Great PCB House for Prototyping

I recently was directed to this site http://oshpark.com/, it may have been someone on this site who told me about it. The cost for a two layer board is $5 per sq inch for three boards, shipping is included. Boards must be ordered in multiples of 3, your boards are panelized with others they seem to have the volume to send out a panel each day.

I sent them a simple design for a bare bones ATTINY2313 header board, and 10 days later I had the boards in hand and they looked and functioned great. Today I sent them a design for an instrumentation amp board for a project that included a load cell, the charge on these three boards was $4.44. I would have ordered more than 3 of the instrumentation boards except it was a new design and it may need some mods. No loss as anytime I want more of any boards I have purchased from them the files are on their site and I can log in and place an order anytime I want.

They also do 4-layer boards, the cost is more and I do not think they send a panel out each day, if interested check their site out.

$5 for square inch for 3?

I'm no expert on PCB manufacture but iteadstudio does 5cm x 10cm two layer boards for $22 for 10. 5cm x 10cm = 1.97in x 3.94in (7.762in2) which is $38.80 for 3.

http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html

This service looks good only if you are going to do small boards. It gets expensive fast.

The quicker turnaround than itead or iseed is what I really like, yes if you are producing any numbers the price hurts.

I'm usually a fan of SeeedStudio but recently I've seen some comparisons between these three services (SeeedStudio, iTeadStudio, OSH Park), and OSH Park seems to have much better quality.

Read about the comparison here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulstoffregen/teensy-30-32-bit-arm-cortex-m4-usable-in-arduino-a/posts/305527

My next project might actually use 6 mil trace and spacing and 13 mil drills, I might need to use OSH Park to guarantee that the PCB actually works.

I use 8 mil trace and 12 mil drills with itead all the time, never any quality or working issues.

CrossRoads:
I use 8 mil trace and 12 mil drills with itead all the time, never any quality or working issues.

@CrossRoads: Thanks a lot for your support to our company, we are very glad to be at your service!

To others who wonder where to get your pcb manufactured: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html

Speaking of pcb, then maybe i should mention our small batch pcb service as well: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/small-batches-pcb.html

Best regards,

Wendy

I too use iTeadStudio, and have YET to have a problem with my boards

edit:

they have been terrible lately (Feb/March 2013)... no emails, no communication, no pcb's, no tracking numbers...etc..

had to file paypal dispute with them.....

random comments about having lost my order, found my order, said it had shipped or will ship that day several times, said they cant ship FEDEX now.. are using DHL.. will 'ship today'.. they are moving office..... PayPal notification was broke.... the list goes on.

After I ordered, and paid...I went back to iTead website..and there wasnt even an order entry in my order history page.. (although got order# from itead and Paypal trans id#.)

VERY un-happy with them

(thanks CrossRoads & Royce for the recommendation to use them)

5cm x 5cm for 10 pcbs' = $10.00

hard to beat.

I am JEALOUS. I haven't found any PCB shop here in Italy that will do prototypes for anywhere near those prices. If anyone has any suggestions,I'd love to have them.

Sono invidioso. Non sono riuscito a trovare nessuna dita qui in Italia disposto a fare PCB per prezzi simili. Se qualcuno avesse dei suggerimenti, mi piacerebbe averli.

Lenni Robbins (Siena)

Does it have to be in Italy?

I dont live in China.. and I still order from/use iTeadStudio...

Thanks. I've now done the same. Their price was extraordinarily low, now I just have to wait the 3-4 weels for the postal service to get it here. Ciao, Lenny

I've ordered three sets of boards from ITead, and am very happy with their service. They typically take about three or four days to get them made (they use the same board manufacturer as Seeed) and shipping to the UK takes about another week or so, so I usually get my boards in about 10 days to two weeks. Seeed has been getting lots of complaints on their forum about their PCB service.

Mail from China to Italy generally takes a LOT longer, but that's OK - I'm not in a great rush. I need 2 tiny boards (ca. 1.5 x 2 cm) and I'll end up with 20 at a unit cost of near zero. Ciao, Lenny

iteadstudio:

CrossRoads:
I use 8 mil trace and 12 mil drills with itead all the time, never any quality or working issues.

@CrossRoads: Thanks a lot for your support to our company, we are very glad to be at your service!

To others who wonder where to get your pcb manufactured: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html

Speaking of pcb, then maybe i should mention our small batch pcb service as well: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/small-batches-pcb.html

Best regards,

Wendy

Wendy,

You are crtainly not welcome from me! I dumped hundreds of dollars at your PCB services. Quality aside, your pricing for larger quantity (100-200) was confusing and differ with different people I emailed. I decided to not order from you anymore a year ago. I have also used seeed itead and laem. None of them failed at quality of my simple boards. Laem is a lot more expensive when I was using it, over a year ago. They have fab connection in USA, not necessarily meaning better precision or faster turn around, a year ago. Seeedstudio had better selection of options than itead but itead soon copy catted. Both seeed and itead take three weeks or more from design submission to receiving boards. Seeed has free shipping over $50 but itead didn't and I don't care now.

trying to 'weed' through to some facts here...

