Can anyone recommend a cheap, easy to deal with PCB manufacturer?

[seb1982]

Hi all!

So, I'm fed up with spilling chemicals everywhere, and am looking to get PCBs professionally made.  I'm based in the UK, but am happy to use any manufacturer who'd have no problem dealing with my order.  My requirements are as follows - any recommendations from you fine people would be most gratefully received:

Turnaround time - not important, but preferably in the order of weeks rather than months
Cheap to order very low volumes from (in the order of < 5 boards at a time, and maybe even 1 or 2)
Fine tolerances not important - just doing simple double-sided boards, mostly through-hole and larger surface mount components
Need to be able to drill additional holes for heatsinks etc.
Would like soldermask.

Thanks ever so much for your help, guys 

[Corporate666]

I use three services.


1) AP Circuits in Canada.  These guys are awesome.  They have barebones prototype which is without solder mask, but with plated through holes... then they have Proto Plus which has silkscreen and soldermask.  They quote, IIRC, 3-4 days for Proto Plus, but if I order before noon Monday, the boards ship Wednesday.  Most of my boards are small, I think for a 1-inch square (2.5cm square) board, it's about $25 for two with the Proto Plus service.  Very high quality boards too.  Shipping to me is $25 and I get them the next day.  I probably do 1-2 orders a week with these guys, they are as reliable as a rock.

2) Myro.  Very good quality, price is pretty decent, although I would not expect them to be all that competitive with guys like PCB Cart for 10 unit orders.  But if you are at 50-100+, they are very good.  Plus a full featured online tool to quote which even does stuff like fiducials, panelization, aluminum core, 2oz+ copper weights, ENIG/HASL, etc, and lets you choose your solder mask and silkscreen colors.  Their prices have risen over the past couple years though.

3) Ultimate PCB.  Lower priced than Myro, but not by a ton.  But excellent quality (in Canada) and they have EE's on staff who will add services at no charge like panelization and such if you need it.


Also check out PCB Cart.

[ptricks]

OSH Park, used to be dorkbotpdx . It started as hobbyist looking to pool their boards together into a panel to get them made cheaper and became so popular it split off into its own service. Probably the cheapest place I have found.
2 layer cost is $5 a square inch and you get 3 boards, so 2inch x 2inch = 4 square inches, total $20 for 3 boards, takes 12 days.
4 layer cost is $10 a square inch, 3 boards, takes 14 days.

They have a lot of boards that are already open source that others have allowed to be shared as well.
http://oshpark.com/

[lgbeno]

Seeed studio, itead, elecrow, smart-prototyping all have cheap services.

Elecrow has free soldermask color.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[Jon Chandler]

PCB Fabrication Sources is a reasonably up-to-date listing of fab houses I have used or otherwise know well.

Read the comments for the latest information.

[Rufus]

So, I'm fed up with spilling chemicals everywhere, and am looking to get PCBs professionally made.  I'm based in the UK, but am happy to use any manufacturer who'd have no problem dealing with my order.

http://www.eurocircuits.com/

Is worth a look. EU source means no import duty or danger of getting hung up in customs. They offer a limited technology prototype service for 1, 2, or 5 boards. They have an excellent web based board data analysis tool, worth creating an account just to use that tool. Pretty sure they will be more expensive than Chinese sources, but, not that much more.

[bookaboo]

I use PCBCART, never had a problem and their tech support is surprisingly good for China. Also Eurocircuits are not bad either.

[IanJ]

Hi,

http://www.custompcb.com/

Quite good price, delivery to UK quite fast.

Ian.

[seb1982]

Wow - I wasn't expecting such great replies!  Thank you *so* much, everyone - I'll have an enjoyable lunch hour looking at all these, now!

Thanks again 

[EEVblog]

Almost any PCB house will do what you want, it's just price that varies.
I've used PCBcart forever, for lots of unusual stuff too, and no problems. Not as cheap as they used to be, but their shopping cart/quote system is nice, and the service and quality is fine.

[alank2]

Itead has been good to me.  Consistent quality and I sometimes get 1 or 2 extra boards.

[BurtyB]

Itead have been good for me too. I've had one batch with a slightly misaligned silkscreen but nothing worth complaining about (especially for the price).

[Atifplus]

Hi,

If you want you can send me the design of your board and I can provide you quotes as well. I am an electrical engineer and work very closely with manufacturer to address manufacturing related issues. Feel free to contact.

Note: I joined the business 4 months ago and looking for new clients to provide manufacturing services. We do have store on ebay as well so you can look at the feedback we got from other clients.

Site under construction
botechcircuits.com
Ebay store link can be accessed through site.

[makervier]

I think you can order the PCB board from China,the price is reasonable  and the quality is quiet well also.
here is a list of PCB manufacturers I recommend  from China:
http://www.goldphoenixpcb.com
http://www.pcbcart.com
http://www.wonderfulpcb.com
http://www.kingbrother.com
http://www.kingfordpcb.com
http://www.xdpcb.com
http://www.unitpcb.com
you can take a look,hope this can help

[vivien]

We exported kinds of PCB with high quality,competitive price and punctual time.
We are a professional PCB and PCBA manufacturer more than 8 years.
We are OEM supplier of PCB Design,Express Prototyping, Small/Medium volume Production and PCBA--a package service for customers globally.And help them reduce cost 15%  in last 8 years.
 
