Recommendations for PCB production

[lesthegringo]

Hi all

I'm looking at some getting some PCB's made by one of those online companies, but as with a lot of things these days there are loads of them. I was wondering if any of you have experience with any particular companies that you would recommend.

My boards would be simple dual sided ones with tracks (traces) a minimum of 0.4mm wide, with some vias, through holes for pins and mounting holes, although the exterior shape would be irregular in some instances.

Thickness is not important, although I suspect 1.6mm is the most common. Colour is not important. Anything else important I should consider?

Shipment would be to Europe / Middle East region

Cheers

Les

[xvr]

JLCPCB, PCBWay

[VinzC]

If you want to ship to Europe, I know at least two manufacturers: Aisler and Eurocircuits as importing from China may bear additional fees, depending on your context.
Aisler is a German company that manufactures PCBs at a relatively low price and at high quality.
Eurocircuit is the best known in Europe but they're pretty expensive, ca two to four times the rates of Aisler. Quality on the other hand is top-notch.
Both offer assembly services.

[Maria]

I usually go with JLCPCB. They are usually cheaper and faster than local options like Aisler even including shipping.

They also offer stencils, assembly, 3D printing and more, you might find yourself starting with PCBs and later getting more services from them.

Funnily I recently got an email from someone introducing themselves as my account manager, I wonder if that's a standard thing they're rolling out as I don't have *that* many orders (tho I do order regularly).

[paulca]

The choice between JLPCB and PCBWay is often down to which provides the cheaper shipping to your locale. 

I use PCBWay and installed their supplied plugin for KICAD9.0 so its literally a single button click to plot and package your PCB and upload it. It literally opens the order form filled up with a quote on a single click.  Im sure Ive done boards with just two clicks + payment.

On your spec highlights..  a simple two layer board which is under 100mm in both axis is usually $5 for 5 PCBS + shipping.  So If I want mine in the order of a week to 10 days I have to used DHL and the order will be for $40 or so.  The shipping is several times the cost of the PCBs.

If your board is really small, like 50mm or less, they often afford you 10 for the price of 5.  The last time board I did 10 was the same price and 14 arrived.  It all just matters how they fill the panels with customer PCBs.  It was probably easiser to fill a space with 14 of my board instead of leaving dead space.

As a little tip.  When you do make your board.  Include corner mounting holes.  That way, you can use plastic stand offs and place a spare blank as a backing plate to protect the PCB you assemble.

[sleemanj]

I've used a few different over the years but settled on JLC once the assembly service came online. 

It's very convenient to have it all in a one-stop-shop.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I pretty much only use JLC ( 150+ orders), usually with assembly, occasionally PCBWay if I need an option that JLC don't do like an oddball thickness.

[Whales]

https://pcbshopper.com/ lets you choose a few things (like desired shipping time) and tries to work out who is cheapest.  Dunno how biased they are, but they don't _always_ reccomend JLCPCB 

[lesthegringo]

Thanks to all for the responses

If I need them, I certainly won't need them in a hurry so can afford to choose the cheapest shipping option. I may just order some just to see!

[lichurbagan]

JLCPCB,PCBway, NextPCB are some of the top PCB manufacturers. These are capable of manufacturing multilayer PCB. They usually ship to Europe using Fedex, DHL, UPS etc. All of these manufacturers have cost calculators in their website. I recommend you see them and compare the manufacturing and shipping costs.

[Solder_Junkie]

Another vote for JLCPCB, I am on my 20th set of boards with them. I use their cheapest shipping but that depends on where they are delivering to as to whether they can use that low cost method.

I have also had PCBs made as front and rear case panels, black with white stencil and plain tinned copper on the other side. A neat solution for your projects. Having rectangular holes cut causes a few issues as the 3D view generally only shows the routed out part leaving the cut out as a solid... Print on it CUTOUT and explain that when ordering.

This link shows a front panel done by JLCPCB:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/yet-another-diy-gpsdo-yes-another-one/msg6339174/#msg6339174

SJ

[twospoons]

I'd not use JLC for assembly unless your entire BOM is in stock at LCSC. Their parts ordering system is weirdly manual for non-LCSC parts.  OK for bare boards.
PCBway: I give them gerbers and BOM and they sort out everything.

[VinzC]

I love it when peeps make it look like a vote when it's not  :-D

OP asked for recommendations on specific manufacturers for shipping in Europe and Middle East, not a popularity contest. JLC PCB and PCBWay were suggested in the first reply. This is not a contest, folks, so leave your opinions aside and share your experience only if you have something new that hasn't been yet said, keeping in mind OP's requirements in mind.

Anything else important I should consider?

At this point you should have enough matter to make an educated decision on what to pick.

Since you've mentioned through hole parts, the cost of assembling the PCB may be excessively high so it is safe to assume you're the one doing the soldering job. We don't know what is important to you though, the final decision is up to you. Your context appears as a very generic one, so whatever manufacturer is a candidate as either of them (at least from the information you shared) is up to the task -- as for manufacturing the PCB only, of course.

Also note that most of these (if not all, I haven't verified) PCB manufacturers ship at least 10 boards, so if you're off for only one, that may be a lot of waste. The minimum quantity at Aisler is three and Eurocircuits' is one.