Printed Circuit Suppliers

[stephenMF]

Question:

I have a small quantity (1 or 2) of printed circuits that I need for a project I'm doing at work.  It's not a stomp box :-/  We could do point to point wiring, but we need a professional looking job.  The circuit is really simple too...  maybe only 5 components.  

Does anyone know of any good businesses that will do this?  It has to be an actual business because I will need to send out a requirement order and the usual formal paperwork.  

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

1. what country are you in?
2. do you mean you need someone to design the PCB pattern and make the board, or just produce the board from your design?

[stephenMF]

Southeastern United States is my location.

And, I would like to have a board printed from my design.

I found a bunch of suppliers online, but I like to find out about the good ones through your experiences.

[lovekraft0]

If your board is 2.5"x3.8" or smaller, and you don't need soldermask or a component side silkscreen, it's hard to beat the ExpressPCB miniboard special. Lay it out with their free software, email the file to 'em, and you'll have th boards in a couple of weeks.

http://www.expresspcb.com

[KE4NYV]

If you only need a couple done.  I suggest using SparkFun's Deal with their boardhouse.  They have a flat per square inch rate that INCLUDES soldermask and silkscreening.

Check out:  http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart=381397&cat=86&

The only caveat is that you must submit the design in Gerber files and they will not do touchup.  They simply copy and paste your layout to the board.  Luckily EagleCAD can produce Gerbers in the demo/student/non-profit version.  Sparkfun even has a great guide to making EagleCAD spit out the Gerber files needed to make the boards.

I'm working on a couple designs right now that I hope to proto through these guys soon.

[Gladmarr]

I'm gonna put in my 2¢ here and say stay away from the Sparkfun PCB service.  I sent my design to them at the beginning of July and I haven't seen or heard anything from them.  I have since sent and received an order from Futurlec.com and it's all good.  That's who I would recommend.  Even when they do make a mistake, it turns out in my favor in the end.

[KE4NYV]

I'm gonna put in my 2¢ here and say stay away from the Sparkfun PCB service.  I sent my design to them at the beginning of July and I haven't seen or heard anything from them.  I have since sent and received an order from Futurlec.com and it's all good.  That's who I would recommend.  Even when they do make a mistake, it turns out in my favor in the end.

Have you attempted emailing them?  Trying to get ahold of them?  Human error is a factor in EVERYTHING.  They could have never got the order or maybe somehow it was lost.  These things CAN happen.  I would check with them first.

I ordered a new PIC programmer and had it in days.

Just MY $0.02

[R.G.]

If you want good PCBs in a hurry and are willing to pay a moderate price, use Alberta Printed Circuits. Their Proto-1 service has some limitations, but it's fast, it's good, and a real person calls you if there is a problem with the boards as THEY CHECK THE LAYOUT TO SEE IF IT LOOKS OK.

The provisos are:
1. The resulting boards WILL be double sided, plated through holes. If you want a single sided board, you'll still have to send a "top" side with only holes. However, this also includes any jumpers you may have put on your board to keep it single sided automatically if you did your jumpers correctly as a component with only a single top trace as part of the component.
2. The resulting boards will have no screen printing or solder mask.
3. The resulting boards will be sheared into simple rectangles.
4. You MUST order an even number of boards, from 2 up. They will shear small boards to rectangles, or you may order only two boards, each of which is a panoply of smaller boards that you will cut a part when you get them.
5. You must supply either Gerber, or one of the other vendors' file formats. Protel Traxxmaker and the Protel demo files work fine. Any gerber outputs work well.
6. There are elaborate, step by step instructions on how to provide all the files they'll need. But you do have to go through the dance the way they tell you.

If you do the proper dance steps and get them input by email or FTP before 10:00 Mountain Time, they set up the board that day, etch it on the following day (that is, day 2), and have it in FEDEX either at the end of day 2 or day 3, depending on whether there were any problems that needed your resolution. They send emails and *call you on the phone* if there are holdups or they need more info. You have your boards on day 3 or 4 (if you pay for overnight delivery) or 4/5 if you pay for second day.  

The price is not the cheapest in the world, but it's not unreasonable for one-off boards where you don't have to use special in-house software to make them. And the boards are first rate.

There are some underlying truths in the PCB business. Getting to a low cost per board for any board will require buying upwards of 50 to 100 of them. That is where the money starts to pay for just finished boards instead of the setup time and materials at the PCB house.

If you want one board, either use PNP or buy it from someone, depending on whether you really, really want to know how to etch your own. I started the DIY effects business that is now being carried on by several denizens of this board, including General Guitar Gadgets, which licenses most of my earlier layouts. There are others of varying response and quality.

If you want cheap boards one at a time, use Press-N-Peel. You may be able to do a similar job with photo paper, tranparencies, used magazine covers, or whatever, but PNP is reliable. How much is your time worth?

If you want a few boards at a time and can stand drilling them yourself, use photosensitized board material. It helps to buy a jeweler's drill press ($150.00), a board shear ($140.00) and carbide bits (about $25), as well as making a board press for exposing the boards. That sounds pretty rough, laying out over $300.00 to get ready to make boards. But if you plan to make more than a dozen or so boards over time, it will be cheaper. Believe me. Doing this can get your cost per board down well under what you'll pay anyone for a similar board. However, you do have to invest the time and the money. Think about that before you dive in.

If you want to learn, dive in, try not to think about the expense. Education is **always** expensive. Sometimes money is the cheapest way to pay for it. The school of hard knocks can be very expensive.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Everything RG says is true (as usual!) but, I hope nobody is put off by the thinking they NEED a $150 jewleller's drill press or shears. True, after you make a few boards you will WISH you had them, but they aren't absolutely necessary.
And a good thing about making your own boards (at least once!) is that it makes you feel MUCH happier about paying for someone else to do it :wink:

[Dave_B]

...I hope nobody is put off by the thinking they NEED a $150 jewleller's drill press or shears.

FWIW, I've always used a Dremel drill press for my circuit boards.  It may not be the optimum setup, but it's served me well.

[Gladmarr]

I'm gonna put in my 2¢ here and say stay away from the Sparkfun PCB service.  I sent my design to them at the beginning of July and I haven't seen or heard anything from them.  I have since sent and received an order from Futurlec.com and it's all good.  That's who I would recommend.  Even when they do make a mistake, it turns out in my favor in the end.

Have you attempted emailing them?  Trying to get ahold of them?  Human error is a factor in EVERYTHING.  They could have never got the order or maybe somehow it was lost.  These things CAN happen.  I would check with them first.

I ordered a new PIC programmer and had it in days.

Just MY $0.02

I did email them two weeks ago.  Now I realize they could have lost that email as well.  

And, I ordered a PIC programmer from them months ago.  I got it within a week.  That was great.  I just don't appreciate the fact that they have totally lost track of me, a paying customer.  I'm pretty sure I've already paid them for the boards, so it's just $25 down the drain.  

The other good sources are great!  I'm always looking for someone else who can do a better job or give a lower price.