    When I contacted the via e-mail I received a fast answer.
    Massimo
  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2011-01-03 07:48
    I use ExpressPCB. They're quality hasn't been an issue at all and since we initially designed it with their free tool, we thought we'd stick with them a while. They did, however, send us the gerber files which was nice. That allowed us to get a stainless stencil cut.

    Bill
  • Bobb FwedBobb Fwed Posts: 1,119
    edited 2011-01-03 08:54
    I use DorkBot (dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order) for small prototype orders. They even do really cheap 4-layer boards with no setup fee.
    I use Sunstone for everything else. They work with the assembly company I use (Screaming Circuits), so that is why.

    I used to use ExpressPCB and had some catastrophic results with traces being open and things shorting to planes. I haven't had any problems with the above two fabrication companies though.
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