DorkboxPDX PCB Fab Review

[mth5044]

I think these are allowed here, if not, then do with this thread whatever needs to be done.

Anyway, I got my PCB's back from the Dorkbox group order PCB service and couldn't be more happy. The boards look really good and I'm really happy to have layouts with two sides. Allows for a much closer layout/ground pours and whatnot. PCB's come with plated through holes, traces on both sides covered with solder masks, silkscreen (I only got it on one side, but I think you can get both sides done) and 3x the boards you order. So if you order one PCB, you get three copies of it. The price is 5$ per square inch, which includes shipping and setup fee. So a board which is 1" x 1" board is only 5$ for 3 boards. Super fast shipping once the deadline is hit.

Besides the board, you get great service from Laen, who is a member here. The only downside I had was that learning eagle was a bear, but it's not bad once you get a hang of it. The boards come with little perforated stubs in the middle of the sides, not very big, and easy to just dremel, clip or sand off. Not a huge problem, considering the price and quality of the service.  

I am still tinkering with eagle, so the boards didn't come out exactly how I wanted them, but it was more of a trial run to see how they would come out and how to optimize the layouts for the next run. I think the holes on the components from the libraries from gaussmarkov are a bit too small, or they get small once they are plated through. In any case, that's one of the only things I need to make it better, but that's my problem and doesn't reflect this service.

Linky: http://www.dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order

[Strategy]

I'm in PDX with friends in Dorkbot but haven't had time yet to participate. This pcb thing looks like a good deal but I haven't seen the details yet. Is Eagle required or can you submit known layouts in whatever format? I do have a selection of formats already dialed for eagle though so maybe that's a good route for those

thanks for posting the review

Strategy
Portland, OR

[mth5044]

I think you need at least the Gerbers. I ended up just learning Eagle for it because I was using ExpressPCB/SCH and that format wasn't accepted.

[Skruffyhound]

Thanks for the link. Seems like a nice way to work together for the little guys.

[Ronsonic]

I'll concur. The boards are very good quality and for better or worse they send you exactly what your drawing requests!   

Excellent for doing onesy twosy stuff or prototyping the pedal that will make you rich before ordering 5,000 copies.

[mth5044]

Bit of an update:

I got around to trying out the board. Sad news is the holes are too small. These holes were used directly from the guassmarkov library off of his site. I guess that the plated through holes made them too small? Time to spend a few hours try to edit libraries 

[diemilchmann]

It took a bit to get used to eagle, but once you get better at it, Laen's boards are beautiful if they work for you. Nothing has been wrong on mine, other that the board house doesn't print © 

[Laen]

It took a bit to get used to eagle, but once you get better at it, Laen's boards are beautiful if they work for you. Nothing has been wrong on mine, other that the board house doesn't print © 

Wait, what?  The silkscreen layer is an image not a font, so they should print whatever is on there.

DM or email me and I'll take a look at it..

[Ronsonic]

Bit of an update:

I got around to trying out the board. Sad news is the holes are too small. These holes were used directly from the guassmarkov library off of his site. I guess that the plated through holes made them too small? Time to spend a few hours try to edit libraries 

Yes, the component holes in the GM library are small. Editing is pretty fast and you don't need to do each component, just each footprint which is shared among a lot of components.