Technical > Electronics > Printed Circuit Board Fabricators

Printed Circuit Board Fabricators

I think these links should be put as standard forum link

reply to drjim
I've used these folks through work. Bare bones and $33 special seem to always be there. Their 'protoype' boards are
'all holes plated' while 'production' allows non plated but adds a tooling charge.

Advanced Circuits »www.4pcb.com/

reply to drjim
Hi drjim,

Thanx for the ExpressPCB link. I've DL the FREE software, but havn't installed it. Looks good though, have you used it and if so what you think of it ?

Spanner
--
I Only Know What I Know But I'm Learning all The Time - Stay Safe - Spanner intheWorks/SpannerITWks

It's more than adequate for making boards. Unfortunately it's proprietary format, so if you design a board with it, you're kind of stuck with them as a fab house.
Still, it *is* free, and they do a nice job on baords.
--
One man's Magic is another man's Engineering.

reply to drjim
Excellent source of info!
This could inspire me to make my own line of engineering products for broadcasters once again.
I remember back in 1982, having to BEG the VP of a local PCB manufacturing plant to run three boards (prototype) of a multiplex stereo generator I had designed. I recall it cost me about $300 back then. Quality was good, but I had to use my best negotiation skills to get that plant to consider my project, as it was too small a quantity for them normally.
It is great to see there are companies doing this (and offering routing software) for very reasonable prices (actually, 1980s prices) in 2005.
In my line of work, there is a need for low cost distribution amps, buffer amps, 2 chan mixers, headphone dist amps and an assortment of logic conversion boxes. We normally buy these things, but they are costly. I refuse to breadboard such an item because the labor vs. return I could charge would not be profitable. But if I designed and built an array of boxes and just kept them in stock or ready to assemble, this could be a small boone to my work. And I could sell them in Radio Shopper as well.
Now you have me thinking...
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Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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the prototype shops are great.

curious, what do your logic conversion boxes do?

They convert polarity and change latching to momentary or visa versa. We often need those to mate incompatible transmitter/remote control gear.