Small run custom PCB's

[Matt Bell]

Whats the ball park pricing for having small pcb's made in runs of less than 10 or so? What companies are good for this?

[Chris Wilkson]

That's a wide open question.  But anwering these questions will help narrow it down....

How big are the boards?

What is the board shape?
How many copper layers?

How many soldermask layers?

How many silkscreen layers?

Are the components through-hole, SMT, or both?

How many drill holes/sq. in.?

Those are the major ones.  I tend to use Advanced Circuits for my protos.  I really like their software and they do solid work.  But it's an American fab, so it's significantly more expensive than others....

[Ray Scheufler]

Like all engineering decisions it depends. Chris had a good set of
questions but I am going to go a bit more generic. Do you want it
fast, cheap, or quality? Pick two.

I am a fan of Advanced Circuits. They are pretty fast and good
quality. Unfortunately they are not the cheapest around.

I have also used seeed studio. They have pretty good quality and are
cheap but they are based in China and shipping can take a while. They
do 10 boards per batch. Price goes up with size, and some other
options. If you want a 5cm x 5cm board it is only $10 for 10 boards.
They will take 3 or 4 weeks to get here.

iteadstudio also uses the same fab house as seeed and has the same
pricing last time I checked.

Ray Scheufler

> --
>
>

[Matt Bell]

Lets say rectangular 4" x 3".

One copper layer

One soldermask layer (I think, is this only if you need surface mount?)

One silk screen

Only through-hole components

Probably around 70 holes

--

[Rob Giseburt]

$1/sq in, http://oshpark.com/pricing

Or, as low as $10/10 boards: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/fusion-pcb-service-p-835.html?cPath=185

I’ve used both systems. They’re both great.

If you want prettier or higher quality (or care that it’s made in the USA) then use oshpark. (That’s the purple boards, btw.)

-Rob

--