PCB board manufactuing house recommendation

[meriad]

Hello:

I am creating a device that I am hoping to sell comercially, but I am having great difficulty creating my own PCB board for the prototype to test the circuit. I've read all the advice given in the forum, and its not working for me, primarily because I do not have a laser printer (only a inkjet, that the toner paper makes a mess of), and have to 'hand' draw the pattern onto my PCB board using a permanent marker. Then when I etch the board, half of the time the marker does not hold to the board, and the desired trace is etched away.

So I created my design in Eagle, and submitted my board to a manufactuing house to see if they could produce a cost effective prototype board for me. They quoted over $100 US to produce a single board with the following specs:

Layer: 2
Size: 1.062" x 1.69"
board cem3
Min. trace/space: 5 mil
Copper weight: 0.5 oz
11 holes/vias
20 smc components
2 so08 IC's
E-testing: included (Test every single board)
Tooling: included
Design review: included
Solder mask: included
Silkscreen: included
Surface finishing: included

For me that price for a single board, seemed high, I may be wrong, as this is the first quote I've requested. Does anyone have any PCB manufacturing places that they can recommend, and/or tell me how I can adjust my specs so that the board will be cheaper to produce?

 

[hjames]

5 mil is hard - so unless you really need to route 2 traces between the SO8's pads, you've overspec'd the board. 6 mils is the standard for prototyping houses around here, and you can probably get some overseas places if you make it a bit larger.

**broken link removed**
$100 gets you 60sq" of board, a metal shear/diamond tile cutter lets you depanelize the boards. (offer from Advanced Circuits = www.4pcb.com)

There are a number of places which have similar offers.

 

[Russlk]

expresspcb.com advertises 3 boards for $51.You may have to use their software, I have no experience with this company. I have used PCBexpress, you can get 2 boards for $60. Good quality and fast turnaround.

 

[philba]

there are numerous possibilities - the cheapest around is sparkfun. Some outfits have student programs that get you decent prices. PCBCart has gotten good reports though they have a tooling fee. Better for doing multiboard panels. Most PCB houses have some sort of prototype deal.

a few to consider
**broken link removed**
https://www.pcbfabexpress.com/
**broken link removed**
https://www.pcb-pool.com/ppus/info.html

 

[3v0]

I opted to get the equipment together to do boards at home.

The quality and price of the board houses is very tempting but I was unsure how many tries it would take to get working boards (due to my errors).

My total investment is about $200 US including a GBC laminator H210 and benchtop harbor freight drill press. Also included is Pulsar transfer paper & foil, etchant, and a supply of board stock from Electronic Goldmine.

At some point I am sure I will have a board house do the work but I enjoy making them for now.

 

[meriad]

I would prefer to do them at home to, but I cant seem to get the iron on transfers to work... probably due to my printer not being a laser. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with a laser printer, and can't afford to purchase a quality one right now

 

[3v0]

I had mixed (mostly bad) results with toner transfer till I got the right supplies and equipment.

If you have access to a photocopier where you can use your own paper, you can print your artwork on your injet and copy with the photocopier. You need to run a few tests to get the image the right size as some copiers scale the image up or down a bit.

 

[Ambient]

Cheaper than all mentioned above: www.futurlec.com

 

[picbits]

I use an Epson Inkjet printer, inkjet transparencies and a UV Light box along with a MEGA etch tank.

I get consistently good prototype boards in under an hour and the other advantage is that the transparencies are reusable so you can do batches of boards very cheaply.

Just make sure you press the side that has been printed to the board so there isnt as much light leakage through the film.

 

[Gayan Soyza]

I would prefer to do them at home to, but I cant seem to get the iron on transfers to work... probably due to my printer not being a laser. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with a laser printer, and can't afford to purchase a quality one right now

I don't take laser printouts.Just take your printout to a A4 paper & photocopy that to a transparent sheet (projector papers).& proceed with your ironing method.This is what I do at home.
But for 100 boards it will takes more time.Better you give to a PCB manufacturer else.

 

[meriad]

I'm going to take my layout sheets and get them photocopied to see if I can build my prototype. I really appreciate all the feedback and will submit quotes at all of the mentioned sites

 

[3v0]

It depends on how many boards you order at one time. For small runs BatchPC is less expensive.

BatchPCB.com is $2.50 sq inch + $10 setup.
BatchPCB allows multiple designs with the one setup fee.
A 4 sq inch DS board solder mask and silk screen from them is $35.

Futurlec wants $53.26 most of it is setup.
The square inch charge is low at about $.565.
For runs of over 80 square inches (21 of these boards) Futurlec would be a better deal (if I have my math right).

Does not include shipping.

 

[philba]

also, while the futurelec pricing looks good, I've yet to read any reports on their service that were positive.

The problem with batchpcb (sparkfun) is that getting a board back can take forever. several weeks or more. that's just too long for me.

shouldn't a 4 in sq board from batchpcb be $20 plus shipping?

generally, I will make a first prototype PCB via toner transfer. Once I get it debugged, I'll use a service. TT gives me fast turnaround and a quick indication if my design is reasonably close. If i was building some one else's design, I might send it out right away if there was good cause to believe they had worked the bugs out.

 

[3v0]

$2.50 sq inch + $10 setup.
so

4 * $2.50 + $10
$25 + $10
$35​

What I like is that that they charge only one $10 setup fee per order regardless of how many different project/board are included.

 

[BeeBop]

This doesn't add up:

$2.50 sq inch + $10 setup.
so

4 * $2.50 + $10
$25 + $10
$35

Should be:

4 * $2.50 + $10
$10.00 + $10.00
$20.00

 

[philba]

oh yeah, that's because batch PCB doesn't use a dimension layer and instead takes the size from the bounding box of all layers including legend. He probably had a connector outline that stuck way out...

or his calculator thinks that 4 = 10. lol

 

[3v0]

Gosh I goofed.
$20 sounds much better.