cheapest PCB fab company in the US?

[kodiakklub]

yes on iTEAD it is that cheap. they are farmed out to China/HK. EDIT: which at that price, i am totally OK with

[slacker]

according to their math, they can fit 7 @ 2x2 boards on one 9x15 sheet aka working area for 295 / 7 = 42.14 per 2x2 board

That's some crazy math, even including the extra 0.3" between boards, which they do as they give the board size as 5.29 (2.3 x 2.3), you should be able to get more than 7 in 9" x 15".

[pickdropper]

the default is 3 boards for TT. if you hit the "ignore" button the page will reload and you put in your dimensions again but there will be a quantity box above the price

Holy crap. It really is like $70 a board. I don't think they're doing a good job competing, as they say, on price with their East Asian competitors. 

Well, they aren't really close to Asia pricing unless you are buying large quantities.  If you need a small handful (or even a medium handful) of boards, nothing is as cheap as China.

However if you need quicker turn boards or boards with tighter design rules, then they are a reasonable choice.

FWIW, I haven't used them for guitar pedal PCBs.  I've used them for other designs.  Many of those boards used 6 mil tracing and some tight pitch micro processors.  The design rules were usually beyond what iTead can do.

[midwayfair]

I still don't see how anyone sussed out from the website that you were fitting as many boards as possible into an 11x17" space. There's absolutely nothing anywhere on their site that indicates this, not even in their FAQ. It just tells me that the max size of the board is 11x17"; when I put in 2"x2", it quotes me $26.45 for one board, $79.35 for three boards, it goes up to $317.40 for 12 boards, $26,450.00 for 1000 boards. A single 11x17 board is $977.45.

So where the heck are people coming up with their calculations?!

[pickdropper]

I still don't see how anyone sussed out from the website that you were fitting as many boards as possible into an 11x17" space. There's absolutely nothing anywhere on their site that indicates this, not even in their FAQ. It just tells me that the max size of the board is 11x17"; when I put in 2"x2", it quotes me $26.45 for one board, $79.35 for three boards, it goes up to $317.40 for 12 boards, $26,450.00 for 1000 boards. A single 11x17 board is $977.45.

So where the heck are people coming up with their calculations?!

FWIW, I don't generally use their online calculator.  I just email for a quote.

It's usually a few hundred dollars for a prototype run.  The number of boards usually depends on the size if the board.

I haven't used them for pedals yet for a few reasons:

1). I usually don't need 3 day turn

2).  In the quantities I need, the pricing is significantly higher than China.

3).  The pedal PCBs I've done don't really push the design rules so I usually don't need to pay the extra for it.

OSH Park, iTead and Seeed are fantastic services geared towards the hobby industry that are truly amazing and have made PCB prototyping practical for everybody.

But US fabs can't really compete with that.  Once the quantities get higher, then it becomes a bit more competitive. For prototyping, the US fabs usually compete in a different space, focusing on turn time, quality (sometimes), and more design options.  In that regard, Twisted is quite competitive.  I don't believe they are trying to compete with iTead and Seeed.

[slacker]

I went here Jon https://twistedtraces.com/mini-panel/1-8-layers-pcb/1-2-layers-detail.html From the home page >> Prototype panel >> 1-8 layer FR4 >> 1-2 layer. This gets you a 9" by 15" panel for £295,  presumably they fill this with as many of your boards as they decide they can fit, that's how these deals usually work, although the number of boards the quote gives you doesn't make sense.

[Laen]

Not as cheap as China, but if you want a fab company in the US, they qualify.

OSH Park is great too, but as others have mentioned, also China fab.

This is incorrect.  OSH Park has always manufactured in the US.  Heck, even my labels and envelopes are US made.

[pickdropper]

Not as cheap as China, but if you want a fab company in the US, they qualify.

OSH Park is great too, but as others have mentioned, also China fab.

This is incorrect.  OSH Park has always manufactured in the US.  Heck, even my labels and envelopes are US made.

I apologize for the error.  I was sure that I had read that OSH Park used Golden Phoenix.  After your post, I looked it up and realized that I had confused OSH Park with the now-defunct Batch PCB.

I can't seem to edit the original post, so to the mods: please feel free to correct the factual error in my post.

[chromesphere]

Another +1 for OSH park.  Simple to use website, cheap enough, great quality boards.  Also, heres another one.  SERVICE.  Yeah, you can like...email them with a problem...and they like...respond...


Paul

[rea5245]

I've created a website, http://pcbshopper.com that lets you search for the cheapest (or fastest) PCB manufacturer. PCBShopper lets you enter your board's specs - size, layers, preferred solder mask color, and quantity - and shows you a list of PCB manufacturers along with prices and delivery times. You can then sort the results to find the cheapest or fastest manufacturers.

PCBShopper.com also maintains a list of free PCB CAD software. Since many of the programs are limited versions of commercial software, PCBShopper includes descriptions of what the limitations are.

PCBShopper currently lists 13 manufacturers, and more are being added. PCBShopper is free to use and is not affiliated with any manufacturers.

