Hi all!
I saw Chads post on his boards, and noticed the nice purple color. This seemed a nice point in time for me to show the purple boards I had. When I had finished my design I sent my files to http://www.oshpark.com, I read a good review on them on hackaday and their costs seemed OK. I'm very happy with their service to read in Eagle files directly, and see all the layers separately before giving a final 'OK'. Unfortunately, I got the message that the shipment would take so long from the States to the Netherlands that I would get my boards around the 1st of december, the deadline at that moment (was postponed to 7th later on).
I then had the option of either investing in more shipment costs from the U.S., or fall back to my default supplier: iTead . They have fast shipment, and thinner boards (1mm) but their accuracy is -in general- less than other OSH Park's. Judge for yourself, see the picture below! Purple is OSH park, green is iTead.
Some details I noticed:
- via placement is better (and smaller drill?) at OSH park
- Same issue as on hackaday: the vias are open at OSH, closed at iTead. Still have to check what I did in the gerbers.
- OSH park has ENIG finish, which is more level that HASL, but that doesn't matter for my project
- solder mask has more detail at OSHPark, especially noticeable at 0402 and QFN footprints
- OSHpark uses mousebites (connections to other PCB's) where iTead has smooth sides
