> > What's the quality and turnaround with a two-layer board from sparkfun? I > have a few toys that I've been meaning to get made. > I've used BatchPCB on quite a few 2 layer boards now. It almost always seems to take 4 weeks calendar time, although I may have had bad luck. But don't even start checking the mail box until 3 weeks have gone by.
Quality has been variable. Until recently I'd have said mostly good. In an earlier order I had a bad board, but in my last batch (of 4 designs) I ordered 4 copies of one design, a 48mm x 72mm 2 layer board, pretty simple, all through hole. I got back 6 copies (I'm thinking "bonus!") but the first one I assembled had a short in it :( I buzzed out another one and it was good so I assembled it no problem. A friend wanted one, so I buzzed out another one and found another shorted board :( so I buzzed out yet another one pretty thoroughly for shorts (but not 100% connectivity) and gave it to him. He found an open trace which he had to jumper around. So... mostly I've had a good experience but you have to be patient. My last order was a disappointment. Order 4, get 6, 2 of which are unusable, 1 repairable, 1 known good, 2 untested. Not a great batting average. Up until that order I was a big fan. I'll probably still use them because for small orders it is very hard to beat the price, but I'm a little skittish about pushing a highly complex board through them at the moment. You can go direct to Gold Phoenix (which is the fab BatchPCB uses) and buy a panel at the "special price" http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special_price.php 155 in^2 for $99, no electrical testing, "max 15% failure rate" and for $20 more you can get them all electrically tested. That may not be a bad deal, but there is sure no way that I could tolerate a 15% failure rate if I did order a panel. I have no idea how that failure rate compares to competitors. Even with electrical testing for 4 layer boards they quote a 2% failure rate, but the web page doesn't quote a failure rate for electrically tested 2 layer boards. -dave _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
