Oznog
Active Member
I'm looking for a decent, quick PCB prototype service. So far Olimex has the best cost ($26 for 6.3"x3.9", plus surcharges for nonstandard features), but shipping from Bulgaria is either slow or expensive. Pick which one.
One newcomer company just made me an offer of USD$65 for soldermasked/silkscreened 2 layer panel up to 10" x 14.5", and can get it delivered in under 2 wks, shipping included.
But the pain is that they've got a rule against "multiple boards" on the panel. Repeating the same design any number of times appears OK but they're apparently manually inspecting the design submission to keep me from putting multiple versions of a board and/or different boards on one panel.
I would think if I've bought the panel, I should be able to do what I want unless it's going to incur extra processing resources. They're billing it as prototype service, but I hardly need to waste a whole panel with 12+ identical copies of a single prototype design which I don't know for sure will even work when I've got 4 small prototype designs I need to run through today.
Does anyone know why a mfg would do this? This guy's english isn't so great and he doesn't even halfway answer my questions. Is there a good mfg with a competative cost that doesn't pull this crap?
One newcomer company just made me an offer of USD$65 for soldermasked/silkscreened 2 layer panel up to 10" x 14.5", and can get it delivered in under 2 wks, shipping included.
But the pain is that they've got a rule against "multiple boards" on the panel. Repeating the same design any number of times appears OK but they're apparently manually inspecting the design submission to keep me from putting multiple versions of a board and/or different boards on one panel.
I would think if I've bought the panel, I should be able to do what I want unless it's going to incur extra processing resources. They're billing it as prototype service, but I hardly need to waste a whole panel with 12+ identical copies of a single prototype design which I don't know for sure will even work when I've got 4 small prototype designs I need to run through today.
Does anyone know why a mfg would do this? This guy's english isn't so great and he doesn't even halfway answer my questions. Is there a good mfg with a competative cost that doesn't pull this crap?