Lists of PCB services by country?

Hi Morgaine,

I've not seen this but it's a very good idea. As you say, it probably would need some wiki. There are a lot of variables but maybe such a table could have (say) three or four board profiles, e.g. 5x5cm, 10x5cm, etc., to allow prices to be compared to an extent. Also, amongst the list of features, it would also be good for placeholders for approximate delivery costs to a few destinations as a guideline.

Good idea.  The amount of variables is huge...

In the US, OSHpark is very popular, but he's quite slow when you're in Europe, as shipping first goes to the US, and then to Europe.

There have been other discussions going on here on element14 about cheap PCB vendors, would be nice to update that

shabaz wrote:

 

Also, amongst the list of features, it would also be good for placeholders for approximate delivery costs to a few destinations as a guideline.

I was sort of hoping that most countries with an electronics industry would have at least one, hence local delivery.

I expect that was naively over-optimistic.

Morgaine.

Victor Sluiter wrote:

 

There have been other discussions going on here on element14 about cheap PCB vendors

Ah that's good to hear.  Maybe if we find enough links or names among past discussions, we could start a list.

Morgaine.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

I was sort of hoping that most countries with an electronics industry would have at least one, hence local delivery.

They probably do have many local PCB vendors, depends whether they have one that want to deal with the sort of low volume multiple different designs per panel that we're likely to be talking about for prototype OSHW.

I'd looked and found a few in the UK, but prices just didn't compare to the likes of Seeed in china. So that's where you want to know what delivery times are like.

selsinork wrote:

 

I'd looked and found a few in the UK, but prices just didn't compare to the likes of Seeed in china.

I understand why it's always going to be cheaper to source parts in China, but why PCB manufacture should be cheaper there doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.  It's unlikely to be a labour cost issue, since the manufacture is almost entirely automated, and robots don't have higher wages here than there.

It's puzzling.  Could the reason we're not in the game here be taxation?

Morgaine.

Or something to do with environmental regulations ?  The chemicals involved typically aren't very nice.

It IS (partly) labour. The designs are made on a panel, and Itead / Seed just give their designs to other board houses that use these hobbyist designs to fill up board space otherwise unused. That's why ordering the same PCB twice at the same place might give different results; your PCB just got made in another factory or a different process. Anyways: putting those spare PCB's in an existing panel is manual labour.

The other factor is consistency and accuracy. If I place an order at Wuerth, I'm very sure what they are going to do to my data, and how precise their processes are.

When I order at iTead I have to hope for the best, and most times I'm lucky. But taking a good look at the DFN / 0402 shapes show that no rectangle is equal in size. That's OK-ish for hand soldering, but not for an automated flow.

Victor Sluiter wrote:

 

But taking a good look at the DFN / 0402 shapes show that no rectangle is equal in size.

Oh dear.

Perhaps the growth of 3D-printing / home-CNC / PnP-machine capability will make more PCB enthusiasts mill their own 2-sided PCBs instead of typically buying more boards than they need and paying for international delivery.

Morgaine.

I'd rather pay $12 + $25 for fast shipment than a few hundred dollars for a PCB mill that will have a very hard time making pads of 0.3x0.8mm....

Maybe the future will give more of the possibilities you mention, but for now it is far easier to order. And who says 2-layer? I order 4-layer in 0.8mm thickness regularly.