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While I have the eyeballs of some hardware people, does anyone know the logistics behind taking a basic circuit + micro controller design and sending that overs

While I have the eyeballs of some hardware people, does anyone know the logistics behind taking a basic circuit + micro controller design and sending that overseas to be fabricated for you? Do you hire a firm to take care of moving all the various parts between factories, or this something a single factory can handle? What order of magnitude is the minimum lot size? And lets say you wanted to get your finished design into some plastic molding, how would you go about that? I know that's a whirlwind of questions, but I think it's something a lot of software guys are really in the dark about and yet would like to know.

HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
Before asking about sending it overseas, perhaps you should say what quantity you want to build and how much you have budgeted for assembly. Hint: anything under less than 1,000pcs/month is probably not worth offshoring. Plastic molding: same thing. What quantity are you looking at? The costs and options change depending on how many you want to build.
SingAlong 17y ago
Hey, that's a nice list of questions to know the answer for. All about getting a rough working product to a prototype to a finished product ready to sell. I've heard a lot of people doing printed PCB stuff, but I'm not sure if it is related to getting a finished product or a prototype. I've noticed that most huge companies like Nokia, Lenovo etc outsource these stuff. I see a Nokia 1100 from Germany and another 1100 from made in country. P.S: I pointed out Nokia 1100 and Germany coz I heard the ones made in Germany are still selling in the cracker market for around $1000 becoz some defects in the Nokia 1100 made in Germany allow these crackers to reset IMEI numbers, reprogram it, etc
coryrc 17y ago
For example: www.myropcb.com It's called "Printed Circuit Board Assembly" Tooling for plastic molding is >$10,000, even simple parts. Look at machining premade plastic parts or using sheet metal.
- acgourley 17y ago
  Thanks for that link, reading through that site answered a lot of my questions! And good point about the molding. It would probably make more sense to find existing plastic cases and tool out whatever holes you need for IO/display. Although that raises the question of how you would setup a factory line to do that tooling. I'd even just like keywords so that I knew what this was called then I could google it myself.
  - coryrc 17y ago
    www.pactec.com does custom machining of their enclosures, but I haven't gone through this, so I can't help much with this. Good luck!

HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago

Before asking about sending it overseas, perhaps you should say what quantity you want to build and how much you have budgeted for assembly. Hint: anything under less than 1,000pcs/month is probably not worth offshoring. Plastic molding: same thing. What quantity are you looking at? The costs and options change depending on how many you want to build.

SingAlong 17y ago

Hey, that's a nice list of questions to know the answer for. All about getting a rough working product to a prototype to a finished product ready to sell. I've heard a lot of people doing printed PCB stuff, but I'm not sure if it is related to getting a finished product or a prototype. I've noticed that most huge companies like Nokia, Lenovo etc outsource these stuff. I see a Nokia 1100 from Germany and another 1100 from made in country. P.S: I pointed out Nokia 1100 and Germany coz I heard the ones made in Germany are still selling in the cracker market for around $1000 becoz some defects in the Nokia 1100 made in Germany allow these crackers to reset IMEI numbers, reprogram it, etc

coryrc 17y ago

For example: www.myropcb.com It's called "Printed Circuit Board Assembly" Tooling for plastic molding is >$10,000, even simple parts. Look at machining premade plastic parts or using sheet metal.

acgourley 17y ago
Thanks for that link, reading through that site answered a lot of my questions! And good point about the molding. It would probably make more sense to find existing plastic cases and tool out whatever holes you need for IO/display. Although that raises the question of how you would setup a factory line to do that tooling. I'd even just like keywords so that I knew what this was called then I could google it myself.
- coryrc 17y ago
  www.pactec.com does custom machining of their enclosures, but I haven't gone through this, so I can't help much with this. Good luck!