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PCBCart.com

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Stellarcore

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I'm about to order PCBs in the next week or two for a couple of projects that I'm working on, and I'm considering the website pcbcart.com (their ads occasionally show up here in the google adsense banners).

The place is considerably cheaper (and faster, apparently) than SparkFun's BatchPCB. So I was wondering if anybody here has ever used them?

The boards that I'll be getting made are about 1.5" x 1.5" (roughly), have 8 mil traces and clearances, SMT parts on both sides and requires silkscreen/soldermask on both sides. At pcbcart, I can get these made with coloured soldermask/matte/silkscreen for roughly $3 per board, $40 setup charge, and $20 shipping (grand total for 15 boards works out to be around $110).

At batch PCB, the same board is $7.50/board with a $35 expedited shipping, bringing it to around $150. BatchPCB seems to be reasonable for small boards like mine, but for larger boards the prices get to be rediculous imo.
For instance, for an 8x10cm board works out to be around $30 per board plus $30 shipping ($330 for 10 boards), whereas at pcbcart the setup fee is around $50 but each board is < $10 and $20 shipping ($170 for 10 boards).
 
PCB cost .........

I have found that if you nest several small boards like yours onto a larger board and cut them apart yourself you can usually save some money but it might not be worth the trouble if you don't have the right equipment.
 
I have used PCB Cart and Futurlec for my pcb's..
Considerably cheaper than getting them made here in the UK even allowing for shipping charges.
PCB Cart seems to have better pricing on larger orders tho..
 
Rolf said:
I have found that if you nest several small boards like yours onto a larger board and cut them apart yourself you can usually save some money but it might not be worth the trouble if you don't have the right equipment.

I think I remember reading on Sparkfun's website that that is what they do to make it cheaper when they send out the board designs. I think they get them made in China. I have not tried thier service, but I had good luck with futurlec's. Some people seem to have problems with futurlec though.
 
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Well, I have been pricing out various boards at both batchpcb and pcbcart and they seem pretty compettitive. PCBcart seems to beat batchpcb for price for most PCBs, but batchpcb is cheaper for small quantities of small pcbs. For instance, if you want three 1 square inch pcbs, it will run you about $7.50 + ~$20-30 shipping. The same board at pcbcart would be $0.50 + $42 setup fee + $20 shipping. But if you want to order them in any serious quantity (say, anything more than 20), batchpcb becomes more expensive.

Recently I was looking at pricing out a really simple PCB with 2 smt resistors and 3 through hole components that measured about 1cm x 1cm and it would cost $2.50 each from batchpcb or 10 cents each at pcbcart, since I would need a couple hundred of them it will be much cheaper at pcbcart. But I think I may be able to cut on my costs even more by panelizing it with another of my PCBs to effectively combine the setup and shipping fees.
 
My boards ordered from PCBcart have arrived today!
So far,I am very impressed with their quality and service.

I ordered a small batch of fairly large double sided boards with no special options.
I zipped my RS-274X gerber files and sent them in via the web page.

The next morning, they emailed with a query about a few of the files.
It turns out that I had used an extra feature in my pcb cad program that caused a small issue with the gerber file layer conventions - this was quickly resolved and they emailed to confirm the solution.
(I will know not to make that mistake again!).

A day or two later, I received another email to confirm the order and an estimated completion date.
They emailed again when it was dispatched (on time) and gave my DHL tracking number.

The boards arrived well wrapped and vacumm sealed (even had a desiccant sachet in there)

The board quality was as good as boards previously made for me by a much more expensive place.
I have just populated one, everything fitted well and it worked first time.


Whilst designing this board, I did a bit of research and here are a few things that I found useful...

It is well worth taking the time to check that your design is ok by using a freeware gerber file viewer (I used Pentalogix Viewmate) first as it may save any delays or issues later.

Also, check that your drill hole sizes, track thickness and spacing and the minimum copper ring around pad holes (annular ring) all comply with your intended manufacturers capabilities.

