SMD PCB Manufacturing?

Can anyone suggest a good PCB house? I've used BatchPCB twice now, and although they are cheap, it takes FOREVER to get a board in... about 3-4 weeks after submission to be specific. So by good I mean quick and cheap.
Also, do any pcb manufacturers have the option of adding SMD components themselves? I have no practice SMD'ing, so I would love to avoid having to do it myself. I also don't think I have the right tools anyway (all I have is a soldering iron...) :cry:

I've had some boards made at goldphoenix. It just took one week till delivery. They have a 99$ deal for 1000cm² (one design). You have to add some more money for double sided solder mask and fancy colors though.

Soldering SMD parts with a standard soldering iron (~1mm pencil tip) is not that hard at all. You only need to make sure you have this:

  • 0.5mm flux core solder (SnPb 60/40)
  • fluxed solder wick
  • plenty of flux (pen dispenser / syringe)
  • tweezers
  • patience

If you expect you'll have to remove smd chips too from time to time, maybe look at a product named "chipquik". A demo set is quite cheap (about half the price of an arduino board) and will remove a reasonable amount of chips.

Actually I do most smd soldering with just solder and a soldering iron. Keep your tip clean and you will find that it is actually quite easy.

madworm, I'm a little confused about their pricing... is there any way I can just get one board rather than buying like 20 of them for 99 bucks?

I seriously doubt that, unless you're willing to pay a hefty "setup fee" of maybe 50$ or so. Large machinery and just a single board are somewhat orthogonal.

There is a reason why services like batchpcb exist, although they could be speedier.

I myself find that this is a problem too. I could make my own boards with photosensitive pcbs, but the quality is always a bit below my expectations. No solder mask, no silk screen and toner transfer doesn't work with my laser printer's toner. This is really unfortunate, as I need more and more smd parts and prototyping gets quite complicated. Some companies have discovered the market and sell smd-dip adapters at hilarious prices.

So when I need a perfect board, I swallow the bitter pill and pay the price (of money and or time). I then try to sell the remaining boards on my blog :wink:

As madworm says, the setup fee is what gets-ya. It's a flat fee so spread out over many boards it's a low percentage of cost per board. Over one board it seems massive.

On a note about hilarious prices for SMD adapters I tend to just make my own, it's fairly simple to just break out every pin.

Futurlec has really cheap breakout boards too (<$1 per)

Those look good, but I need MSOP10 adapters :frowning:

Maybe I will have to have them made. As I can't stand oxidized boards without solder mask, I won't make my own. A source in Germany asks 2.50? for a single one. If I have them made I could get 150 for about 50?. Another item for my little shop of surplus parts :sunglasses:

Isn't 50 euro for 150 pieces worse than 2.50 euro per piece?

This place has a 10 pack for $10
http://www.nkcelectronics.com/msop10-to-dip-adapter-101011.html

50/150 = 1/3

1/3 < 2.5

Or did the math change lately ? I wasn't planning to eat the remaining 149 pieces. That would be a lot worse than just paying 2.50 :sunglasses:

The 10pack seems like a good deal though!

Hah, my brain is fried.

I did 150/50 instead of 50/150

I have heard of:

batchPCB, good for single boards,

SeedStudio, good for batches of small boards (10-50ish) and they recently dropped their prices - also do a construction service but it's expensive,

OurPCB, good for a lot of boards and they do a construction service and I think it's slightly cheaper than seedstudio though don't quote me on that.

There are a few others but to be honest there isn't really an alternative to batchPCB for small single boards.

Goldphoenix, I have not heard a lot about them. Seem good for a sheet of different designs. Aren't they who sparfun's batchPCB service use or something (I know it has been said once or twice)...

If anyone finds another place then please say...

Regards,

Mowcius

I guess I'm stuck with batchpcb for now.

You could get a group of friends together and panelize the designs yourself. When the
panel comes back each person could cut there own boards out with a hacksaw, scrollsaw
or bandsaw.

(* jcl *)

You could get a group of friends together and panelize the designs yourself. When the
panel comes back each person could cut there own boards out with a hacksaw, scrollsaw
or bandsaw.

Yes but there aren't any free programs that I have found that will let you do a design bigger than about 1 board... I don't have that many friends who are into making their own circuit boards to be honest...

I presume that's how batch PCB started out though... Just a much bigger group of friends :smiley:

Mowcius

KiCAD can do that. You want to do A0 sized boards, no problem :wink:

Yes but there aren't any free programs that I have found that will let you do a design bigger than about 1 board.

gEDA can do this. My last PCB panel was 12x14" and had 23 unique designs.

I panelize within the gEDA tool but I have heard there is an open source gerber
tiling program available.

(* jcl *)