zeke 693 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I stumbled across this blog post from 2010 and thought that others might benefit from this person's board house experiences: DIY Guide To PCB Board Fabricators Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Hmmm... I'd skip all of those listed for small hobby orders. I think Seeed Studio's Fusion PCB service, Dorkbot-PDX's regular panel orders (purple!), and BatchPCB are the current contenders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SugarAddict 227 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 holy crap he paid a lot... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 holy crap he paid a lot... Agreed! Did the three services I listed only come into being in the past couple of years? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chibiace 46 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 im looking at seeed atm. pretty cheap Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 In light of the new board houses that have arisen lately, the article becomes a good point of reference. I think these points still ring true. My Criteria for a good PCB vendor: 1) price, 2) ease of ordering/confidence with web tools, 3) did not have to use the telephone. Sorry, if I need to talk to a sales person to order a board, you're off my list. I'm a hobbyist, not a factory. If you mix my criteria #2 and #3, you'll also see 'fairness'-- I wanted a straight price known in advance. Call this 'clarity', perhaps. I have a friend that orders 600 pounds of circuit boards four times a year from the Korean board house. He gets good deals from those guys when he has a small job for them to do. He is also sensitive to where he gets his boards made. He doesn't want them made in China whatsoever. He figures that he'll be ripped off so fast if that ever happens. He's in a competitive market. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Shipping always seems to bump up the cost significantly if you're not US based. I've never actually ordered any boards but currently having fun getting started on some home PCB milling. Some good (and not so good) results with a tiny board that a friend needs for a SOIC-8 hall effect sensor. I'll be sure to post something once I've milled my first MSP430-based circuit! The real plus is the fast turnaround time a low cost for one-offs. I can imagine I'd mill v0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 and then send off for a professionally made v1.0. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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