Anyone had any experience with getting PCB's made up? Who's good on prices, and what software is best for making the necessary CAD files?

Thank you!

Rev

Altium designer is what’s used by a lot of professionals, however for hobby use you’ll want to go with something like sprint layout.

For prototype boards I use a local manufacturer a short drive down the road as they have a quick turn around, however for mass production I send it off to China - there’s plenty of Chinese companies on Alibaba that will manufacture PCB’s just remember to select one with a good reputation.

Thanks nrgkitz. Are there any 'free' PCB layout tools, or are all the free ones rubbish? Sprint is just €46 to buy which isn't too bad.

There are some local PCB manufacturers around here too, but I got an on-line quote for a 2 sided board and it seemed rather expensive to me. Alibaba it shall be...

Rev

pcbway.com are cheap and shipping only takes a couple of days.

Simply upload your gerber file and they make it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maximus is right.

Hello Reverend

You could try EasyEDA? I have been using it for all my recent projects, and its free!

It has all the tools i need to produce quality PCBs.

It is also linked to JLCPCB and the prices are good but will depend on size and complexity of your PCB?

Good Luck!

Hi Reverend,
I've been using this free software called EasyEDA.

https://easyeda.com

It's quite basic and certainly won't give you the all the tools that are in Altium has, but it does the trick for the stuff I'm doing. I also have kiCAD which is (also free) but I'm used to EasyEDA so I stick to that.

As for PCBs, I got some made up from JLCpcb and they were great quality especially given the price! Its £2 for 5 PCBs on the first go! The only bad point is the shipping. It takes ~3 weeks on the cheapest rate but you can do DHL, UPS if you need to be rapid. My advice is watch out with shipping because you can end up paying £££ with customs...

EDIT - Sinus beat me to it as I was writing this

Hehe! Sorry Bton-FM!

But yes i totally agree, Its not perfect and takes a while to get used to?

Login details are the same for both EDA and JLC so exporting your design is quick n easy!

As Bton mentioned, Shipping will probably cost more than your PCBs? But still worth every penny!

Maximus wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 5:46 pm pcbway.com are cheap and shipping only takes a couple of days.

Simply upload your gerber file and they make it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another vote for PCBWAY

Thanks for all the tips. Now to knock up a prototype and get that board designed.

Rev