Board Houses

[DynamoBen]

I thought I would start a thread about not only what board houses you use and like but what houses to avoid.

[rstehle]

Huh.......?

[DynamoBen]

Huh.......?

PCB Board houses.

[JEC]

PCB Board houses.

Advanced Circuits (4pcb.com) has a great bare bones service. No soldermask, no silkscreen, ships next day.

EDIT: Sparkfun.com is cheap for one-off boards but slow.

[mrpackethead]

I use goldenphoenixpcb in China.. Great results.. resonably cheap.

[Macrosill]

Avoid ExpressPCB if you can. The only benefit to them is the easy software. I wish I could find a thorough tutorial o for PCB artist. I find it difficult to use.

[mrpackethead]

Im using Eagle now.. Yes, it costs money, but it was worth it.

[DynamoBen]

I'm using Diptrace and love it.

[jeffathompson]

Avoid ExpressPCB if you can. The only benefit to them is the easy software. I wish I could find a thorough tutorial o for PCB artist. I find it difficult to use.

Is there a way to take a PCB file created in Express PCB software and convert it to something to ship to one of the other manufactures?

[DynamoBen]

Is there a way to take a PCB file created in Express PCB software and convert it to something to ship to one of the other manufactures?


Not easily see here:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3941

[snarfer]

Advanced Circuits pricing is at least triple what most Asian vendors are charging.

I have ordered from Warapcb.com. The price was OK, the boards were nice, but the ordering experience was awful. Their online ordering system lost my file, and the people taking orders manually were totally overworked. They even sent me another customer's quotation at one point.

I don't think the Sparkfun system is cheap at all. $2.50 a square inch?

For quick hand etched PCBs I use a local vendor, no internet site. It is ridiculously cheap and they even offer soldermask and silkscreen for something like 10 dollars, flat rate no matter how many boards you order. The only downfalls are the hand-drilled holes, the minimum trace separation of about 15 mil, and the lack of through-hole plating. But the value is amazing. I mean you can literally walk in and order a one square inch single sided board with no soldermask or silkscreen and they will charge you like 25 cents without even looking at you funny.

[Matt_Edwards]

I know this is a bit late but I just got my lates batch of 16ch DMX controller boards in and as usual i am impressed.
I have been using http://www.pcbcart.com for a while now.

good quality
excellent Pricing
fast delivery
very helpful service ( by email)


Luckily for me they accept Protel files.

I also looked at changing from Protel to DipTrace due to lack of support for Protel 98. Diptrace is a pretty good package. The transition from Schematic to PCB is very good. Dip Traces not-for -profit license is also a good idea.
But I found it hard to unlearn all the Protel stuff.

Matt

[gmbartlett]

I've had very good service from: http://www.pcbfabexpress.com/index.jsp

They have an online special that allows you to buy 1 to 50 boards with no tooling fees (1 to 4 boards are fairly expensive, the price break point is 5 boards). They provide two sided, solder mask, silk screen boards for one of the better prices I've been able to find. I can get five 30 sq in boards with a 5 day turn around for $20 ea. They are only $18 for a 10 day turn around.

I also use the non-profit licensed version of DipTrace. I've had very good luck with it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a schematic/layout program.

[NogginBoink]

I've used silvercircuits.com before and have been pleased with their service.

BTW... if you're going to purchase Eagle, they do have a hobbyist license that gets you the Pro version at a substantially reduced cost, with the stipulation that you make no profit from anything you design with it.

[DynamoBen]

You mean www.silvercircuits.com

[steve]

I've used Advanced Circuits and PCB Fab Express. I've been honestly happy with both of them and would use either again. Advanced Circuits is admittedly spendy for hobbyists, but I have to admit they do a great job if you can afford them. I only had one problem with PCB Fab Express messing up an order but they fixed it quickly at their expense, which was nice to see.

[snarfer]

Actually I would like to use Silver Circuits - they are conveniently located (to me in Thailand), offer low cost shipping, reasonable prices, and quick turnaround. Unfortunately it seems every design I need fabricated has something in it beyond their capabilities, such as hole size too small, epoxy filled holes, solder mask clearance for 0.5mm pitch smt packages, etc...

Instead I use ourPCB (http://ourpcb.com). Although I would prefer not to wait two weeks for my boards, it is extremely hard to beat their pricing. Whatever I ask them for is always "included at no extra charge." I don't know how they do it actually. Prices even lower than pcbcart, which I have also heard good things about.

Although it does seem convenient not to have to submit gerbers, using Protel or Eagle files instead, my experience has not been so good. I'm using Altium Designer and I tried submitting Protel files once only to find that the polygons had gotten all messed up. Now I only use gerber files. I find that the process of creating the gerbers also enforces a certain discipline, and I'm glad for it. I have found some errors that way.

Also I saved some money on my last order by doing my own panelization, which isn't really difficult at all, at least with my software setup. I submitted four different designs on one panel with CNC routing and the setup fees diminished by about a hundred dollars.