Cheap PCBs for really low volume

[Fantasma25]

Hello. I'm a beginner at PCB prototyping and I'm working on a small power supply project in eagle that I'd like to build. The problem is that most PCB manufacturers charge pretty much the same for one board as for 50 or 100 boards (between $200 and $300 USD), and since this would my first project, I would only want to make maybe 2 or 3 boards. Do you know some manufacturer that charges like $5 or $10 or maybe $20 USD per board? Or what should I do in this case?

[Rerouter]

what are your board dimensions? and layers?

there are plenty, seedstudio for one,

[Fantasma25]

what are your board dimensions? and layers?

The board is about 1.03 x 2.24 inches and has only 2 layers. All through-hole.

there are plenty, seedstudio for one,

I will take a look at those. Thanks!

[dfmischler]

I have used Laen's PCB order (now OSH Park).  Really cheap, and plenty good enough for my purposes.  Note the lead time info before ordering.

[Kohanbash]

I would second Oshpark. It is $5 per sqinch and you get three boards.

It is also a good submission process for your gerber files. They show you what *they* think your board will look like and each layer to help catch problems.

Just be careful since they can only accept a single drill file and quality can vary.

[Fantasma25]

Cool! Oshpark seems very promising (and cheap). Let's see how it goes. Thanks! 

[Jon86]

iTead studio is even cheaper, not the best PCB quality but good enough.

[bookaboo]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/can-anyone-recommend-a-cheap-easy-to-deal-with-pcb-manufacturer/?topicseen

[poorchava]

Elecrow.

They have free color soldermask and service is better than iTead (not to say that iTead's is bad, just Elecrow's better).

[scientist]

You could make them.

[Dago]

OSHpark/itead/seeedstudio

[electrolux]

If you do try Oshpark try to inform me how it goes

[scientist]

Anybody know a place to get 18x12" double sided boards for less than $5000? Thanks.

[Rerouter]

Ohspark may possibly be able to do it, if so there pricing would be 3 for ~$1000,

[mikeselectricstuff]

Anybody know a place to get 18x12" double sided boards for less than $5000? Thanks.

almost anywhere I would think.

[kizzap]

Anybody know a place to get 18x12" double sided boards for less than $5000? Thanks.

almost anywhere I would think.

If you are paying that or more, you really need to find a new manufacturer... They are tearing you a new one at those rates.

[Dago]

Anybody know a place to get 18x12" double sided boards for less than $5000? Thanks.

almost anywhere I would think.

If you are paying that or more, you really need to find a new manufacturer... They are tearing you a new one at those rates.

I checked iTead and 5 pieces of 18x12" two-layer PCBs costs 310$. So 62$ a piece.

[justtim]

OshPark is really good and inexpensive but the quality can vary.

The attached picture shows the result using the same board files but ordered with two different orders about 24 hours apart. I doubt that any place could do better than the one on the left, but for my project the one on the right isn't something I would want to sell because the customer will be soldering the through-hole devices and I would be a little embarrassed by the plating not being aligned to the holes. Also the wavy outline won't even work for my project where it needs to fit tightly into a cutout of the same shape (the break-away protrusions don't matter). If I really needed to, I could order a panel and cut them out myself since I do have a CNC that could do that, but the misaligned plating is an issue for me.

I'm kinda new to all of this and so I may be a little naive to what can be done and may be way to picky.

I too would like to know of any place that provides the kind of consistent quality as shown by the board on the left, with ENIG, and colors besides green.

[MatCat]

OshPark is really good and inexpensive but the quality can vary.

The attached picture shows the result using the same board files but ordered with two different orders about 24 hours apart. I doubt that any place could do better than the one on the left, but for my project the one on the right isn't something I would want to sell because the customer will be soldering the through-hole devices and I would be a little embarrassed by the plating not being aligned to the holes. Also the wavy outline won't even work for my project where it needs to fit tightly into a cutout of the same shape (the break-away protrusions don't matter). If I really needed to, I could order a panel and cut them out myself since I do have a CNC that could do that, but the misaligned plating is an issue for me.

I'm kinda new to all of this and so I may be a little naive to what can be done and may be way to picky.

I too would like to know of any place that provides the kind of consistent quality as shown by the board on the left, with ENIG, and colors besides green.

Show them that second board pic and there is a good chance they will run it again for you free of charge, I got a board from them once where they screwed up the milling of it and they re-did it super quick.

[IanJ]

I have used OshPark a couple of times, and this last batch were ok apart from the silkscreen layer. Along the top side it is fine, but the same size text along the bottom is broken in parts.

PS. Maybe I went below their minimum size.........

Ian.

[justtim]

Thanks MatCat, I'll give that a try.

I've placed about 80 orders with them (hundreds of boards) and never thought to ask them to redo an order. The fonts were a real problem at first (more like dots than lines on small vector fonts so hardly readable with some orders) but they now have high quality fonts at any size. I did show them these two boards asking about the chances of getting some consistency and was told there's no way to guarantee that, but I didn't think to ask them to redo the ones I considered bad. I'll ask them to do that and get back with the results.

I'm nearing the end of prototyping for several projects and about to go into production, so quality will now be an issue. I really like what Laen has done with OshPark  so would like to stay with him as long as possible and even promote what he does in a very positive way even if I go elsewhere for very large quantities. Most of my boards are small but since I do have a CNC to do the cutting out of multiple boards I can order large panels if need be. But I do want to send out a high quality product with nice copper alignment and easy to read fonts.

[MatCat]

I use OSH mainly for prototypes, I wouldn't consider them for production runs, it would cost me too much, I use elecrow for that (they do vscore paneling if you do small boards, makes it REAL cheap).

[justtim]

Thanks MatCat. Can you post a picture of one of the boards? Is the alignment of the plating like in my first board in the picture? Would you know if they use the LPI silkscreening process? Those fonts (vcc, gnd, and 3-10 numbering) are 0.4064 to 0.6096 vector fonts which are unreadable without the high quality LPI process that all of the fabs that OshPark uses are now using.

[MatCat]

Thanks MatCat. Can you post a picture of one of the boards? Is the alignment of the plating like in my first board in the picture? Would you know if they use the LPI silkscreening process? Those fonts (vcc, gnd, and 3-10 numbering) are 0.4064 to 0.6096 vector fonts which are unreadable without the high quality LPI process that all of the fabs that OshPark uses are now using.

Elecrow board or OSH Park?

[justtim]

I was wanting to see the Elecrow but I just found out the smallest text they do is 32mil. I need down to 16mil like the vcc and gnd on the boards in the pictures.