4 ms·

Same here! But I think that is the point of the article. The best way to make a cheap PCB is to just buy one. And he's probably right. There are definite adva

Same here! But I think that is the point of the article. The best way to make a cheap PCB is to just buy one. And he's probably right. There are definite advantages to etching a PCB at home - if you make a mistake that you only discover on assembly, you can make a new run in hours instead of weeks - but soldermask, small vias, and small features are much easier at a real plant. And you won't beat the prices. He recommends http://dirtypcbs.com/ http://dirtypcbs.com/, I personally have had a lot of success with https://oshpark.com/ https://oshpark.com/ - local support, you only need 3 boards (not 10) for prototypes, and they do 2-layer in 12 days for $5/sq inch and 4-layer in 2 weeks for $10/sq inch. Once you need a production run, take it to Gold Phoenix.

lucaspiller 11y ago
Does anyone have any recommendations for a PCB fab in Europe? i.e. where I don't need to wait 4 weeks.
- deutronium 11y ago
  I've had PCBs from China take a little over a week, if you checkout http://pcbshopper.com/ http://pcbshopper.com/ you can specify the delivery time you want to pay for.
- alex_hitchins 11y ago
  BoldPort (https://boldport.cratejoy.com/ https://boldport.cratejoy.com/) recently had some excellent boards made up with European Circuits (http://www.european-circuits.co.uk/ http://www.european-circuits.co.uk/).
- oddeyed 11y ago
  I wrote a bigger comment too but Ragworm do (pretty cheap) 2-week turnaround. Only 2-layer by default though, get in touch with them for more.
- cillian64 11y ago
  If you pay DirtyPCBs some more money for decent shipping you can get your board in about two weeks. A week for fab, a few days for shipping. $14 for the boards, $14 for the shipping. It's still very cheap for very good boards, and even cheaper if you can batch up a few projects and combine shipping.
david-given 11y ago
Do you know any places that do assembly as well? My soldering skills are approximately good enough to do 0.1 inch pitch pins about 90% of the time, which isn't really good enough for surface-mount, and most modern microprocessors don't come in anything else.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  You don't need to have great soldering skills for surface mount components. The easiest way to solder surface mount is the "solder stencil + solder paste" method (for want of a better term). You create a solder stencil to match the pin layout, place it over the PCB pads, apply solder paste, place the component on top then melt the solder (if you'd be doing multiple batches it's easy enough to modify a toaster oven to do this). Solder stencils are also easy enough to create, especially if you have access to a laser cutter. Are there any hackerspaces near where you live?
  - cillian64 11y ago
    What do you cut your stencils from? I've spent a lot of time mucking about with various plastics and never gotten particularly good results - 0.5mm pitch pads tend to start melting together into a mess. The good stuff is meant to be Mylar, AKA PET. I've bought plastic advertised as Mylar which has not been particularly good, and I suspect it may actually be PE rather than PET, as apparently the two are often confused.
    - jwr 11y ago
      Just order them from OSHstencils. They aren't expensive.
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      Depends on how much you want to spend. If you're on a tight budget, you could try this... http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/build-diy-soldering-stencil-out-soda-can http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/build-diy-soldering-stenci...
  - 11y ago

lucaspiller 11y ago

Does anyone have any recommendations for a PCB fab in Europe? i.e. where I don't need to wait 4 weeks.

deutronium 11y ago
I've had PCBs from China take a little over a week, if you checkout http://pcbshopper.com/ http://pcbshopper.com/ you can specify the delivery time you want to pay for.
alex_hitchins 11y ago
BoldPort (https://boldport.cratejoy.com/ https://boldport.cratejoy.com/) recently had some excellent boards made up with European Circuits (http://www.european-circuits.co.uk/ http://www.european-circuits.co.uk/).
oddeyed 11y ago
I wrote a bigger comment too but Ragworm do (pretty cheap) 2-week turnaround. Only 2-layer by default though, get in touch with them for more.
cillian64 11y ago
If you pay DirtyPCBs some more money for decent shipping you can get your board in about two weeks. A week for fab, a few days for shipping. $14 for the boards, $14 for the shipping. It's still very cheap for very good boards, and even cheaper if you can batch up a few projects and combine shipping.

david-given 11y ago

Do you know any places that do assembly as well? My soldering skills are approximately good enough to do 0.1 inch pitch pins about 90% of the time, which isn't really good enough for surface-mount, and most modern microprocessors don't come in anything else.

ZenoArrow 11y ago
You don't need to have great soldering skills for surface mount components. The easiest way to solder surface mount is the "solder stencil + solder paste" method (for want of a better term). You create a solder stencil to match the pin layout, place it over the PCB pads, apply solder paste, place the component on top then melt the solder (if you'd be doing multiple batches it's easy enough to modify a toaster oven to do this). Solder stencils are also easy enough to create, especially if you have access to a laser cutter. Are there any hackerspaces near where you live?
- cillian64 11y ago
  What do you cut your stencils from? I've spent a lot of time mucking about with various plastics and never gotten particularly good results - 0.5mm pitch pads tend to start melting together into a mess. The good stuff is meant to be Mylar, AKA PET. I've bought plastic advertised as Mylar which has not been particularly good, and I suspect it may actually be PE rather than PET, as apparently the two are often confused.
  - jwr 11y ago
    Just order them from OSHstencils. They aren't expensive.
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    Depends on how much you want to spend. If you're on a tight budget, you could try this... http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/build-diy-soldering-stencil-out-soda-can http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/build-diy-soldering-stenci...
- 11y ago