Mark Spaeth! :D

Peale

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What company do you use for your PCB fabrication? Are you happy with them?

I know a guy that's trying to get some PCBs fab'd but he wasn't happy with the price each. I see you putting multiple PCBs on one sheet, that seems the way to go to get prices way down. One company he checked out seemed to frown on that, is this a common issue?
 
I know a guy that's trying to get some PCBs fab'd but he wasn't happy with the price each. I see you putting multiple PCBs on one sheet, that seems the way to go to get prices way down. One company he checked out seemed to frown on that, is this a common issue?

If you're doing a small run have a look at Olimex. They're in Bulgaria and were pretty good for panelized boards. They even panelize more than one design onto a board and cut them for you too http://www.olimex.com/pcb/index.html

Pricing isn't as good as it used to be, with the Euro being kinda strong against the $, but there are no setup fees and they do 2 standard sizes for panels 6.3" x 3.9" and 12.6" x 7.8".

They were good for a small run of boards I did.

- James
 
What company do you use for your PCB fabrication? Are you happy with them?

I know a guy that's trying to get some PCBs fab'd but he wasn't happy with the price each. I see you putting multiple PCBs on one sheet, that seems the way to go to get prices way down. One company he checked out seemed to frown on that, is this a common issue?


I think I remember Mark saying he uses a Chinese company for his fabrication. I doubt he will be willing to give out his source due to the increased possibility of pirating if the source became known...
 
Google is a good thing!

On Mark's boards, i remember him saying something like he has to buy in the thousands to keep his costs down and make it worth it to resell. I may be wrong on that.
 
Other than the one's already mentioned I've heard good things about these guys:

http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/

I'll be placing my first order with them this week. They don't panelize but it's really not hard to do yourself. I like them because they take paypal.

If you want to stay within North America these guys are good and only a few hours from me. Price will be much cheaper from China though...

http://www.apcircuits.com/

I don't know who Mark uses but I doubt he's buying thousands of panels.

This site provides price comparisons from a bunch of different fabricators:

http://www.ladyada.net/library/pcb/costcalc.html
 
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Other than the one's already mentioned I've heard good things about these guys:

http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/

I'll be placing my first order with them this week. They don't panelize but it's really not hard to do yourself. I like them because they take paypal.

If you want to stay within North America these guys are good and only a few hours from me. Price will be much cheaper from China though...

http://www.apcircuits.com/

I don't know who Mark uses but I doubt he's buying thousands of panels.

It was probably Mark being Mark then! :)
 
If you just want to make a few, make a Gootee board! ;)

I actually made one of these, turned out really cool. And I'm no expert on this stuff... Was acool project as well.
 
On Mark's boards, i remember him saying something like he has to buy in the thousands to keep his costs down and make it worth it to resell. I may be wrong on that.

You're probably thinking of the NVRAM's he bought. He did a life-time-buy on the Simtek's when they went end-of-life.

- James
 
These guys are pretty reasonable. They were quoting me like $2.50/ea for some smaller boards, no limit on quantity.
Shipping is flat rate even for small order though I believe ($12?).

www.batchpcb.com
 
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If you just want to make a few, make a Gootee board! ;)

I actually made one of these, turned out really cool. And I'm no expert on this stuff... Was acool project as well.

Used the method as well and got great results. So long as you have the patience.
 
Other than the one's already mentioned I've heard good things about these guys:

http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/

I'll be placing my first order with them this week. They don't panelize but it's really not hard to do yourself. I like them because they take paypal.

If you want to stay within North America these guys are good and only a few hours from me. Price will be much cheaper from China though...

http://www.apcircuits.com/

I don't know who Mark uses but I doubt he's buying thousands of panels.

This site provides price comparisons from a bunch of different fabricators:

http://www.ladyada.net/library/pcb/costcalc.html

Here's yet another mfr that does pretty good work:
www.pcbnet.com
Their posted prices are using Chinese labor but they will also make them in the US for about 20% more (that's what they charged me to have boards made in US).

Ed
 
Sparkfun Electronics

Has their batchpcb service (http://www.batchpcb.com/). I haven't used them yet, but their method is to take all sorts of stuff that comes in, panel it up and having them made in China. They then cut the boards up and send them to you.

It's worth reading about anyway.
 
They're quoting $2.50/inch. Is that how most shops charge, by the square inch?

Most PCB mfr's charge per square inch along with a layer count factor (single sided, double sided, multilayer, etc). At $2.50 per square inch, that's real high... you must be pricing a minimal quantity of boards. At that price, my Bally rectifier boards would be more than $60 just for the bare boards...and would probably be made in China and have 1-ounce copper.

Ed
 
That's actually pretty high compared to some of the others mentioned.

YMMV

You bring up a good point..... With that being said, what kind are range are we seeing from these different fabs?
I'd be interested in seeing that data.


I guess knowledge is power, because I didn't know $2.50 was that high.
(Spaeth did... and he was nice enough to help me out)
 
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