PCB Design And Order

[ChrisGreece52]

Hello I always wanted to etch my own pcbs but the thing is that its is pretty complicated especially for a begginer with no room for etching (like basement or a warehouse) so i would like to find out if there is any website that you order pcbs to and they manufacture them.I can  design the pcbs with eagle and just send the design so i can save money by making compact pcbs.
Anyway i need them to be pretty cheap (i am a high school student in one of the poorest countries in the world.)and as good quality as it can get

THANK YOU

[Thor-Arne]

Perhaps Itead.

[2nOrderEDO]

You can use OSH Park as well. Maybe is a little bit expensive than Itead, but it seems like they do high quality PCBs.

[ChrisGreece52]

Perhaps Itead.

Thanks for that cheap pcbs AND low cost shipping 3.9 like tayda u have saved my life.

[ChrisGreece52]

You can use OSH Park as well. Maybe is a little bit expensive than Itead, but it seems like they do high quality PCBs.

Thanks but i cant find the website would be easy for you to throw a link down below

** Nevermind found it pretty good site ill upload a circuit board that i have designed and come back with the result (also shipping is crusial)

[Thor-Arne]

Note that Itead is rather slow, but it's cheap. 
For fast delivery you'll have to pay alot more.

[ChrisGreece52]

Perhaps Itead.

I dont get how it works. ..... you just order a pcb what about the board design and stuff?

[Thor-Arne]

You have to upload the Gerbers, perhaps after completing the order.
I haven't used Itead, but that's the way it's normally done.

Make sure your Gerbers is perfect before uploading.

[ChrisGreece52]

Ok thank you

[KJDS]

Make sure your Gerbers is perfect before uploading.

and once you've made sure they are perfect, get a friend to reverse engineer the layout back to a schematic and check that too. Make sure that every decoupling cap is close enough to make a difference, that you've got all the grounds properly grounded, that your sensitive analogue circuitry isn't right next to noisy digital lines, that the board is the right size, with fixing holes to match the metalwork, with the interface connectors where you want them. Check the footprints of the ICs match what you've actually bought. Many ICs come in several package variants.

I could go on, there's easily sixty separate things worth checking on a complex board, but that'll do to start.

[ChrisGreece52]

Make sure your Gerbers is perfect before uploading.

and once you've made sure they are perfect, get a friend to reverse engineer the layout back to a schematic and check that too. Make sure that every decoupling cap is close enough to make a difference, that you've got all the grounds properly grounded, that your sensitive analogue circuitry isn't right next to noisy digital lines, that the board is the right size, with fixing holes to match the metalwork, with the interface connectors where you want them. Check the footprints of the ICs match what you've actually bought. Many ICs come in several package variants.

I could go on, there's easily sixty separate things worth checking on a complex board, but that'll do to start.

OK thank you.

[Kremmen]

Perhaps Itead.

I dont get how it works. ..... you just order a pcb what about the board design and stuff?

You buy a fabrication from Itead in the webstore, say 10 pcs of 5x5 cm boards or whatever. You pay the order and Itead gives you an order code. Next you email your gerbers to Itead identifying them with the order code you got. They have the gerber file naming rules and other restrictions on their website. If everything is OK, they mfg the boards and mail them. If not, you will hear from them.

[ChrisGreece52]

Thank you got understood most of it but i have to ask one thing what is the greber thing

[ChrisGreece52]

The eagle outputs a .brd file that is rejected by Osh Park .... what can i do

[moemoe]

http://www.bilex-lp.com/user_d/index.php directly takes your eagle files.

Gerber is another output format that contains the layout of your board, you can create it with eagle. Google tells you how

[8086]

You need to use the gerber export tool to generate gerber files. You have tried to give them the eagle save file which is not a manufacturing file. Any pcb manufacturer will accept gerbers.

This should help, there is a section about CAM export: http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/109

[KJDS]

and once you have the gerber, use GCPrevue or a similar gerber viewer to make sure that nothing silly has been generated.

Nothing worse than finding layer 7 of a 12 layer board, which is a ground plane, has clearance rings round every ground via.

Actually it could be worse, you could have fifty boards made, populated with a lot of components that are on long lead times that are now unusable.

[ChrisGreece52]

Thank you all and i think that this sparkfun guide will help me a lot.

[MacAttak]

OSH Park only supports 2-layer boards (4-layer as special order), so he probably won't run into a problem with the 7th layer of a 12 layer board

I like the OSH Park board quality myself, and the price is pretty good. The gold pads on deep violet solder mask is quite pretty. Perfect for the LSU fans out there.

The gotcha is that you have to order your design from there in groups of 3 at a time. Which I guess isn't so bad since it gives you two backups in case you do something dumb like not noticing that your soldering station is turned up way too high and you end up disintegrating the pads (nope, never done that  ).

[ChrisGreece52]

Thanks for that i needed a review for this site and it think that i can design boards and order 3 boards every time each for a different project

[tylerl]

Don't forget about BatchPCB. They make low-count orders reasonably inexpensive. You may also want to look for local companies; my favorite PCB manufacturer has a location here in my own town, which eliminates shipping.

For at-home etching, you don't need a place in your house; outdoors someplace out-of-the-way is fine as well. Just bring some water for rinsing and a few empty containers. And cupric chloride is a lot easier to come by than ferric chloride -- you make it yourself using swimming pool (muriatic) acid and peroxide. It won't etch as many metals as ferric chloride will, but it will etch copper which is all you care about.

[ChrisGreece52]

Thank you for your answer i will consider that because i can get an open space to etch my boards but the problem is that i need to make the laser print  for the pcb's or the other stuff i cant access to and will cost much to buy.

[poorchava]

DIY pcbs are not that messy to do.
bare laminate - cheap, get it from auction site
200ml of positive20 photosensitive lacquer - in poland ~80PLN so roughly 20€. It's good for about 1 sq. meter of pcb
source of UV - cheapest way i found is to buy manicurist nail polish curing UV lamp. 36W type can be had for 15€ or so on ebay. + you get a crude timer
NaOH - bought in any home utility store or supermarket as drain cleaner powder (almost pure NaOH)
Some ethchant: sodium persulfate (Na2S04), HCl+H202 mix, ferric chloride - whatever you like and have access too. I prefer HCL+H202 because it doesn't need heating and is very fast acting (+you can etch aluminum paste stencils with it)
transparent film - very cheap, from any office supply
some strong solvent - acethone (nail polish remover), paint thinners etc (cheap, from pharmacy or hardware store)
~400 grit sandpaper - cheap, hardware store
abrasive cleaning powder - supermarket/home utility store
piece of acryllic  or glass - cheapest i found was to buy a crude photo frame
drill - cheap-ass dremel clone from you local hardware store (dunno what you have in greece, but in Poland typically Castorama, Leroy-Merlin, OBI, Jula, Praktiker) - around 10€.

You can make whole setup for around 70-100€ i think.

[ChrisGreece52]

I am sorry but this is a huge list i am going to think about it seriously and in depth

[Rerouter]

that is the UV negative approach, most beginners begin with the laser printer reversal like i believe you where planning, just remember to really max out the ink darkness,

by comparison you only need the transfer film, a clothes iron, some enchant and a non reactive tray such as polystyrene, for the toner transfer method,

to prevent a religious debate I'm not blowing UV out the door, just saying that in raw materials and method the toner transfer is easier for beginners,