Prototype Pcb Houses, which ones do you prefer?

Hi all, I am new to this forum. I just read the pinned "Where do you get PCBs" thread and it didn't really help me in what I was looking for, so I figured I would make my own thread with the question.

I think it is great to build boards by hand with a printer, but when you start needing more complex boards at a quantity that just doesn't make sense to make on your own, I was wondering what board shops people from this forum go to?

Specifically for prototypes, because they are local, I have only dealt with one actual board house (not a broker - seems to be thousands of brokers). I have ordered a few different pcbs from them (Custom Circuit Boards) and I have been happy, but, I am curious to know what your favorite board shop is?

Thanks,

Seems good. I've bought from Advanced before (4pcb.com), no affiliation. They have freedfm.com which checks your gerbers within about half an hour (during work hours, anyway), which is very handy.

There are *lots* of local places in the US (and, I suppose, elsewhere). They can be hard to find (the internet doesn't care much about location ), but heck, there's three that I know of within a 100 mile radius here, alone.

We need to be very careful, of course, to not let this thread get commercialized. No section on this forum gets more spam than PCBs.

Tim

My favorite is Seeed Studio. It usually takes 3 weeks to get the boards to Norway, but it's the cheapest I have found.

I've gotten quite a few through itead - they, like seeed, are just front-men for a fab. (the same fab, in this case, as I understand it).

if i need smaller boards, or less of them, or weird shapes, I usually get them from oshpark. Little more expensive, but the boards are made in the US which is nice... little bit faster than itead, but not by a lot (to Canada that is, should be faster to the US).

I got them from olimex years ago, but at the time they would only do eurocard sizes, shipping was kinda pricey, and you had to pay via fax... I think they've fixed that, but i haven't been back since then. The boards were decent quality though.

Just curious, have you ever given thought to making your prototypes in-house?

With an LPKF ProtoMat not only can you have a board ready in minutes or hours, but the money saved in the long run is a huge win.

You mentioned complex boards... These are what drive up the cost at board houses, as they put a premium on board design. More advanced materials, multilayer, quick turnaround. Yuck.

You also mentioned quantity. When you are making boards in a half hour not only can you get your R&D phase over quickly but small-batch production is definitely in play.

Board houses are good for production but the setup, where you have multiple processes going, multiple operators working on the board, each station doing a different thing... This is not how you want to spend the prototyping phase, where you are trying to dial in the settings for the board just right.

@Sch3mat1c Nice, I have heard of them. I actually had a colleague order from them and he said that they nickle and dime them. I submitted a few boards to them and they came back high a few years ago. Maybe they have changed their pricing since then...

@oyvdahl Never heard of them, but thanks!

@Colt45 See, I don't like dealing with front men, aka middle men. They have to take their cut, which seems silly to me when I could just deal with the actual manufacturer. Good info on the other board shops. Thanks!

@shanes1007 Well, we thought about it, but the ROI just doesn't outweigh the cost. It is easier to let the board shops carry the investment of the machinery needed for the boards that we need. I actually haven't seen LPKF ProtoMat before.. I will pass it a long to the boss to see if it makes sense for us.

For now, I'll probably stick with CCB.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by mitchellz on January 23, 2013 05:38 am

The reason for the front men is so you don't have to buy 10 panels, which is surely the minimum the actual fab in china will do.

if you need 10000 sq in, or whatever, then go ahead and go direct. Otherwise it's a losing proposition.

@mitchellz

If what you are concerned about is financial justification, I think you would be surprised. Most LPKF users reach payback on their machine within 2 years. After that, it is all money in the bank.

Here are some resources if you're interested.
<SNIP!>

This post has been edited by Sch3mat1c on January 26, 2013 03:37 pm

Hey, no professional endorsements.

Methinks that ship has sailed...

Should probably just ban members with <50 posts from typing 'pcb'.

Dude is shilling up the wrong tree anyway... the bloody thing costs more than most of our cars.

Pure genius

*I am spamming my company on my second post. I am banned bye-bye now*

This post has been edited by Geek on February 02, 2013 02:39 am

wait a second ... you posted this in another topic in the "PCB design section" (here) :
"For SOIC packages. I've searched on ebay and googled and only found some few results, but those I've found seemed very expensive. I don't understand why a tiny board with just some copper traces cost 2-10USD each? I would think that a far larger boards with loads of holes and copper pads on it would be more expensive.

So does anyone know where I could buy a prototyping board like the one pictured for a cheap price?

----They quote you base on the quantity you order, it is usually cheaper for a larger volume. how many do you order for this price?"

and now you say that you are working in , and directly involved with the manufacture of PC boards .
it seems to me that this is nothing more than a lame attempt at spam .

also ... inviting others to contact you via PM can be construed as "soliciting" for/of a commercial venture ...
this is against forum tenets .

/me has finger on the "travelin' shoes" button .

I say launch that puppy. Much of his post in that other thread was quoting the OP (Plecto).

I think Elecrow's PCB service is really good. it only need $9.9 for 10pcs 5cm*5cm PCBs, and the sold mask color is free.
http://www.elecrow.com/services-c-73/

Hmm, they have similar prices / options as seeed and itead (they must all use the same fab), except their colour is free... I'll have to try that sometime.