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PCB costs? Where to get boards done cheap?

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Hi William,

I'm in the US and use ExpressPCB. They give you FREE schematic CAD software and PCB design software. Their basc package is 3 double sided boards 3.8" by 2.5" for $51.00US plus $8.00 Fedex shipping. Nothing fancy meaning no solder mask and no silkscreening at that price. You get your boards within 3 days depending on which day of the week you place your order. I have placed over 20 orders in the past 2 years for various types of boards. I have bought 4 layer boards (these take 10 days) with solder mask and slkscreening as well as double sided boards. Only problems I've had were UPS damaged the package which cruched the boards. They replaced them within 4 days. Then I had a short n a 4 layer board but it wasn't detected until a year later. It was one of the spare boards. Other than that they have given me beta programs to test and the upgrades are also free. I highly recommend them. You can price out your order right there on your screen as you are designing the board. Try them out. www.expresspcb.com.

Alarmman
 
I was planning on using Olimex. I'll have to see what the final cost is after it gets to me.

If you want to get in on something, let me know.
 
Hi William,
I kind of like SparkFun's service. If I recall, the price is very low $2.50/square inch. They cater to hobbyists, so a one off board is no problem.
http://www.batchpcb.com/index.php
Um, yes, from their FAQ:$10 setup fee (incorporated into the shipping fees) - $2.50 per square inch.
What are the PCB rules and limits?

* 2 layer board - 0.062" FR4 material
* 8mil spacing minimum
* 8mil traces minimum
* 20mil minimum drill size
* 500mil maximum drill size
* No internal routes, no v-scoring
* Board is routed to the indicated border (very clean edges, you can get creative with the shape as well!)
* Soldermask both sides
* Silkscreen both sides
* 1oz Copper
* No limit on the number of vias
* No limit on pads or components
* Multiple designs, multiple copies are allowed!
* Any size up to 10x15", measured in inch increments
* Minimum billable size 1x1" (smaller boards are allowed but rounded up)
* Your design can be any size - board size is rounded up to the nearest inch



You can get more info on the SparkFun site:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php

Regards,
Robert
 
Gold Phoenix is a pretty good deal:
**broken link removed**
$90 for a crapload of area. And that INCLUDES shipping, solder mask, silkscreen, unlimited holes & drills, etc. The works. They want like $30 extra if you want to put more than one design on it, but then you can put on as many as you want. If I recall correctly, this is what SparkFun does. They get a deal from Gold Phoenix and re-ship them.

There was a guy from:
**broken link removed**
who seemed to have a good price, but he was inappropriately spamming this forum with his offers and the site owners banned his URL which is why I added spaces you need to remove. All his messages got deleted. He should have paid a little for an ad and sponsored the site.

BTW, yeah, might wanna check the ads at the top of the screen. Those China mfgs are cheap!
 
If you need low quantites of an exceptionally large or multi-layered board you can use the "No Touch" service from https://www.protoexpress.com/.

You get a solder mask and silk screen on both sides of the board and a fixed price for PCBs up to 60 square inches (that's right! same price for 1 squared inch as 60 squared inches!) with a miniimim quantity of 3:
$32 (per double-layer PCB)
$51 (per 4-layer PCB)

SparkFun's Batch PCB is probably better for smaller boards, but if you need a few complex prototypes, this is the best deal I have found. The one caveat is the finish is not lead-free (which is a big deal for me at least). You can't change it either because as soon as you move outside any of the predfined specs for the "No Touch" service, the price skyrockets to the regular service.

AlarmMan said:
Their basc package is 3 double sided boards 3.8" by 2.5" for $51.00US plus $8.00 Fedex shipping. Nothing fancy meaning no solder mask and no silkscreening at that price. www.expresspcb.com.

Alarmman

ExpressPCB, despite not having a soldermask or silkscreen, they are the only board house that has silver plating one of the only ones that are lead-free in the low quantity discount price range.

I also strongly suspect that Batch PCB is lead-free as well since SparkFun owns them and SparkFun is very lead-free oriented. (I am waiting for a confirmation from them right now). Unlike ExpressPCB, you can choose your board size and you get soldermask and silkscreen- no silver plating though. For an identical board, it also costs more compared to the ExpressPCB deal, but you do get to have a custom board size.
 
