Best PCB fabricator

[Cyril]

I have seen on this board that many of you have real nice PCBs for their project.

I wanted your opinion/experience on PCB frabricating. Wich one do you think is the most relible/notexpensive company?

Where do you order your PCBs?

[bishop]

Furturlec.com
pros:
-Cheapest price for doubled sided boards with no solder mask and not text.
-can submit eagle files directly

Cons:
-Based in Thailand, so if you are in the US you will have to wait a few weeks
-Minimum Spacing and via size is very big, not good for hi density designs.
-No tracking number provided with shipping
-Quality of board is average to below average

Overall:
-Good value for the money


PCBFabExpress.com

Pros:
-Based in the US
-Best price for low volume (5) double sided boards with solder mask and text
-Good quality board
-Free shipping in the US
-Quick 5 day turn around
-included tracking number for shipping
-very professional
-Can do small tracks and spacing and small vias.

Cons:
-Shipping outside the US is another $50 USD
-If you boards are out of spec WRT the special offers then you have to pay alot of extra money
-must submit Gerver files, they do not accept eagle files. This is not really a con, it is just based on personal experience.
-Only 1 design per order, you can not put several designs on 1 board.
-Limit on # of vias

Overall:
-Best for people who are in the US because you get free shipping
-Too many limitations to qualify for the PCB specials

goldphoenixpcb.biz

Pros:
-No limit on vias
-Can have multiple designs
-Quick 10 day turn around
-Great Packaging
-Included tracking number for shipping
-Best price for Higher volume (more than 5) or larger boards with solder mask and text.
-Good quality board
-can do small tracks and spacing and small vias.

Cons:
-Based in china, but shipping is very quick to the US
-Must submit gerber files, can not accept eagle files directly
-Run by chinese people, so if you have problems it might be hard to communicate with them if you do not speak mandarin.

Overall:
-My favorite place to order PCBs from.




Generally if I need something done as quick as possible I use PCBfabexpress. If it is not very urgent then I use goldphoenix, and if I have a design that is simple and small; I use Futurlec.

I only recently started using goldpheonix, because pcbfabexpress has alot of limitations on size of boards and # of vias. I submitted a design for their $50 special, I had to pay an extra $50 for shipping to Canada and another $50 because I had too many vias, so the design ended up costing me $150.

If I was in the US I would continue to use pcbfabexpress, but I am in Canada so goldpheonix is the best for me  90% of the time, the other 10% I use futurlec.

[okk]

PCBCart is a good company, I ordered 100 each of 13 different types (PTH and single sided) on an 8 day delivery and they delivered on time!

I was worried at first about quality and whether I would lose my money but I was plesantly suprised.

This company saved the day as I had to meet a tight delivery schedule.

The website gives you an immediate quotation, gerber files can be uploaded at any time.

The quality is excellent and the prices are only one third that I would normally pay in the UK, setup charges are also a fracton of UK pricing.

PCBCart an be found at :- w w w.pcbcart.com

No I don't work for PCBCart (they are located in China) but I was so pleased with the service that I had to comment.


I will also have a look at goldphoenixpcb.biz, they sound very much the same kind of company as PCBCart.

[drnewton]

I don't know who the fabrication house is, but batchpcb.com is run by SparkFun electronics, and has been very cheap for one time boards.  I think it is $10 (USD) setup and $2.50 / square inch.

[otter]

For double sided PTH boards I have used PCB-POOL for several years with no problems. They take data from most layout packages without going to Gerber files. I have not tried US or Chinese suppliers yet.
Otter

[Cyril]

What about delivery time from China?

I was unable to find prices at goldphoenixpcb.biz

China has the cheapest PCB manufactures so far?
Once i heared about an Australian or New Zeland firm that was good. Anybody any idea?

[bishop]

Price is $89 USD for 155 square inches, it is a very good deal if you can use up all 155 inches.

[GreenGiant]

Dont forget Olimex.

Sometimes can be slower, 2+ weeks.
But extremely cheap.

That other place that charges $2.50/sq inch. Thats highway robbery i tell you.
Any chinese plant can do cheaper than that in small qty.

[bishop]

2.50 per square inch is only a deal if you want only a very few small boards made. Olimex looks to be pretty decent, but when I visted their site a year ago it said that they would not accept eagle files from pirated versions of the software, if they do they will notify Cadsoft, the company that makes eagle layout editor. In anycase, goldenpheonix still has the lowest $/inch I have seen, if you can use up all that space then they are best.

PCB is actually very very cheap to produce; in large quantity I think goldenpheonix only charges something like 5 cents per square inch. Apparently it just take alot of work to setup, that is why they are expensive. I do not really accept this as a good reason for the high price of PCBs because if labour was the bulk of the cost, then PCBs prices from china would be ultra dirt cheap WRT PCBs from the US.

I just wished that there was some easy way for you to do double sided boards at home, not that I would really want to make them at home, but because it would put pressure on PCB companies to lower their prices.

Again, I only have good things to say about goldenpheonix; best price, great packaging, great quality board, no limits on number of holes, fast shipping. Most other companies try to attract people with great PCB specials, they put all the great stuff in huge bold text, but they leave the bad stuff; limit on # of holes, extra shipping fees, only 1 design per order etc..., in fine print buried in some god forsaken place on their website. Goldenpheonix does not do that, they are very straight forward.

[GreenGiant]

Yes olimex does report pirated versions. As a respectable designer, you would be using gerber files for submission.
Direct pcb layout's from eagle, protel, etc will not always yield the exact results compared to submitting gerbers.

[bishop]

I have no idea what information the gerber file retains, I just did not want to take that chance.

The quality of the Golden pheonix boards are not a great as I thought; when I desoldered an IC from the boards I ended up pulling out the entire via, this usually does not happen with board from PCBfabexpress. Also there was a short in one of my boards, it was a fabrication fault not a design fault.

[StanJ]

I've used Alberta Printed Circuits http://www.apcircuits.com/ in Canada a bunch of times, and always had excellent results.  If you don't need silk screen and solder mask, they're cheap and fast in North America.  I've sent them jobs periodically over the last 15 years or so.  They're only a prototype shop, though, and doing production runs will be much more expensive than using a local board house near you.

If you're on the other side of the pond, I'd use someone local as the shipping would cost as much as the PCBs.  Normal turn-around for AP Circuits is 2 or 3 days from the time they receive your design files plus Fedex time.  Fedex International isn't very cheap, but they're reliable.

And no, I'm not related to them, either.  I just use them for hobby boards and small engineering jobs.

My 2 milliamps worth... 

[id2]

WARA PCB in Thailand
http://www.warapcb.com/index.php?lang=en&PHPSESSID=9051f2710fe587c74e1fd5c0dae48d98

setup 20 - 50 USD
0.25 USD/square inches
Around 10 day leadtime
but they can do only 1-2 layer

[sammm]

In italy Tecnometal is very good and faster, it takes 300€ for a sample that are 3plate 300mm x 400mm fr4 double layer.
5 working days

[quark576]

http://www.custompcb.com/

very chip!  2 boards double face 120x130 mm 5 working day only 52 $ !