1.) you havent ordered from itead in over a year? is this correct? (Im unclear)

2.) what exactly (if any) were the problems with your board(s)?

quality?
cost? (confusing for large qty)?
shipping time?
costs that changed per person you talked to? (that would be a bit bothersome to me as well)

Im (again) unclear.. as to what was the 'con' when YOU used itead?

I just ordered 3 new designs/pcbs from them (itead)..

xl97:
costs that changed per person you talked to? (that would be a bit bothersome to me as well

You ever tried to order 200 small boards with them? I just don't want any of that experience anymore, give it a year or more, period. If you were promised a price and then told another later, you should stay away from the seller. So for the order you paid, were you given free shipping for order over $50? Seeedstudio does this. I started with seeed and later discovered itead because they were cheaper. That was when neither they had any service for more than 10 pcs so I had to email them to negotiate a price for 100-200 pcs. Itead won out with less cost and I made some purchases with then, until they became confusing with different people saying different prices and eventually annoyed me enough to go back to seeed. That clear enough for you now?

no I have not tried to order 200+ board from them.. (all mine have been the 5x5-10pc orders more or less..)

all my shipping has been in the $5.00-$8.00 range.. (not free.. was that advertised? or told to you over the phone? or your just bringing up/mentioning that seeed does that as a plus for them?..and not really a 'neg' for itead?)

seems like this was a while back (since they didnt even offer these larger batches to be purchased on the store front).. but the two different price thing would have been a turn off for me as well.

I have been wanting to give seeed a chance myself at least once.. but the prices on my small batches of pcb has always been lowest from itead.

You should try itead again liudr - they have "small batch" pricing now for 50-300 pieces.
I've ordered 50 pieces a couple of times with no problems.

xl97:
no I have not tried to order 200+ board from them.. (all mine have been the 5x5-10pc orders more or less..)

all my shipping has been in the $5.00-$8.00 range.. (not free.. was that advertised? or told to you over the phone? or your just bringing up/mentioning that seeed does that as a plus for them?..and not really a 'neg' for itead?)

seems like this was a while back (since they didnt even offer these larger batches to be purchased on the store front).. but the two different price thing would have been a turn off for me as well.

I have been wanting to give seeed a chance myself at least once.. but the prices on my small batches of pcb has always been lowest from itead.

Seeed has free shipping for $50 for as long as I know them. You don't order enough so certainly this has not come up for you at check out. Remember if you do order more than the lowest quantity, just a couple of 10*10 designs will be $50. Shipping a couple hundred boards is around 30-40 at itead but still free at seeed. IDK where your price info came from but they have the same exact price except you pay shippinf with itead even for $50 orders.

@crossroads, I check itead price every time I order from seeed. They are not cheaper for 50-200 pcs. they are the same as seeed and they don't offer free shipping as seeed does. Unless Wendy is just an avertar I know I don't want to talk with Wendy from itead anymore.

I use itead for quantity-10 orders, and it's fine, except for when they go on week-long breaks :slight_smile: (new years, fall festival, etc...) They do clearly communicate when this will happen, so it's not a surprise, just an inconvenience.

OSH Park is the productization of "Laen's dorkbot order" and I've used that too. Those boards are super nice -- gold finish, deep purple solder mask, 6 mil precision. A little more expensive for the total order of the bigger boards I make, though. Note that I don't need the 10 boards I get from ITEAD -- 3 is plenty per test design for me, but ITEAD is still a cheaper and faster option even when I toss the extra boards I don't need :wink:

When I order from ITEAD, I pay the extra $28 for DHL shipping, and the boards ship in 2-3 days after they're done, so I often have less than 10 days turn-around. Order monday morning, get next tuesday. The ITEAD people will also include devices in the same shipping if I buy them (nRF24L01+ boards etc.) So, $38 for 10x 4sqin boards -- a little more than laen for the order (less per board,) but faster. $50 for 10x 8sqin boards is cheaper, and the bigger the boards get, the better the price gets. Although if laen could deliver within 10 days, that might still be a nice option. (Last I ordered there, I had a 3 week wait before I got the boards, and I'm an impatient man...)

jwatte:
When I order from ITEAD, I pay the extra $28 for DHL shipping, and the boards ship in 2-3 days after they're done, so I often have less than 10 days turn-around. Order monday morning, get next tuesday.

Thanks for the info. If I have impatient clients, I will ask them to pay the extra shipping to get the boards faster.