Recommendation for PCB fab?
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@gohan said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
Has anyone tried smart-prototyping?
No, never heard about them before. But their cheap shipping options are at 5$ for me so I might give it a try for boards I can wait for.
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AllPCB it's great with DHL shipping. At least for now. It's true that the boards final price includes shipping too but it's still cheaper via DHL. Even if I have to pay VAT it's ok (19%). For the very short time to my door which is 3-4 days that's just WOW compared with 3-4 weeks via regular shipping.
@gohan I tried smart-prototyping in the past and they are pretty ok I can say but not the best compared to PCBWay for example. For cheap services and pretty decent quality I will still opt for Elecrow for example. And for pretty decent quality and very fast shipping - AllPCB - at least for now and if their prices won't go higher in the future.
Oh and AllPCB finishes the boards in 2 days for that price. Compared to EU factories it's still the cheapest - you can't beat China when it comes to that. Here in EU for the same price that AllPCB does I get ONLY 3 boards...wtf..so yeah you get the idea.
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OSHPARK seems to have improved a lot lately. They now have a "super swift" option for fabbing your board in 5 days. I got lucky because they gave me a free upgrade to that for some of the boards I submitted yesterday because they had extra space on their production run.
So, we'll see. In the past OSHPARK's silk screening wasn't very good at small font sizes as compared to, say, allpcb.com. Also, even OSHPARK's superswift isn't as fast as allpcb.com, but for small board prototypes the OSHPARK prices are much lower.
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And you can also combine JLPCB boards with components order on LCSC so you don't have any endless wait from AliExpress.
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@diogoc said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
JLCPCB made good and cheap pcbs
Well, the PCB prices are great, but maybe it depends on where you live? What's your shipping cost? For me in the USA it has DHL, UPS, and registered air as the options. The costs to me would be $20, $28, or $12 respectively.
For contrast, I can get 3 of my solar harvester boards for $1.46, including shipping, from OSHPARK. Admittedly, though, that board is (deliberately) tiny, and OSHPARK becomes a lot less cost effective with larger board sizes. So, it's good to know what the alternatives are.
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@diogoc said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
JLCPCB made good and cheap pcbs
Well, the PCB prices are great, but maybe it depends on where you live? What's your shipping cost? For me in the USA it has DHL, UPS, and registered air as the options. The costs to me would be $20, $28, or $12 respectively.
For contrast, I can get 3 of my solar harvester boards for $1.46, including shipping, from OSHPARK. Admittedly, though, that board is (deliberately) tiny, and OSHPARK becomes a lot less cost effective with larger board sizes. So, it's good to know what the alternatives are.
@neverdie said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
For contrast, I can get 3 of my solar harvester boards for $1.46, including shipping, from OSHPARK. Admittedly, though, that board is (deliberately) tiny, and OSHPARK becomes a lot less cost effective with larger board sizes.
Yes that's for bigger boards, for smaller ones OSH Park and PCBs.io are cheaper because of the free shipping and low quantity. JLCPCB also have the cheapest stencils around, I paid 7$ for a metal stencil last time.
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I just now placed an order through allpcb for their current deal, which is 5 pcbs (up to 50mmx50mm) for $10, with free DHL shipping. That's less that what I'd have to pay OSHPARK for 3 pcb's with OSHPARK'S expedited swift service. According to allpcb's promise, I should receive the pcb's on Thursday of next week--though in the past they usually managed to beat their promise and deliver it sooner.
If JLPCB allows you to combine shipping on different PCB orders (?), then that would probably beat ALLPCB on total price, assuming you have multiple different pcbs you want to order at the same time.
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I just now placed an order through allpcb for their current deal, which is 5 pcbs (up to 50mmx50mm) for $10, with free DHL shipping. That's less that what I'd have to pay OSHPARK for 3 pcb's with OSHPARK'S expedited swift service. According to allpcb's promise, I should receive the pcb's on Thursday of next week--though in the past they usually managed to beat their promise and deliver it sooner.
If JLPCB allows you to combine shipping on different PCB orders (?), then that would probably beat ALLPCB on total price, assuming you have multiple different pcbs you want to order at the same time.
@neverdie said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
If JLPCB allows you to combine shipping on different PCB orders (?), then that would probably beat ALLPCB on total price, assuming you have multiple different pcbs you want to order at the same time.
They allow it, but only the first PCB is 2$, from the 2nd one it's 5$ so you either need many PCBs, big sized ones, or stencil (7$ instead of 20) to match that.
Thank you for tip about the allpcb offer, didn't have much to complain about last time I used them, so at this price I'll probably use them again if they maintain the offer for long enough.
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Anyone try this? Sounds like a promising alternative:
https://hackaday.com/2018/09/18/get-your-pcbs-made-at-the-mall/ -
Anyone try this? Sounds like a promising alternative:
https://hackaday.com/2018/09/18/get-your-pcbs-made-at-the-mall/@neverdie said in Recommendation for PCB fab?:
Anyone try this? Sounds like a promising alternative:
https://hackaday.com/2018/09/18/get-your-pcbs-made-at-the-mall/Good idea but it's not really solving much, it's keeping the most annoying parts: using chemicals (can't do it in an appartment building), making the vias by hand.