[gjcamann]

I've created a website, http://pcbshopper.com that lets you search for the cheapest (or fastest) PCB manufacturer. PCBShopper lets you enter your board's specs - size, layers, preferred solder mask color, and quantity - and shows you a list of PCB manufacturers along with prices and delivery times. You can then sort the results to find the cheapest or fastest manufacturers.

PCBShopper.com also maintains a list of free PCB CAD software. Since many of the programs are limited versions of commercial software, PCBShopper includes descriptions of what the limitations are.

PCBShopper currently lists 13 manufacturers, and more are being added. PCBShopper is free to use and is not affiliated with any manufacturers.

This seems like a cool, but doesn't work yet...

I used ITEAD, it's 10 peices for $10 (5cmx5cm). It's a chines fab, but the boards are good enough. I use sparkfuns design rules in Eagle to avoid any problems.
I also use OSHPARK for my smaller boards or small quantities. The OSHPARK's ENIG can't be beat.

[pappasmurfsharem]

iTead is almost $7 a board and looks a little more reliable. i will keep them in mind for the next run.
here's the current link to their shopping cart site: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html

ITEAD and SEEED farm out to the same FAB according to a lot of places online.
$7 a board? How big?

BAH didn't realize this was a necro thread.

For a 10cmx10cm its only $25 for 10 peices!! Is that right?

Yessir I've ordered from the ma few times. I have two new boards on order now.

I try to keep boards below 5cmx5cm if I can so they will be supercheap, there is also a 5cmx10cm.

[gjcamann]

This seems like a cool, but doesn't work yet...

Wait, it did work!! Just took a while. That's really cool!!! Finally...

[pappasmurfsharem]

This seems like a cool, but doesn't work yet...

I used ITEAD, it's 10 peices for $10 (5cmx5cm). It's a chines fab, but the boards are good enough. I use sparkfuns design rules in Eagle to avoid any problems.
I also use OSHPARK for my smaller boards or small quantities. The OSHPARK's ENIG can't be beat.

If you're using iTEAD why not use their own Design rules?

f t p: / / imall.iteadstudio.com/PCBs/ITEADstudio_DRC.zip

[rea5245]

This seems like a cool, but doesn't work yet...

Wait, it did work!! Just took a while. That's really cool!!! Finally...

gjcamann, how long did it take? For me, it takes maybe 3 seconds.

- Bob

[R.G.]

Remember guys: good, fast, cheap - you may pick any two.

[drolo]

i found a site called http://www.seeedstudio.com/ and their prices are absurdly cheap. cheap enough to take a chance on. i just ordered 10 boards that can be a max of 10cm x 15cm for $56 USD shipped! they are made in Hong Kong though, but hopefully they are good enough quality.

I have used them twice and up to now the quality is very good. I can't even complain about the service and communication. They even emailed me to clarify a screw up I had on my layout, which is great. Corrected and resubmitted gerbers and all went fine.

[J0K3RX]

I have severe ADHD, not even joking, so OSH is my choice hands down! I have used them many times on various projects (that I never finish) and have been very pleased with the quality although I do wish I could get different color boards instead of the standard issue OSH purple every time... I mean when you have hundreds of unfinished projects laying around without enclosures it would be a little more interesting if they were different colors so I could at least attempt to group them in piles by color...

If I go to a website and I can't get at least somewhat of an idea how to upload gerbers within 10 minutes I am outa there! When I went to Seed Studio I ended up looking at maybe 26 different things from Arcade Joysticks to Zeusminer USB before leaving with my head spinning and never even got to the "board making" part...?

Any simple steps on using Seeed would be appreciated! 

[pappasmurfsharem]

I have severe ADHD, not even joking, so OSH is my choice hands down! I have used them many times on various projects (that I never finish) and have been very pleased with the quality although I do wish I could get different color boards instead of the standard issue OSH purple every time... I mean when you have hundreds of unfinished projects laying around without enclosures it would be a little more interesting if they were different colors so I could at least attempt to group them in piles by color...

If I go to a website and I can't get at least somewhat of an idea how to upload gerbers within 10 minutes I am outa there! When I went to Seed Studio I ended up looking at maybe 26 different things from Arcade Joysticks to Zeusminer USB before leaving with my head spinning and never even got to the "board making" part...?

Any simple steps on using Seeed would be appreciated!  

Download their eagle CAM
Generate gerbers
remove the unnecessary files
Rename the other files to match their naming scheme
Add the files to zip
Pay for the board by size
Send them email with the order number in the subject and attach zip

I can maybe do a step by step either tomorrow since I'll be working from home or over the weekend if you like

Edit: sorry that's iteads directions. Although itead and seeed use the same fab so maybe the order process is the same

[Apeshit]

I've recently used Seeed Studio for pcb manufacturing - I'm very impressed with them, it was the lowest overall price I could find anywhere but still had excellently short manufacturing and shipping time. It's not a us pcb fab company, their factory is in China but the price is really low, just take a look.