[TriEmbed] OSH Park alternatives

[Pete Soper]

Another topic of discussion from the most recent meeting was lower cost 
alternatives to OSH Park for custom PCBs.  I haven't found an updated 
survey yet, but here are a few bullets FYI based on just two choices 
after a bit of scouting. Note this is about hobby oriented vendors. If 
you're willing to drop $100-1000 for a small set of boards you can get 
them in a hurry or "hair on fire" hurry from vendors that service 
professional customers. Likewise, if you want 1000 boards you would not 
be wise to consider any of these sources but instead go through the 
traditional process where you suffer a significant nonrecurring setup 
charge along with quite low per-inch costs with high quantities (+/- a 
zillion variables, just saying).

   * OSH Park is definitely not the cheapest source, it's just the best. 
Best is defined as:
        * Minimum board size 1/4" square and flat cost per square inch, 
allowing for very inexpensive small boards. Example: three AVR 6/10 pin 
programming adaptors for easy solderless breadboard usage for $2.80.
        * ENIG gold finish on *dead flat* pads free, making soldering 
(especially demanding surface mount soldering) relatively easy
       * Excellent quality with design rules going down to six mils
       * Support for slots
       * Highly automated, easy to use and reliable design 
upload/delivery mechanism
       * Turnaround varies from 11 to 18 days with an off the cuff 
median estimate around 12 days from design upload to boards in your mail 
box *with free shipping*. USPS express shipping will cut a few days off 
the time from Portland to our area in return for higher cost. (From 
order placed to back "shipped" averaged 9 1/2 days for my five sample 
points and so the average turnaround would be maybe 10 days with USPS 
express).
       * Based in the US (Oregon), using a pool of seriously good PC 
fabs in this country
       * Two layer, quantity three boards for $5/square inch (i.e. if 
you had a design that was one square inch you'd get three copies of the 
board for $5 mailed to you). So cost on a "total square inch" basis is 
$1.67.
       * Two layer, quantity N*10 boards with 150 "total square inch" 
minimum for $1/inch of total board area (i.e. if you had a design that 
was one square inch you could get 150 boards mailed to you for $150)


  * Seeed Studio "Fushion PCB" service is different:
       * Offers five copies of a board up to 2x2cm for $10. That's about 
50 cents per square inch.
       * Turnaround with free shipping reported to be about three weeks. 
I'm here to tell you this would be with "typical US customs handling" 
and I'm here to tell you the transit time through customs is highly 
variable. Christmas is a terrible time but Chinese New Year (roughly 
from late January to well into February) is a disaster.
      * Pads are tinned and not very flat
      * No slots
      * Presumably automated, easy to use upload/delivery mechanism
      * Assembly services offered (at a few cents per "pin" but that's 
the only detail I know)

-Pete