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EEVblog #241 – Circuit Labs PCBs from New Zealand
Posted on February 2nd, 2012 17 comments
http://www.pcbzone.net
http://iteadstudio.com/
Many people asked to see the PSU PCB’s from Circuit Labs in New Zealand.
Here is an in-depth look, compared with the same board from ITEAD Studios17 responses to “EEVblog #241 – Circuit Labs PCBs from New Zealand”
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The Circuit Labs silkscreen might be a photosensitive one – applied the same way soldermask is. Was looking for soldermask on eBay a few months ago, and came upon some jars specifically for labelling use.
It would also explain both the more transparent nature as well as the perfectly smooth edges – this is not an old-fashioned silkscreen process, at the very least. The dot-matrix effect you see on the chinese boards is due to the mesh used to create the screen for the printing.
Nice boards, by the way.
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Yep, it’s not a silk screening process. Circuit Labs clued me in on what it is, but asked me not to tell!
And extremely durable too they claim, as well as superior alignment…-
The Component Overlay would most likely be applied in exactly the same way as the soldermask, using a Liquid, photo imageable ink (LPI). It’s typically a more expensive process then regular silkscreening but the results are far far superior.
By the way, there are still at least 3 PCB Manufacturers who locally produce boards in Australia: Lintek, IMP and Artronic Productions. I have been using Lintek for over 5 years and their quality is absolutely superb (and they also use the LPI Component Overlays). Lintek make their boards in a completely different way to other manufactures through a process of electrodepositing the copper to the board rather than etching it. This results is very precise track geometries. (http://www.lintek.com.au/unrivalled.html)
There is another prototype service I have recently used called Dorkbot PDX (http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order), where you pay a flat rate of USD 5 per square inch (you get three copies of each board for this price), with a USD 15 postage fee. The boards are manufactured in the USA, and the quality is also very good (except for the component overlay which uses a silkscreen process). However it can take 3 to 4 weeks to receive the Dorkbot boards.
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Daygen February 2nd, 2012 at 10:04
Hiya Dave, great to see some NZ stuff, I live in NZ and didn’t know about Circuit Labs.. got all of our boards made in China, definitely check them out for the next run.
Can’t wait for the power supply kit, looks awesome
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DJ Delorie February 2nd, 2012 at 16:56
I find that my flatbed scanner is the best way to get high-res images of circuit boards. Also, since you know the scan resolution, you can measure features as well.
Also, note that holes in HASL treated boards may be smaller diameter as the HASL plates the inside of the holes as well. Manufacturers are supposed to account for that, though, but they might always use the bigger drill so they don’t have to have option-specific drill adjustments. Also, some manufacturers have a limited set of drills and will round up, so the fact that one board’s holes were bigger than the other might have been a coincidence of available tool sizes.
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David Bogot February 3rd, 2012 at 13:55
Dave,
I love the EEVBlog – I’ve probably learned more about electrical/electronics engineering from you in the last few months than I did while getting my electrical engineering degree!
In this video, you mention Murphy yet again. I thought I would share MY favorite – “O’Malley’s Law”.
O’Malley’s law states: “Murphy was an optimist…”
Keep up the good work, and best of luck to you!
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Hi Dave, solid work as always! I just wanted to point out that iTead studios also offer a faster DHL shipping alternative, with which I received my boards after a week to Sweden.
Love your blog, keep up the good work! -
Great to see that there are some local pcb fabs with good quality. Hard come by these. On the other hand the old ucurrent looks a bit better (at least on camera) – the red mask is a bit more suitable for the panel.
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Zinahe Asnake February 10th, 2012 at 07:01
With all due respect, that was lot of useless nit-picking for a circuit board that will boxed in a container anyway. I am sorry to say that I felt like I really wasted my 15 minutes watching it. I have a lot of respect for EEVBlog to walk away without mentioning this.
Cheers.
P.S. I’m not Chinese and don’t have anything against New Zealand.
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fozia May 26th, 2012 at 19:58
My husband is a PCB engineer. We are relocating to New zealand soon but the problem is we cant find a job there. can you guys give us a list of recruting companies name?
my email address is fozia.aanwarr@gmail.comthanks in advance.
Fozia
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I love the EEVBlog – I’ve probably learned more about electrical/electronics engineering from you in the last few months than I did while getting my electrical engineering degree! Electronics and gadgets products are exclusive collection in our online shop with specific accessories, low price and quickly delivery.
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Asm February 2nd, 2012 at 10:00