So I’m ready to go pro and venture into PCB ordering. Which of the PCB manufacturers can you recommend, price wise, quality, speed? I’m in the UK (soon Canada). Also is it worth to order part or fully assembled boards? I can do 1206 and SSOP so not the end of the world.
1206 parts are going to be hard to source. My former company gave away all the 1206 parts about 12 years ago, as no one ever designed for them.
still plenty on ebay, slightly more expensive than smaller, I suppose I can go heatplate if I need to
Just saying that you will not find any source for fully assembled boards using 1206 parts unless you supply all the parts on tape and reel.
Ah no, what I meant was I could hand solder those, for part or fully assembled I could use whatever they have
Doesn't work that way. You design the board for the parts you want of the size you want. If you ask the company what they have and then design the board, by the time you send the order, they won't have those parts anymore. In most cases the company will order the parts for you just to be sure they are using current, reliable components.
Coming to Canada, you’ll need to get rid of the gun .
The last two manufacturers used here were JLCPCB and PCBWay.
Both have 7 day delivery from date of uploading gerbers.
The quality of the boards are excellent.
I thought handguns were easier to own in Canada than the UK.
Sigh, not a real gun
No, lately, the Feds have stopped all sales of hand guns.
Well, I’m sure Americans will pick up the slack.
Nice, but I think I’m going to get LCD one
Nice!! My presbyopia has gotten to the point that I use the “big eye” magnifier more and more but your rig is definitely the answer!
I have 3 LCD versions, got 3 work benches.
You cannot really solder using them.
They are good for reading and examining components/PCBs.
For soldering, you need stereo vision.
what do you use to hold components down?
I use JLCPCB and I am completely happy with the service, the price and the quality of the boards.
I've never ordered pre-asembled boards because I want the learning experience from soldering SMD parts.
I have used JLCPCB quite a few times for SMT fully made boards, part made and plain pcbs for home soldering. No complaints but some tips. EasyEDA is available for your schematic with JLCPCB linked in. Makes it easy to design and order. If you want prefabricated boards: Make sure you know what parts are in stock (shown on easyEDA). Try to use basic parts to save on cost of adding extended parts to the machine. Designing for basic parts only and then adding the other bits yourself can work well.
Made magnetic hold downs:
Kicad exported works ok with it?