XS1-L2

[leon_heller]

Where can you get prototype boards made with 5 mil tracks and 0.3mm drills? BatchPCB and Olimex top out at 8 mils and 0.5mm drill size.

Thanks.

Eurocircuits and PCBTrain can do that. Both are in the UK.

Leon

[sjalloq]

Ouch, but the price is nearly double what Olimex offer, for example. I guess you pay if you need the smaller design rules.

[leon_heller]

They have to use much more expensive equipment. I can actually match Olimex's design rules with my home-made PCBs etched in the kitchen sink.

Leon

[ashleyb]

I use Myro PCB (Canadian company) for all my PCB's, very cost effective and quick in my experience http://www.myropcb.com/

I've had several hundred boards made with them now. (200 and 100 quantity of some designs and I've made about 20 or 30 board designs over the last year or two). Boards are made and shipped out of China. I regularly use 7mil tracks/spacing (0.2mm actually) and 0.3mm holes. They also do multi layer boards. Most reasonable prices I've seen. When I was dealing directly with Chinese manufacturer they were charging me USD$250 setup on every board, Myro it's about USD$65 depending on size of board and number of layers (4 layer boards are about $200 and have required E-Test). I submit zipped file containing gerbers generated by Altium Designer. Quote is based off size of board and number of holes (you get the quote before you have to submit the design files), they also have a human check, I've forgotten to include silkscreen file for one board and they contacted me promptly for instructions.

I normally use an 8 day turn around time and have my boards in my hands in 2 weeks (10 to 15 days depending upon submission day and shipping day {Fridays for either always seem to take longer, and doesn't help when UPS sends the package around in a circle for 2 days})

They also offer assembly service although I haven't tried that yet (I'm yet to design a BGA into a personal board).

Ashley

[lilltroll]

They have to use much more expensive equipment. I can actually match Olimex's design rules with my home-made PCBs etched in the kitchen sink.

Leon

Once-never again :mrgreen:

And what about the vias?

I tried it once in the old students PCB-lab.
The PCB part vent fine, but you had to drill all holes by hand and solder the vias by hand. :x

When internet came, they closed the PCB lab. since it became so easy to send it away instead.

So if the PCB isn't a picture of modern art, when do actually do it in your kitchen ??

[lilltroll]

PCB

On XMOSlinkers it is a BLOG about PCBCORE

Website: http://WWW.PCBCORE.COM
Email: service@pcbcore.com
Msn: pcbcore@hotmail.com

I took contact with them, and they seems to have nice price and are able to do almost anything regarding PCB´s.
I haven't tried them out myself yet. Money back or new cards, if you find manufacturing errors on the card " request for a redo or refund on your PCB"

(If it will be produced in China, why use some local middle-hands ?)

[leon_heller]

They have to use much more expensive equipment. I can actually match Olimex's design rules with my home-made PCBs etched in the kitchen sink.

Leon

Once-never again :mrgreen:

And what about the vias?

I tried it once in the old students PCB-lab.
The PCB part vent fine, but you had to drill all holes by hand and solder the vias by hand. :x

When internet came, they closed the PCB lab. since it became so easy to send it away instead.

So if the PCB isn't a picture of modern art, when do actually do it in your kitchen ??

I mostly do single-sided boards, and minimise the use of vias. With surface mount there aren't too many holes to drill. The big advantage is that I can have a board made in about 30 minutes.

Leon

[lilltroll]

They have to use much more expensive equipment. I can actually match Olimex's design rules with my home-made PCBs etched in the kitchen sink.

Leon

Once-never again :mrgreen:

And what about the vias?

I tried it once in the old students PCB-lab.
The PCB part vent fine, but you had to drill all holes by hand and solder the vias by hand. :x

When internet came, they closed the PCB lab. since it became so easy to send it away instead.

So if the PCB isn't a picture of modern art, when do actually do it in your kitchen ??

I mostly do single-sided boards, and minimise the use of vias. With surface mount there aren't too many holes to drill. The big advantage is that I can have a board made in about 30 minutes.

Leon

Hmmm, that would be nice for making fast adapterplates. There is so many different surface mounted IC todays that it is expensive to have a storage with all possible adapter plates at home, and you cannot always place the often needed "outiside chip capacitance" as close as you would like.

I found that you can by a thin aquarium (That way you can look at both sides of the PCB without taking it up from the acid)for PCBs with liquid-heater for < 100€.


What about the photoresist? Can you just place an overhead in the laser-printer nowadays?

Back in the days, you needed to print it in 4X scale or more, and use photo-equipment to reduce the size back to 1X to get a proper resolution.

[leon_heller]

I use Mega Electronics Premium JetStar film in a cheap HP Deskjet 5940 printer, with precoated positive resist boards, in a home-made UV exposure unit. Exposure time is 11 minutes. I do the etching with ferric chloride solution in a small plastic food container in an old washing up bowl with some very hot water in it, to keep the etchant warm. It takes about 5 minutes with continuous agitation.

Leon

[paul]

We did self etch boards at school in Design & Tech using tracing paper through a laser printer and then UV exposed photoresist - this does require a UV box of some sort (not hard to make) but produced quite good results. That was at least 9 years ago!