The minimum annular ring thickness is very important as some pads in component databases can have a very thin ring around the hole.
You can usually easily make this slightly thicker to avoid any manufacturing problems or extra expense later.

Also, take care when adding text for the silkscreen or copper layers that it is of sufficient size and thickness to look good when manufactured.

Avoid using truetype fonts for any text as they may not convert properly to gerber.

I found a good checklist at http://www.adcom.co.il/engineering/pcb_chl.htm
 
I agree with picasm completely. PCBCart did a great job on my board. I took the plung and ordered 100 pcs to keep the price of a single board very very low. The prices, service, and speed is great. This was my first time sending gerber files and was scared. My holes, vias, and traces were set right at the numbers of the DRC(design rule check) at PCBCart. I usually used a proprietary pcb software which shielded me from knowing and learning about gerber and excellon files. While this shielded me on one end, this also was gutting me in my wallet on the other end. Afraid no more of the gerber I am.
 
I use BatchPCB for prototypes - the price for a single board can be as low as $15. Production pieces go to Gold Phoenix (the place where BatchPCB makes their boards), the price there is $120 shipped for 100sq.in. panel.
 
I have used PCBCart twice for qty 25 pieces of two small pcbs. They provided very good boards a day ahead of promised schedule. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the outline routing of one of my boards which was very tiny and difficult to route I'm sure. Not a problem though. Even the shipping was good quality, Fedex express, and cheaper than I can ship anything in North America. Direct to my door with no problems and on time. I recommend them if you don't need fastest possible turnaround.
 
PCBCART is AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pcbcart is legit. i am a researcher at UCSD in neuroscience and had to make a custom circuit for a project. since ive never made a pcb before, i was having trouble with my soldermask layout in eagle. the staff at pcbcart were super helpful and friendly (especially Hu) and provided no shortage of .pdf proofs and even went so far as to send me .gif file with arrows and notes to help clairify my issues. they are very kind, patient, and speak excellent english as well!!

in all, i give them an A+ for top notch customer service!!!!!!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (to the point where i actually went out of my way to find a place to review them!)

best,

dave
 
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www.circuitboardstogo.com is also a sweet deal

I search all over the web and found **broken link removed** had the best deal for my purposes.

There are no setup fees, even for one $6.30 board!

I got 10 pcbs @ 1"x2" for $80

The entire order was shipped for $4.99

That's there flat shipping rate for all orders.

This place accepts about 50 different file types.

They only make single layer pcbs.

My order was delivered in 5 days - the quality was fine.

dc
 
cheaper for a reason

We have done bussiness with PCBcart for years and are moiving our produce back to
the USA to ensure a quality prodcut. The answer to your question do you want cheap boards or do you want a quality product. I have reveiced poor stenciling, poor lamanation, leaded boards when I ordered RoHS compliant boards and boards with measling and discoloration, Boards that seperated during reflow , pad lifting durning reflow and many other issues. So you get what you pay off when you order abroad.
It took me a while to convince the engineering department that I was working with poor
product because they were looking at cost not quality. I am now ordering boards that are manufactured within the USA and the quality has incearse 10 fold. If you need just a few boards and quality isn't a issue then PCBcart is for you.
 
I use PCBCart and occasionally order from US boardhouses, usually during Chinese New Year. They all suck but US shops suck consistently while PCBCart can be improved. When I complain about certain defect, I get a free run of boards and all subsequent runs are also good. I never had delamination issues with PCBCart boards, and I use lead-free solder which means my oven runs hotter. All stencils that I ordered at PCBCart (around 50 just last year ) were also good.
On the other hand, US boardhouses consistently ruin my layouts by placing their damn logo on copper layer ( where there is empty space left _because_ no copper shall be there for one reason or another ). Another annoying issue is v-scoring - every 10-th panel comes with no v-scoring on one or both sides. Sure, they will re-run defective panels, but it takes couple of hours waiting on hold/talking to the boardhouse plus a week of "expedited" run.
 
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