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In addition to the vendors you mention via that link, OSH Park[1] is great option for hobbyists (or very small-volume production). This is the same source liste
by tomkinstinch 10y ago
In addition to the vendors you mention via that link, OSH Park[1] is great option for hobbyists (or very small-volume production). This is the same source listed in OP. It's a board pooling group that puts many small-run orders on the same panel to economize on setup costs. OSH Park uses high-quality US manufacturers to produce the boards (with tight tolerances, silkscreen, soldermask, gold-flashed pads, etc.) I believe they used to use Amitron outside Chicago, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. I've had probably 300 boards made by them, and they've all been great.
In open source designs you can usually spot OSH Park boards by the distinctive purple color. Seeed Studio and the other Asian budget board houses are a decent economy option if you can get away with looser tolerances. OSH Park is nice for compact designs because the gold-flashed pads are better for surface-mount parts, since they aren't raised like traditional solder-painted pads. Unlike most quickturn PCB fabs they don't bury you with options; the standard options give you everything you need (ENIG, double mask+silk screen, either 2/4 layer, etc.). The OSH Park ordering wizard is a case study in how PCB orders should be done (upload and a couple clicks, with a graphical preview), and for the quality the price can't be beat. Because orders are pooled and then separated before shipping out, it is slower.
You can use the free and open KiCad[2] software (again, what was used in OP; tutorials[3,4]) to do schematic capture and board layout, have it generate some gerber and drill files, and then order the boards for a few bucks from OSH Park. KiCad won't do simulations like Altium or some of the other commercial packages, but if you just want to take a schematic and make a board it works fine. Definitely learn its hotkeys.
1. https://oshpark.com/ https://oshpark.com/
2. http://kicad-pcb.org/ http://kicad-pcb.org/
3. http://teholabs.com/knowledge/kicad.html http://teholabs.com/knowledge/kicad.html
4. http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/kicad/ http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/kicad/
- zaroth 10y agoThis must be awesome for training and university settings, to have such low cost options for learning the craft. Is it used much by startups / is it bringing down the barrier to entry that much?
- mplewis 10y agoYes. Small startups that don't care too much about turnaround time love OSH Park and Seeed Studio. My last company did care about turn time but also wanted affordable boards. They used PCB-Pool: http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppus/index.html http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppus/index.html
- lsllc 10y agoOSH Park has an "expedited" fee with which you can get a ~5 day turnaround.
- fho 10y agoOne thing I noticed is that some of my friends that have been designing PCBs have been dismissing options like OSHpark for a long time. Apparently they still believe that it's not possible to create good quality PCBs with that pricetag. Even after I showed them some of my PCBs they still insist that I got lucky and tolerances will be too high to be useful ...
- lsllc 10y ago+1 for OSH Park.