Certificated : ISO9001, UL.

No MOQ requirement, both prototpe and mass production are acceptable .
For enquiry, please send me Gerber files and I will feedback you timely.
For further info, please visit our website at www.kingcredie.com .

Best regards,
Vivien
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King Credie Technology Limited
Address:Room 1801, Building A ,FuYong Chamber of Commerce Information Building,QiaoTou,FuYong,BaoAn   District,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China
Tel:+86-0755-23110700
Phone:+86-15119474139
Fax:+86-0755-23110701
Email: sales03@kingcredie.com
Website: www.kingcredie.com
Skype:vivien.zhan@hotmail.com

[strangelovemd12]

We exported kinds of PCB with high quality,competitive price and punctual time.
We are a professional PCB and PCBA manufacturer more than 8 years.
We are OEM supplier of PCB Design,Express Prototyping, Small/Medium volume Production and PCBA--a package service for customers globally.And help them reduce cost 15%  in last 8 years.
 
Certificated : ISO9001, UL.

No MOQ requirement, both prototpe and mass production are acceptable .
For enquiry, please send me Gerber files and I will feedback you timely.
For further info, please visit our website at www.kingcredie.com .

Best regards,
Vivien
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King Credie Technology Limited
Address:Room 1801, Building A ,FuYong Chamber of Commerce Information Building,QiaoTou,FuYong,BaoAn   District,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China
Tel:+86-0755-23110700
Phone:+86-15119474139
Fax:+86-0755-23110701
Email: sales03@kingcredie.com
Website: www.kingcredie.com
Skype:vivien.zhan@hotmail.com

I highly recommend this service- every order ships with a free can of spam.

[UPI]

Hi,

http://www.custompcb.com/

Quite good price, delivery to UK quite fast.

Ian.

I have used Silver Circuits (www.custompcb.com) for hundreds of production ready boards. Service, communication and quality has been absolutely perfect.

For small prototype batches, I have had good enough quality and service from ITEAD.

[chrisc]

I don't know if a New Zealand firm is too far away for you but I'll mention them anyhow: I've been using PCBZone/Circuit Labs (pcbzone.net) since I heard about them here on eevblog. I am really happy with the results - I've put about ten jobs through and cannot fault them.

I received my last job only a few hours ago; it was sent on Monday and had it not been for DHL stuffing up I would have had it yesterday. Their turnaround time is generally pretty quick and pricing is reasonable.

[Erin KOU]

NOTE: This message has been deleted by the forum moderator Simon for being against the forum rules and/or at the discretion of the moderator as being in the best interests of the forum community and the nature of the thread.
If you believe this to be in error, please contact the moderator involved.
An optional additional explanation is:

[Corporate666]

NOTE: This message has been deleted by the forum moderator Simon for being against the forum rules and/or at the discretion of the moderator as being in the best interests of the forum community and the nature of the thread.
If you believe this to be in error, please contact the moderator involved.
An optional additional explanation is:

I ordered several PCB's last week from these guys using their "2-3 day service".  Today is (business) day #4 and all of them are still mid-process. 

I will update everyone with what happens... hopefully they are shipping imminently, but we'll see what they say.

EDIT: Damn, Simon - you are fast! ))

Erin, I have an email in to you guys... let me know what the status of my PCB's is please. 

[nctnico]

Since you are in the UK you can choose to use Eurocircuits if you want boards within a week. They offer a wide variety of services, materials, board build-ups through their website. For projects which aren't in a hurry I always use Seeedstudio. Not as many options and limited boards sizes to choose from their website though.

[TheAmmoniacal]

For anything non-complicated I'd recommend http://dirtypcbs.com at only $14 for 10 boards (50x50 mm) and $25 for 10 boards (100x100 mm), regular HASL. +$15 for ENIG. +$29 for fast DHL shipping (Also free Hong Kong Airmail if you are willing to wait 14-30 days).

At least I'm happy with what I got.

[Vicos Shi]

Hi, how about EasyEDA PCB prototyping service. PCBs from EasyEDA is low price, fast delivery and top quality with precise tolerances on solder mask, absolutely no errors.
You could follow this https://easyeda.com/order  to calculate your PCB quick online. You just choose the specifications you need, like Layer Quantity, PCB Quantity, PCB thickness, PCB Color, PCB Dimension Width and Length, then your PCB price will be calculated automatically.
The cheapest option is for 10pcs of 50mmx50mm boards, which comes to 9.8USD.

Economical price: It only costs you $9.8 to start prototyping your own design. Moreover, Invite Friends can gain a $5 coupon for PCB order;
Number of Copper Layers 1-16
PCB thickness selectable from 0.4mm – 2.0mm;
Multiple choices in quantity,thickness and colors;
PCB Material FR-4, FR4-Tg, FR4-High Tg
Totally free 100% E-test.

[neil t]

AllPCB (china easy to deal with they source from a number of manufacturers ) easy quoting system, reasonable prices ,
 I only have limited experience with them but no drama's so far. four week turnaround to Australia.

[richardlawson1489]

USA PCB Manufacturer

I use this for custom PCB manufacturing prototype and production. Quick PCB made within 24 hours to 3 days as per the customer requirements. No any hidden cost with easy delivery services.