Where and how do you get your PCBs manufactured?

[tangrs]

Hi,

I'm an electronics hobbyist from Melbourne. Since I do a lot of small projects that require PCBs, I've found that the biggest excitement killer is waiting for the circuit boards to come in.

I currently get them from iTeadStudio with the cheapest shipping option (aka, Airmail) and it generally takes about 3 weeks to get to my doorstep. The boards aren't that high quality either since I'm paying bottom dollar for them (not that I need high quality boards - most of my projects are one-offs).

Also, because the next shipping option up from Airmail is about 5 times the price, I don't bother with them and just end up sitting around waiting for the next 3 weeks. This also means that if I find out that I've made a mistake after receiving the boards, it'll be another 3 weeks of waiting (or cough up ~$30 to ship the $10 boards)

I also recently ordered from OSHPark since they just happened to be cheaper for one of my designs and they came in just less than 2 weeks with the free shipping option. The quality was great but I felt like I was still waiting too long for them. For most of my other designs, they also work out to be much more expensive.

I was excited to find Breadboard Killer on this forum and I hoped that it, being Australian-based, would strike a good balance between cost and reducing shipping times. I haven't been able to order a board from them yet though since their website is currently down.

Being a student might explain my cost sensitivity but I'm wondering about the habits of everyone else here.

Where do you get PCBs manufactured?
What kind of quality do you usually settle for?
How much do you pay to have them manufactured?
What kind of turnaround times do you have?
Would you pay extra to get it shipped to you faster?
Which is more important: fast-turnaround, low cost or high quality?

Of course, I'm not talking about mass-production here, I'm just talking about the odd few PCBs you need for a one-off project.

Thanks in advance!

[Psi]

elecrow is pretty good for speed/price/quallity

[JohnnyBerg]

www.pcbshopper.com

[IconicPCB]

I make PCB prototypes in Brisbane.
Brass board , same day service.

[Jeroen3]

I also use Itead. Typically less than 14 days from gerber upload.
If there aren't any Chinese holidays.

I made the mistake of using DHL once, which cost me 3 times the pcb price on import taxes.

[rea5245]

Check out PCBShopper.com. You enter your board's specs, the quantity you want, and how quickly you want it, and it shows you prices from 25 of the best-known manufacturers in China, the US and Europe.

[zapta]

> Where do you get PCBs manufactured?

Elecrow and oshpark

> What kind of quality do you usually settle for?

No PCB quality issues. Doing down to 0402 and 0.5mm QFN.

> How much do you pay to have them manufactured?

Oshpark is great for a few very small boards. For larger or higher quantity I use elecrow, sometimes the 5x5cm deal, sometimes the 10x5cm and sometimes the 10x10cm, often with a metal stencil and DHL shipping.

> What kind of turnaround times do you have?

About a week and a half.

> Would you pay extra to get it shipped to you faster?

I do, DHL from elecrow. I use the Shenzen option. The HK DHl requires another border transfer before it gets to DHL and it had problems a few months ago.

>> Which is more important: fast-turnaround, low cost or high quality?

I need reasonable quality. Sometimes fast turnaround is more important (first boards after design completion) and sometimes low cost (when doing a another batch of a stable design).

[Hansh]

http://www.pcbway.com/w

[rea5245]

PCBShopper.com is a price-comparison site for PCBs. You enter your board's specs and it shows you prices and delivery times from over 20 different manufacturers.

There are also user-written, Amazon-style reviews of many of the manufacturers.

- Bob

[rea5245]

The problem with PCB shopper is that it sorts by price, not like Amazon where you get a combination of price and quality at the top.

PCBShopper.com lets you sort by any of the columns in the price results table (just click on the column header), but you're right that there's no way to sort on user ratings (which is not the same as quality, but hopefully there's a positive correlation).

The reviews are too few to be of much use, and like Amazon they don't go into much detail. Do Elcrow chamfer your edge connectors, for example? How good is their drill and layer alignment?

PCBShopper is getting more reviews as time goes on. Your idea to sort or filter based on reviews is an excellent one, and once there are enough "to be of much use", I'll add that feature.

There's one fellow who has posted high-quality, detailed reviews of several PCB manufacturers in just the past couple of weeks. He praises some and trashes some others. His view of PCBShopper is that "having a central place for reviews like this is really valuable". If you have experience with a PCB manufacturer - good, bad or mixed - I invite you to write a review too. Just go to PCBShopper.com and click on the manufacturer's name to read and write reviews.

(I would also welcome reviews of free PCB CAD software. See the list at PCBShopper.com/cad. The nice thing about this list, I think, is that it tells you upfront what limitations have been imposed on free versions of commercial software.)

- Bob Alexander

[DerekG]

What they really need are detailed reviews with photos by people who understand the process

We have used PCBWAY three times now. The boards are quite complicated with an extensive "gridded top copper layer" to match a "gridded solder paste stencil". This is to act as an extensive heatsink for the mosfets.

Also 0.3mm holes are used to transfer the heat under the mosfets to the other side of the board.

PCBWAY also manufactured the solder paste stencil for us in the size requested to fit into our existing frames.

Standard delivery was 5 or 6 working days from order to our office door in Australia.

So overall, I have been very happy with the customer service, the quality of the boards & the speed of delivery.

[rea5245]

The problem with PCB shopper is ... The reviews are too few to be of much use ...

In an attempt to increase the number of reviews of PCB manufacturers and PCB CAD software on PCBShopper.com, I'm running a sweepstakes. Write a review in the next month (until July 22, 2015) and you'll be entered to win one of two $50 gift certificates to Digi-Key. Sorry, but the sweepstakes is only open to US residents.

- Bob

[rfbroadband]

Eurocircuits
fast, excellent online DRC, low cost, very good quality

[MarkF]

I used Silver Circuits to get my PCBs made.  (My first experience getting PCBs.)  It only took 1.5 weeks to get the boards (due to 3 holidays for them).  The boards are well made and each set packaged and sealed in plastic foil.  I ordered the minimum of 4 boards for each set and they sent 5 of each.

The best thing I liked was that they will directly accept files from various layout tools.  I use DipTrace and they directly accept the DipTrace file.  No need messing around creating Gerber files.

[b_force]

I have good experience with www.elecrow.com and www.itead.cc.
Both were fine with dual layer and four layer boards.

[technotronix]

First will go with the best nearest PCB manufacturer to me. Then secondly will check with the product quality, turn around time, customer review, customer support and prototyping of product.

[ANTALIFE]

Since you are Melbourne based http://www.pcbfast.com.au/ would prob be the quickest, but you do pay quite a premium for their fast service from what I recall.