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Making PCB's truly is an awesome experience. But I have to disagree with one of the statements(though it is a regional thing): > Designing a PCB and sending it

Making PCB's truly is an awesome experience. But I have to disagree with one of the statements(though it is a regional thing): > Designing a PCB and sending it off to fab is surprisingly accessible and feels like a super power. That may very well be the case if you live in the US, Germany, France or the UK. Go anywhere else and it's a different story. To give you a bit of context, there is a shop that makes them 15 minutes walk from my place. The prices are ridiculous. If you ever need to go through 3 prototypes to fix some mistakes, you are looking at 3-400 bucks for a total of 9 pcb's. And while you can order from abroad easily, shipping costs+the additional time you need to wait makes the price tags identical. Meaning it's cheaper to get a laser cutter/engraver or an sla 3d printer and make them at home. Sure, they turn our a bit sloppy, no matter how much effort you put into them but it's worth it at the end of the day. Kind of a shame that laser cutter, sla printers, CNC's have become dirt cheap. I would have imagined that some sort of democratization of pcb manufacturing would have happened by now but here we are...

danhor 3y ago
I think most people the US and europe have switched over to chinese manufacturers like jlcpcb or similar for small batch-size PCBs, since they're cheaper and more user friendly. I would've expected them to ship to most of the world, is that not the case?
- axegon_ 3y ago
  They claim to do but shipping from China has always been a hellish experience for me. 6 month delays have pretty much been the standard. And if that's not bad enough, filling up paperwork for the customs is just as shitty of an experience. Sadly hacking pcbs together in my basement/attic/on the roof is the least painful experience. The annoying bit is really the time I spend doing it. But living on the last floor and being the only one with a direct access to the roof is definitely a privilege: ferric chloride truly smells like ass.

danhor 3y ago

I think most people the US and europe have switched over to chinese manufacturers like jlcpcb or similar for small batch-size PCBs, since they're cheaper and more user friendly. I would've expected them to ship to most of the world, is that not the case?

axegon_ 3y ago
They claim to do but shipping from China has always been a hellish experience for me. 6 month delays have pretty much been the standard. And if that's not bad enough, filling up paperwork for the customs is just as shitty of an experience. Sadly hacking pcbs together in my basement/attic/on the roof is the least painful experience. The annoying bit is really the time I spend doing it. But living on the last floor and being the only one with a direct access to the roof is definitely a privilege: ferric chloride truly smells like ass.