This may be me whinging a little bit, but the most amazing thing in the world for me would being able to get prototype boards at a reasonable price at about the same speed Digikey can get parts to my house.
I mean, having to work out a schedule for various projects (schematic for project A, layout for project A, order boards for A, schematic B, layout B, order boards B, receive boards A, test boards A, schematic C...) isn't the worst thing in the world, the context switch is a bit painful.
But... cost-wise, I don't yet have enough projects going through to justify the cost (both training and equipment-wise). The boards from seeed come fast enough and are cheap enough.
As a curiosity, has anyone tried the Othermill for doing prototype boards?
I've used LPKF mills (c30 -s100) for about 15 years. I've had very good luck with them and I respect the company. I would caution that the economics of making boards in house is not what it was 15 years ago. They are very good for low volume simple boards like adapters and antennas but complex boards can be very costly. If have made single boards that cost $150 in tooling. Tooling costs, design limitations, operator skill requirements, and unique design for manufacture issues are serious limitations. I now send out most of my boards for fab. I'm probably not going to replace the machines if they ever wear out. If you choose to buy a machine be aware that the software is very important. LPKF and MITS are good machines from what I know. LPKF software is very good.
On the other hand the machines are really nice for making PCB mockups to mount connectors and controls to verify the locations for mechanical fit tests. There are also handy for building test jigs.
I've used LPKF mills (c30 -s100) for about 15 years. I've had very good luck with them and I respect the company. I would caution that the economics of making boards in house is not what it was 15 years ago. They are very good for low volume simple boards like adapters and antennas but complex boards can be very costly.
What about Prometheus Desktop PCB Mill? Check more from here. http://makezine.com/2015/11/16/first-look-prometheus-desktop-pcb-mill/
Also, the mill can be a great tool to have if you want to make a little piggy/bandaid PCB to diagnose/fix an issue on an existing PCB. This doesn't have to be an RF PCB, it could be a mini piggy PCB on a digital board. The time taken from spotting a problem to producing a PCB design and mill it and build it and test it and prove it can be less than a day.
Also, the mill can be a great tool to have if you want to make a little piggy/bandaid PCB to diagnose/fix an issue on an existing PCB. This doesn't have to be an RF PCB, it could be a mini piggy PCB on a digital board. The time taken from spotting a problem to producing a PCB design and mill it and build it and test it and prove it can be less than a day.
Agreed. If it worked. Sadly the LPKF stuff never worked. The Support was atrorious. Left a very bad taste in my mouth.
I think some of the issues with the newer/better? machines may be that LPKF are trying to make the machine into a PCB vending machine rather than something that relies on operator skill. So instead of having an experienced operator setting up the equipment for registration or tool depth using manual (slow) methods they have tried to automate it all on the newer machines. Add to this the buggy nature of modern PCs and operating systems and it must be harder to get it all to behave perfectly for an hour or more.
As a curiosity, has anyone tried the Othermill for doing prototype boards?
- allows you to work with milling tools down to 0.178mm (7 thousands of an inch, aka 7 mil).
- makes real circuit boards in minutes.
- any surface mount component.
- High spindle speed lets you mill a 3?×5? board in minutes
- Price point is thousands less than machines of similar accuracy.
- hard to argue with their video. https://youtu.be/Tp81Aneil24
- $1,800.
https://makezine.com/2015/11/16/first-look-prometheus-desktop-pcb-mill/