NogginBoink
11-20-2007, 02:52 PM
I saw silvercircuits ad in either Nuts and Volts magazine or Circuit Cellar magazine and decided to give them a try.
Short story: I was very happy with their service and encourage you to give them your business.
Long story:
I am using the hobbyist version of Cadsoft Eagle, which has a size limit of 100mm by 160mm. This happens to be a standard size that silvercircuits quotes on their web page. They even accept the Eagle .brd file, thus preventing me from making mistakes generating my own Gerber files. This was important to me since this was my first-ever four layer board, which left me plenty of room to screw up.
Additionally, silvercircuits publishes a Design Rule Check file that you can download to run DRC on your board and know that you've got the correct settings.
As a matter of fact, I did have a DRC violation on my board and knew it, but fixing it would have meant editing the footprint for a 240 pin package (ouch!). So I decided to submit my file anyway and see what would happen.
Almost as soon as I submitted my file I got an autoresponder email. An hour or so later I got an email from a real person, in gramatically correct English, confirming that my footprint didn't have enough space between the pads, but told me not to worry about it; they'd take care of it.
I paid my money and the boards arrived on time, and are exactly what I ordered.
The company is in Malaysia and ships boards FedEx. The pricing is good, the communications with the company is excellent, and I got my boards on time with no hassles, which is something I can't say about the last overseas company I worked with.
Short story: I was very happy with their service and encourage you to give them your business.
Long story:
I am using the hobbyist version of Cadsoft Eagle, which has a size limit of 100mm by 160mm. This happens to be a standard size that silvercircuits quotes on their web page. They even accept the Eagle .brd file, thus preventing me from making mistakes generating my own Gerber files. This was important to me since this was my first-ever four layer board, which left me plenty of room to screw up.
Additionally, silvercircuits publishes a Design Rule Check file that you can download to run DRC on your board and know that you've got the correct settings.
As a matter of fact, I did have a DRC violation on my board and knew it, but fixing it would have meant editing the footprint for a 240 pin package (ouch!). So I decided to submit my file anyway and see what would happen.
Almost as soon as I submitted my file I got an autoresponder email. An hour or so later I got an email from a real person, in gramatically correct English, confirming that my footprint didn't have enough space between the pads, but told me not to worry about it; they'd take care of it.
I paid my money and the boards arrived on time, and are exactly what I ordered.
The company is in Malaysia and ships boards FedEx. The pricing is good, the communications with the company is excellent, and I got my boards on time with no hassles, which is something I can't say about the last overseas company I worked with.