[cobaltmute]

Over here, I started a discussion about making Monofied Sijosae buffer PCBs. I did a small personal run of the PCBs through BatchPCB and they have worked out quite well for me. In the Pimeta the fit was reasonable with the ground channel being quite tight against the rail caps.

There always seems to be interest in making some of these boards, so lets see if there is enough to do a real run.

The board I've done is based right off the pictures made by Mono.

The current board that I'm getting quoted is this:

The only change from what I ran originally is that I've added teardrops to the traces.

I'm going to get quotes from Imagineering and GoldPhoenix. Imagineering's quality is better but GoldPhoenix is cheaper.

But to get a reasonable quote, I need to have an idea of how many boards people might be interested in. Due to the small size of the boards (0.5" x 0.6") they are hard to handle and therefore may come in slightly higher. We may need to put the into little panels to get them run.

So who would be interested and how many individual boards would you like?

Being a group buy, cost per board should be
((Total Cost of production / # of total boards) x number of boards requested )+ packaging + stamps + Paypal fee

Post 3 has the current interested list.

11/13/2008 - see post 5 for first round of pricing.
11/14/2008 - updated pricing to include paypal costs

 

[linuxworks]

I'd like a few.

I'd also be fine paying more for better quality. you know us DIYers, we don't really like to go low-end if we can help it

so, I'd like enough to stuff 4 or even 8 pimetas. that should hold me for a while

 

[cobaltmute]

Going to use this post for counts:

cobaltmute: 12
Linuxworks : 12 - 24
Pars : 6
Germainia : 6
rds : 6
sandbasser : 12
Gross : 12
error401 : 6 - 9
pinkfloyd4ever : 2 -4
tcpoint : 6
digger945 : 20
expressogeek : 6
earwax : 6 - 12
slowpogo : 4

Total = 116 to 145

 

[Pars]

I'd take 6; maybe more depending upon price per board.

 

[cobaltmute]

Okay, I've gotten some quotes back. I was using 150 boards as my target number for a quote.

200 boards, on 2 panels v-scored (100/panel) so they would need to be broken apart.

GoldPhoenix = ~ $200/CDN or $1/board
Imagineering = ~ $325/CDN or $1.63/board

The approximate sign is in there as there is a currency conversion going on as I pay in Canadian and the quotes are in US dollars. Numbers are based on current currency conversion from my bank + 3% for the credit card exchange expense.

Raw US$ figure was $250 for Imagineering and $150 for GoldPhoenix. Imagineering waived tooling as it is my first order with them.

 

[-=Germania=-]

Put me down for 6 as well.

Thanks!

 

[error401]

Not interested in any boards at this time, but look at APCircuits as a fab house. I haven't used them myself, but some people I trust have voiched for their quality. The reason I mention it is that they're based out of Calgary and their rates are pretty good, it will probably come out quite a bit cheaper for you after shipping and exchange.

 

[cobaltmute]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not interested in any boards at this time, but look at APCircuits as a fab house. I haven't used them myself, but some people I trust have voiched for their quality. The reason I mention it is that they're based out of Calgary and their rates are pretty good, it will probably come out quite a bit cheaper for you after shipping and exchange.

I tried their job estimator online for same number of boards (200) = $690 CDN.

Guess I need to e-mail them.

 

[cobaltmute]

To all who've replied so far, do you have a preference of either Imagineering or GoldPhoenix?

I've noticed a trend - everyone want boards in three's. Due to this I'm going to do two things.

1. One rule of this is that you have to order a multiple of three
2. I'm going to get the PCB shops to requote on a panel of either 90 or 120 units.

These two changes are meant so that we can ensure what we can break the board down cleanly without single leftovers. It will make it easier to handle that way.

 

[linuxworks]

if it helps, I could try to do the US side of things for the US folks

it would be my first time doing this with pc boards but I'm game to help out, plus it avoids the $CA conversion for some of us and also the mailing might be easier/faster if you don't cross borders (sigh).

 

[error401]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cobaltmute /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried their job estimator online for same number of boards (200) = $690 CDN. Guess I need to e-mail them.

Yea, I think they charge a surcharge per board if any dimension is < 1". If you had them V-score instead it'd probably be a lot cheaper, but I don't see any facility for that on the web quote.

 

[Pars]

Imagineering does excellent boards (the Gilmore Dynalo and Dynahi group buy boards were through them; IIRC Amb uses them as does Tangent... they can correct me if I am wrong).

 

[cobaltmute]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pars /img/forum/go_quote.gif Imagineering does excellent boards (the Gilmore Dynalo and Dynahi group buy boards were through them; IIRC Amb uses them as does Tangent... they can correct me if I am wrong).

AMB has stated he used them for the gamma1 prototypes (and I believe the rest of his boards are through them as well).BatchPCB uses GoldPhoenix for back end fab.

So if I look at the gamma1 protos versus the boards I ordered through BatchPCB, the big difference I could see was that the soldermask on the GoldPhoenix was not as even as the gamma1 boards. The HASL was also a bit smoother on the gamma1 boards.

 

[cobaltmute]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea, I think they charge a surcharge per board if any dimension is < 1". If you had them V-score instead it'd probably be a lot cheaper, but I don't see any facility for that on the web quote.

I don't even see a good way to get another quote for them except by phone.

 

[cobaltmute]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif if it helps, I could try to do the US side of things for the US folks it would be my first time doing this with pc boards but I'm game to help out, plus it avoids the $CA conversion for some of us and also the mailing might be easier/faster if you don't cross borders (sigh).

Let see where the ultimate geography of everyone is. If most are in the US then I'll hand it over to you. It will work out cheaper for the US people in the long run with only on currency conversion. Considering that I just did my PCB work on someone else layout (and it was a great learning experience), I really don't have any issues about handing over my gerbers.