SparkFun Forums

[TChap]

I always use sunstone to make my boards, I use it for several reasons. One is I get boards at my door in 2 - 3 days, and also because I can upload my Eagle brd file and nothing else required to make the boards. This is fine if I am making panels of 12"x 14" and will make at least 10 boards, the price is great. But for prototypes of of a couple of boards, the price is around 400 or so and I still have to pay 200 for a stainless stencil. So a one off proto is expensive. Does anyone have a suggestion of way to get fast boards using Eagle brd files that is not as expensive, but still does a turn around in under a week? I suppose I can learn how to export gerbers, that shouldn't be too much to figure out, so as a second resort I will export gerbers and use a Non - Eagle process. Any suggestions? I forgot to mention, it is nice with Sunstone just to click "add stencil" and choose the stencil options, just a few days turn on the stainless as well. Suggestions on an alternative stencil provider would be welcome too.

Thanks,

[lyndon]

"Good. Fast. Cheap: Pick any two" goes the mantra

You are very unlikely to find good, fast and cheap unless you get lucky. If you do, let us all know.
I have used OSHPark for PC boards when I wanted cheap and good. It was not fast (2+ weeks), but I knew that and the boards were ridiculously cheap and excellent quality. There are any number of good, cheap and slow or good, fast and expensive suppliers for PC boards out there.

Having said that, I just received a stencil from oshstencils.com (not affiliated with OSH Park apparently) for a different board and they violated the above rule by being good, fast (about 3 days) and cheap (about $20 including board-registration frame). I wonder how long they can maintain that

[Ross Robotics]

OSH Park is your best bet. The only thing is they have a 2 week turn around. But, you can upload .brd files and they are ridiculously cheap for the smaller boards. Once you get to 4 square inches, it starts getting expensive. But their boards are high quality.

I highly recommend http://oshpark.com/. I have been using them for over a year now and never had any issues with the boards or service. Laen runs OSH Park and very easy to get along with. If you have any problems, just email him.

The 2nd recommendation is Itead Studio. For the larger boards, you can't beat there prices. They also have a ~2 week turn around. Their quality isn't like OSH Park, but never had any issues with their boards either. You will need to export Gerbers as well.

Itead has it's own CAM file that exports the Gerbers needed. They also have very detailed instructions on ordering.

[TChap]

Thanks guys. I spoke to Sunstone to see what suggestions they had, and they have a service called value proto that allows you to get a 6 day turn on small boards that are a much better deal. Like someone mentioned, the smaller boards are cheap, they say this is because they are tacking the small boards onto other production runs and the smaller board is easier and cheaper to add. Larger boards don't fit well. The 6 day turn requires a $40 expedite fee versus the potential lead time of up to 2 weeks. This requires gerbers to be submitted versus the .brd, but they give examples on how to export and that is not really a big deal, just a tiny learning curve. I have made tons of boards with them already so I am familiar with the quality. The 2 weeks for OSH makes my prototyping time lag a bit, else I would explore it at this time. The stencil is as simple as clicking a check box with the board order. This to me is the best scenario of excellent quality, fast turn, not too bad a price for proto boards.

[Ross Robotics]

That is still alot of money. Go to OSH Park and make an account, upload your .brd file, and see how much it would cost. It's free to get the quote.

[braxtron]

+1 for OSH Park. Ordered 10 or so sets of prototypes (multiples of 3 are required) and have yet to find a boo-boo.

Also, +1 for OSH Stencils (not affiliated with the Park?). The SOT-6 Pads on my stencil turned out 100% sexy.