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My terrible experience with Multi-CB (a German PCB manufacturer)
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dietert1:
When we started to make small electronics modules for medical equipment (something like hybrids) in 2005 we selected a service provider in a nearby town and delegated to them production of the hardware. They did not get the firmware, though. They could not test the boards, but relied on AOI.
No PCB related issues, except a design problem of placing components at less than 1 mm from the rim, where they would sometimes fail from mechanical stress during handling.
I remember going there like 10 times or so until they would be comfortable with the task. The module only had like 100 parts and only 4 layers, but we needed several revisions until it all worked out. Five years later there was a 2x shrink using BGA and LLC parts. Test run of 100 modules, no revision. Meanwhile we made and sold about 20 000 of those modules. Production faults are rare, like one in 300 modules has a part missing or misplaced. Image shows an example.

Regards, Dieter
tszaboo:

--- Quote from: tom66 on July 09, 2023, 03:22:38 pm ---Re European PCBs. I've had no issue with Eurocircuits with their standard PCBs and their UK technical support contact is awesome.  But equally the Chinese manufacturers are very good now, quality is excellent, we only order from UK/Europe if we need something quick or it is a very esoteric stackup (that sometimes the Chinese fabs don't support or want long lead times on.)

--- End quote ---
Some companies ago I was ordering everything from them, company policy. They had some issues rarely, but honestly, all of them was cleared up by support. I don't expect 100% good custom products all the time, it's impossible. It's how you handle the issues is what matter.


--- Quote from: ebastler on July 08, 2023, 11:14:16 am ---Sorry to read about the manufacturing problems. What drove you to select Multi-CB in the first place? They seem to operate somewhere halfway between the high-volume/highly automated/limited flexibility places like JLCPCB, and the old-style "offline" PCB houses which cater to commercial customers. Do they have unique (claimed) strengths?

Regarding your product -- assuming it is https://rfnm.io/, that looks pretty cool. But since it also looks like it won't be cheap, I am a bit vexed by the fact that you don't tell your potential customers who's behind it. Is there a company (based where?) or is this a hobby project? Any prior projects in the field? Thanks!

--- End quote ---
They give instant prices, better than other EU companies with similar model. I had a few boards from them, no complains.
nimish:

--- Quote from: cedivad on July 08, 2023, 10:31:21 pm ---Here is a picture of the full panel showing the other small company we are working on this project with. (NXP have been amazing to work with and will be the first to receive this design for their internal use).

So yeah, even them being careless towards a second rate customer (completely unacceptable on its own) wouldn't explain it.

--- End quote ---

Might be worth getting NXP to weigh in on manufacturing partners...anyone who ignores them is an idiot.
peter-h:
I stopped using any PCB firm in UK or Europe about 25 years ago. Too many QA issues.

Sadly, the chinese do this best. They have extreme communication issues, all sorts of other problems, but they make the best boards.

The BBT machine programming is normally done by importing the gerber data into a connectivity analyser program. This of course breaks if you are doing funky stuff like merging signals into a plane and hoping the PCB firm will read the instructions (some like JLCPCB explicitly state they will not read any text on a layer!). A more idiot-proof way is to put in the signals and copper-pour around them. So you may want to send them an old panel to BBT against but the firms tend to either pretend they don't understand, or they will lie that they actually did it.

But for normal boards china is the best.

Germany isn't what it is cracked up to be, these days.
nigelwright7557:
I use JLCPCB and they rarely go wrong.
Over the last few years they have done about 300 different designs for me.

They once got in touch saying a pcb had been damaged and that they would credit me for that one.
I didnt expect for one minute they would send the duff one in with the good ones.
Sadly it got sent to a customer.

The only other time they messed up was partly my fault.
I had a pcb with some plated holes and none plated holes and the pcb's were sent back all plated.
So in the bin they went as they would short out on a heat sink.
I forgot to add a note about the none plated holes.
Although there were two distinct files, plated and none plated.
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