PedroDaGr8 33 Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Just came across this promotion. A board house in China is offering five free boards for open source projects. They even pay shipping. http://www.electronics-lab.com/blog/?p=24003 The boards must be 1-2 layer Max 10x15cm size Seems to be a way for them to flesh out some areas on their site with some OpenSource boards. Some may be interested. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
amstan 18 Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 It's not that great. I tried it for my rgb clock project. You have to do a lot of work for it. You basically trade your project documentation(which you have to customize for their site) for the boards. They're not that good of boards, green only, take quite a while to get(elecrow was faster). http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/mcu/025/index.html I eventually went with elecrow since they had black available and I didn't feel sketchy basically selling my design. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
abecedarian 330 Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Thanks for the head's up! I have to look into this. My EFI ECU board is 10.8cm x 8cm, and the long dimension can be fudged easily. I'm on a budget so 5 boards for $0 is worth it since the HW is total open source so I don't care much if they copy it. Besides, I'm sure it'll have errors, and if it doesn't, I don't care. I don't mind green, but black would've been better. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bobnova 59 Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Might want to check out Dangerous Prototype's "Dirty PCBs" too. 8-12 10cm x 10cm PCBs for $25. 8-12 5 x 5 boards is $14. abecedarian 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jpnorair 340 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 I don't mind green, but black would've been better. Just FYI: this is only a maker thing. Still, most boards are green by default and no-one cares too much. Fred 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 True - PCBs are not actually intended to be visible. Is just us that like to see what we've put all that effort into. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jpnorair 340 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 True - PCBs are not actually intended to be visible. Is just us that like to see what we've put all that effort into. Ha ha... believe me, I think black and purple (or whatever) boards are awesome, but if I can save money, it doesn't take much to convince me to go with basic green. If you are putting together a maker-focused kickstarter I can understand the point of going for a custom look. Other than that, go for cheap. Incidentally, adding cost to go for ENIG finish is not always a bad idea. It bonds to solder nicely, certainly nicer than the lousy HASL finish. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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