My 1st PCB

[kvresto]

Hi Everyone.

I’m having my first PCB made up soon (approx, 50x70 4 layer) so I’m not too sure how this goes, and I’ve settled on PCB Zone in NZ to do it, but I’m not sure if they are interested as they are not very responsive to emails. Has anyone had experience with this PCB house before, do they look after their customers?
Are there others in Oz that can do a PCB at a reasonable cost? I know there's a list of manufacturers listed, but it seems a while ago.
I’m tight for space and I’m trying to squeeze things in, and I have placed some vias very close to components. I wondering is this going to be an issue, can this be manufactured easily, and what is the smallest via size I can use that won’t increase the cost?

[zapta]

Assorted comments:

1. Have you considered ordering from outside of your country?  (electrow, oshpark, the Australian oshpark equivalent, etc, check pcbshopper.com for comparison).

2. Are you sure you have to use 4 layers (as opposed to only 2)?

3. Having vias inside the SMT pads is not a good practice.

[lgbeno]

Your vias look huge OSHpark can go down to 24 mil drills and 10 mil anular ring so I do a 50 mil circle with 24mil hole usually

[kvresto]

Hi zapta, The pic is only meant as an example, I just slapped it together for a demo.
Thanks for your comments, can it still be made up without major issues this way?

Thanks lgbeno, I also think they are too big. I've not heard of  OSHpark,.. need to look into it.

kv

[Philbywhizz]

Thanks lgbeno, I also think they are too big. I've not heard of  OSHpark,.. need to look into it.

I recently used OSHpark for my first pcb and was more than happy with it (even though I made a mistake on it - see my thread here).

I used Eagle and downloaded their design rules file and ran it against my pcb to make sure I wasn't doing anything silly. Took about 3 weeks to get the pcb shipped to Oz once I submitted it.

I will be use them again. Getting pcb's made is a learning experience.

[zapta]

Your vias look huge OSHpark can go down to 24 mil drills and 10 mil anular ring so I do a 50 mil circle with 24mil hole usually

I think OSHPark can do 13mil drills. This is what I am using for low current vias.

Thanks lgbeno, I also think they are too big. I've not heard of  OSHpark,.. need to look into it.

PCB Shopper is your friend  http://pcbshopper.com/

[zapta]

I recently used OSHpark for my first pcb and was more than happy with it (even though I made a mistake on it - see my thread here).

I used Eagle and downloaded their design rules file and ran it against my pcb to make sure I wasn't doing anything silly. Took about 3 weeks to get the pcb shipped to Oz once I submitted it.

I will be use them again. Getting pcb's made is a learning experience.

IIRC, Dave mentioned recently a new OSHPark like vendor in Australia.

[kvresto]

zapta, do you remember when/where Dave mentioned an new OSHPark like vendor in Australia?

[tonyarkles]

Just throwing this out there... You might want to try out a simple two-layer PCB as your first. In my experience, one of the trickiest parts of PCB layout is figuring out where you went wrong, and it's especially hard to do that when a bunch of your traces are inaccessible (because they're buried in an inner layer).

I'm not trying to be discouraging; I've just done a lot of PCB debugging, and having everything accessible (and patchable) has definitely saved my ass more than once. Even worse than trying to probe inner traces (which you can do awkwardly through their vias) is *cutting* an inner trace. I've got a handy razor blade on my desk that I can use to sever a bad trace, but you can't do that on the inner ones.

[lgbeno]

Your vias look huge OSHpark can go down to 24 mil drills and 10 mil anular ring so I do a 50 mil circle with 24mil hole usually

I think OSHPark can do 13mil drills. This is what I am using for low current vias.

Thanks lgbeno, I also think they are too big. I've not heard of  OSHpark,.. need to look into it.

PCB Shopper is your friend  http://pcbshopper.com/

doh your right 13 mil hole 26mil pad all day long

[zapta]

zapta, do you remember when/where Dave mentioned an new OSHPark like vendor in Australia?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/$5sqin-batch-pcb%27s-in-oz/

[kvresto]

where's the web site (http://www.breadboardkiller.com.au) I cant load it? is it still operating. I get the following error, I'm not sure if its my settings.

Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Could not connect to MySQL

kv

[Falcon69]

I don't think they are in business anymore?

The website stats show total website value of $8.95 and a daily revenue of $0.15

[kvresto]

ok, so much for that.

[rob77]

4layers as a first PCB ? .. common guys....

it's pretty possible to layout virtually anything (talking about complexity suitable for DYI of course) to 2 layers or even single layer....

the beauty of a single or dual layer is that it can be done at home and you have immediate feedback if you go wrong - you can re-spin your board immediately.

as an example... here is a 100% home made FT232BL + eeprom board in single layer made with toner transfer + hand corrected with marker before etching (messed up the transfer and was lazy to do the toner transfer again - hence the hand corrected and UGLY mask ).