PCB - some reputable companies

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jackbbot51
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PCB - some reputable companies

Post by jackbbot51 »

Hi

I would really appreciate if some one could list a couple
of companies that could produce PCB s for say personal projects.

So what I would like is some reputable companies say like in the US

and possibly out of the US say like china.


And what would be the difference between in or outside the US?
What are the advantages of picking 1 over the other??

Regards
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Dave Dixon
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Re: PCB - some reputable companies

Post by Dave Dixon »

I have had great service from Avanti Circuits. They aren't the cheapest, but are great at giving fast quotes and deliver a great product. I met with a gentleman a few weeks ago with a place called q-fab, and he said that they were interested in smaller quantities, but I haven't personally used them. Hope this helps.
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philba
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Re: PCB - some reputable companies

Post by philba »

sparkfun has lots of discussions on this sort of topic. I suggest you look there.

Some that people have reported success with:
batchpcb - slow but inexpensive
expresspcb - you have to use their sw, locks you into their service
pcbexpress
goldphoenix
pcbcart
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haklesup
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Re: PCB - some reputable companies

Post by haklesup »

Price usually comes out of a grid of board size, layer count and turn time all assuming standard process. YOu want a company with a standard process that includes top silkscreen and soldermask. 10 working day turn time is typical. Any company that does not charge a tooling charge or shipping is in the ballpark for hobbiests. Once you make the holes too small, traces too small or add gold, you are generally out of standard and will be asked to pay tooling charge up to $250 per lot. 7mil/7mil treace space and 10 mil min hole is a good standard spec. sometimes you can go to 5/5/10 but thats unusually small for standard (or Proto) spec.

I've used Imagineering for a long time www dot pcbnet dot com if you want to look. Good deal 10square inch board, 2 layers, 5 day turn min qty 10 total $100. must pay by CC. 4 layers 3x more, 6 layers 4x more with 10 day turn time.

Occasionally you can get a bit lower. look for min qty 5 or 1 up deals. always compare total cost incl tooling and shipping. Occasionally I see fab services on Ebay. Off shore is not much different quality wise, many vendors may panelize your design with others and send off shore anyway. There weren't too many off shore willing to do small runs but now some are. I haven't qualified any but for production or complex high layer count small feature boards. For complex boards you may find better deals offshore for proto qtys but for small easy boards they are all very competitive.
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