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dknguyen said:
PCBExpress, despite not having a soldermask or silkscreen, they are the only board house that has silver plating one of the only ones that are lead-free in the low quantity discount price range.

I also strongly suspect that Batch PCB is lead-free as well since SparkFun owns them and SparkFun is very lead-free oriented. (I am waiting for a confirmation from them right now). Unlike ExpressPCB, you can choose your board size and you get soldermask and silkscreen- no silver plating though. For an identical board, it also costs more compared to the PCBExpress deal, but you do get to have a custom board size.

I'm assuming that you are interchanging PCBExpress and ExpressPCB as ExpressPCB. PCBExpress is another 'traditional' boardhouse (that accepts gerbers) and it is not the same as ExpressPCB. Just to avoid confusion...

Rick
 
rockin_rick said:
I'm assuming that you are interchanging PCBExpress and ExpressPCB as ExpressPCB. PCBExpress is another 'traditional' boardhouse (that accepts gerbers) and it is not the same as ExpressPCB. Just to avoid confusion...

Rick

Oh did I do that? Damn, I was so careful not to lol. Yeah, the good and cheap one is ExpressPCB. The expensive one is PCBExpress. I will correct it.
 
for that small a board, take a look at sparkfun. I think ds, silk and mask will cost you 17.50. automated DRC (batchpcb.com).

yeah, there are several pcb houses that have very similar names. confusing.
 
William At MyBlueRoom said:
Wow, so many options. The board is only about 3sq inches, doesn't seem single sided is a savings anymore so I might as well go with double sided.

Some don't let you put multiple designs on a set without extra cost. Lot's of reading to do.

Enjoy the savings of a double-sided board...things will change very quickly if you need to start using 4-layered boards.

Sparkfun's Batch PCB sounds like the one for you.

The reason you can't put multiple designs on a board without extra cost is that you are basically buying low quantites of two different boards (or low quantites of one larger, more complicated board) and they arent mass producing the board so the setup-fee is a large part of the cost of the order. The price is mostly dictated by how many IDENTICAL boards you order rather than how few boards are in your order (the more you buy the cheaper it gets) with all board houses except for SparkFun. Their program is more oriented for proto-typing so it's charged by the board-space taken up rather than the number of identical boards. So they are the best for getting one or two unique PCBs made. If you need 20 of the same PCB you can save more money by going to regular board house (where you have more options available due to your large order size). But, the specs that SparkFun's PCBs come with are already pretty damn good in the first place. Pretty much every single standard feature you could ask for.
 
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I hear you on why many board houses don't allow panelization in proto quantities but in my opinion, it's penny-wise, pound-foolish. As long as I do the panelizing, a panelized board costs them no more except for depanelization and that wouldn't bother me if they didn't. A number of houses allow panelizing (gold phoenix, ezpcb, olimex, ...) and even do the depanelization for free. I often design a project as several boards and don't appreciate the added cost. I am more likely to make a proto run with one of them (gerbmerge makes panelizing very easy). If I ever have a need for larger quantities, I'd probably go back to them so they will get more business from me.
 
For proto's.. I do all mine in-house. It's much easier than it sounds.
I print 1 to 1 artwork on special A4 PCB transparency film in an Inkjet printer. Then expose in a UV box, or save money and use daylight. The pcb is developed, using cheap chemical and etched as normal.

Contrary to popular belief, you can do hi-res PCB's this way, I design SMD PCB's using this method, mainly for proto's, but also small production runs, panelised. It's much cheaper, the link to the special Inkjet film is here>> **broken link removed**

100-075 JetStar Premium A4 10 sheet pack £10.50
The developer, UV PCB blanks, etchant all from this same source.

If you don't buy the UV box? the initial outlay is very low. The UV Box does make everything easier and faster though.

It's not voodoo, but is often perceived as such.

Btw, the printer I use is a cheap Epson R200 5760 dpi and makes great artwork.

Steve
 
Gold Phoenix, as mentioned above, is a good option. The name to contact there is Shane and he's great following up on your orders. Pricing is good, quality is also very good and very few limitations on what you can get. Shane checks every order so it's complete and alerts you if he sees potential issues. I've managed to put a trace outside the boundary and he caught it on time. He's up in Canada so your emails are returned quickly if you're in the West. The work itself is done in China.

JR

PS: Nice board, thanks for letting me participate.
 
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