Which PCB fab do you currently like the best?

[NeverDie]

OK, PCBway finished its fabrication. I've got this figured out now. PCBway, and probably the others as well, don't start the clock ticking when you submit your files and make payment. Instead, they start the clock ticking whenever the job gets to the MI stage of production. So, in that technical sense, PCBway made good on its 24 hour production advertisement. There's no apparent limit though on how long the job spends in either engineering pre-production, nor in how long it takes to ship the PCB's after the build is complete. The fab's don't seem to make any promises with regards to either of those, but either/both can stretch out the turnaround time. That said, it appears PCBway may be generally faster than JLCPCB, and definitely faster in tackling new orders submitted over the weekend. For those reasons, I think I'll be using PCBway going forward.

[nagelc]

Thanks. I'll have to try them out. It is crazy how cheap it has become at least for small prototypes.

[NeverDie]

Well, maybe they're all about the same. I placed an order with PCBWay entirely because of their promised 24 hour build time. Four different PCBs in the order. One completed within 24 hours, but 3 did not:

Being late by a few hours can be the difference between shipping today versus shipping tomorrow.

[NeverDie]

Oh great, the new China lockdown has halted shipments, so my boards are in limbo until China unlocks its lockdown.

I've hit my hassle threshold. I need to find a domestic fab....

[NeverDie]

I finally did receive the boards (4 different designs in all), but on one of the designs PCBway incorrectly drilled 3 of the holes with the wrong diameter, rendering the board useless. I've never had a FAB make a mistake like that before. Because of this, I probably won't be using PCBway again. What a bummer.

I'm trying to remedy the situation by drilling a 1mm hole where they should be, but I'm finding that none of my drills will even hold a 1mm drill bit. Anyone know of a way to drill 1mm holes?

[Larson]

@NeverDie Here is a set I found on Amazon.

Do you have a Dremel tool? I'll bet there are several sets of those. Dremel also has a nice jig that will hold the drill stationary and you can press down through it.

Drilling the hole is one thing, connecting it to a trace could be a little tricky.

[Edit: spelling errors.]

[Larson]

@NeverDie said in Which PCB fab do you currently like the best?:

... a project stalling out for want of a nail...

That is poetic.

I try to have some sympathy for my favorite (OSH_Park) and order multiple boards at once. Some pain of waiting is involved - only a week - and some waste is incurred by me as I correct my own errors before they ship. But I do like that they only ship three boards, instead of five, when I only need one. They must be annoyed by little-guys like me so I try to do my part with loyalty.

[aayushkm52]

Elecrow or JLC PCB with slower shipping is pretty good price wise. Even with fast shipping with DHL it doesn't cost that much, make sure you add taxes and the $15 brokerage fee unless you clear customs yourself. Total for 3 day shipping is about $30 in my experience. Other then that, OSHPark is great but depending on the size of the board and quantity it will cost more in total then the Chinese board factories.

[qqlapraline]

For the past 2 weeks, I had the opportunity to challenge PCBWAY and JLCPCB at almost the same time for the same boards including turnkey components and PCBA.
Here is the short version of the story:
PCBWAY:

• Ordered on October, 12th
• PCB finished on October, 14th - 37 hours later
• Components sourced on October, 18th
• PCBA finished on October, 21st
• Parcel shipped on October, 21st
• Parcel received on October, 25th
• Price: $208.61 including VAT and shipping ($35.73)

JLPCB:

• Ordered on October, 20th
• PCB finished on October, 21th - 20 hours later
• Components sourced on October, 20th (yes)
• PCBA finished on October, 21st - 8 hours after PCB !
• Parcel shipped on October, 22nd
• Parcel received on October, 24th !
• Price: $82.98 including VAT and shipping ($24.19)

At the arrival, all the boards have been tested successfully from both providers.
So, basically, JLCPCB is the winner. Oh by the way, the quality of JLCPCB is a little higher than PCBWAY: black PCB.

QQ.

[NeverDie]

How many of each PCB did you order? I've found that factors into the build time. On JLCPCB, if you order just 5 of each board, thebuild time is usually 24 hours or less. If the build number per board is >5, then I've found the build time is kicked up to 48 hours (sometimes longer).

I haven't encountered any errors in the PCB's that JLCPCB fabbed, whereas one set of boards fabbed by PCBWAY was drilled incorrectly, so for that reason I've gone back to JLCPCB. Even if it sometimes takes longer, it's better to have it done right.

[qqlapraline]

@NeverDie I have ordered 10 pieces each time.

Qq

[ejlane]

@qqlapraline Those are some quick times for assembly! I usually am doing a board with parts they don't stock, so I have only used them for assembly a few times, and not recently, so it's good to hear.

@NeverDie I've used JLCPCB a bunch of times now, and I have yet to find an error that affected the board electrically. I've found small things like sloppy printing or some rough edges of the copper, but always small, and like I said, it has yet to cause an issue for me. For prototyping they're really hard to beat.