UK prototyping PCB companies?

[reactif8]

Hi all.
So over the years I have usually made do with home made PCB's but am wanting to know if any of you have purchased printed PCBs(I'm in the UK) and who's the best/cheapest to get them from.

The searching that I have done brings up plenty of companies but whilst trying to get a costing for some upcoming projects, I usually leave their site feeling confused/perplexed/distraught or when their online quoting system does work the prices seem to be very expensive.

I'm assuming there must be somewhere that provide low cost small quantity printing.
I would initially be looking at just a small number of PCBs of about 7cm squared.

Any help and/or experience is welcome.

Cheers
Phil.

[dunk]

i recently used http://olimex.com/ after hearing good things about them.
they are a little eccentric to deal with but they did exactly what they said they would in the advertised time.
the finished product was of good quality too.

dunk.

[SmAsH]

http://batchpcb.com/ Has some pretty decent pricing if you want to give them a look.

[paulstreats]

try Eurocircuits. Elektor magazine have started a PCB service too but never used it yet.

[Soeren]

Hi,

I'll vouch for Olimex too and each time I check, their prices are far below any other I know - around £12 IIRC, for a single Eurocard (4"x6") dual layer with silk screen and shipped and that's the full price, no setup fees or nothing, but you'll have to make the boards with the least amount of different drill sizes etc. (it's all on their site and they even have scripts for making Eagle files conform to some extend).
You can even send them an Eagle board file for the job, but remember to clean up the silk screen and all, since they don't do nursing (Actually, they may contact you if they spot an obvious error, but don't lean too much onto that).

[reactif8]

Sorry about the slow reply, but just wanted to say thank you for pointing me towards Olimex.
With pricing like that, it makes prottyping a bit more realistic.

cheers
Phil.

[amando96]

Hi,

I'll vouch for Olimex too and each time I check, their prices are far below any other I know - around £12 IIRC, for a single Eurocard (4"x6") dual layer with silk screen and shipped and that's the full price, no setup fees or nothing, but you'll have to make the boards with the least amount of different drill sizes etc. (it's all on their site and they even have scripts for making Eagle files conform to some extend).
You can even send them an Eagle board file for the job, but remember to clean up the silk screen and all, since they don't do nursing (Actually, they may contact you if they spot an obvious error, but don't lean too much onto that).

Where is this? all i see in the pricing list it goes from 24 to 120€

[Soeren]

Hi,

Where is this? all i see in the pricing list it goes from 24 to 120€

Wow, they certainly upped their prices - been some years since I used them myself (as I mainly make my own PCB's), but... €30 for a prototype Eurocard sized DS PCB is still reasonable, considering that you can just send them an Eagle file (something beginners will appreciate).

If you find it too expensive for what you want to make, either start making your own PCBs or use Vero board.
For something you just want to hide away in a box somewhere, it shouldn't matter and if you need to produce many units for sale, Olimex has much lower prices for production runs with a 2 week production time.

These days, I wouldn't use pre-made PCBs unless I was filling out a large(ish) order or had to use very narrow tracks.

[amando96]

I've been doing my own for a while, but i wanted to open an online kit shop in a few years, just wanted to have some good foundations before doing it, and doing some proper research before investing.
It obviously looks much nicer, and works better with solder mask, silkscreen and the whole deal, which is something i can't do at home, at least for now.

[Soeren]

Hi,

Then you should really be looking up production run prices, as prototypes will allways be much more costly.
If you confirm a prototype on a homemade PCB and then get quotes for eg. 100 pieces or more from different places (avoid the Chinese I think Admin would tell you), I'm sure you'll get low prices.


As a side note, am I the only one who cannot access the electronics board?
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?board=4.0
I can get to the newest post shown at the front page and all the other boards work, but not "Electronics"??

[Alfa_Zulu]

nah Soeren, works fine for me

[Soeren]

Hi,

It's back to normal again