[TriEmbed] Reasonable PCB Asembly

[Rodney Radford]

Just remember that there is more than one item to consider when picking a
company - not just price.

I would prefer to pay a little bit higher for a company that appears to
have my best interest at heart, will work with me, and not try to berate
me, insult me, or make fun of me for asking a question.

So don't always settle for the cheapest, and if someone comes across as a
bit too strong handed or not a good fit for your organization, keep looking.



On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 9:26 PM, Adam Haile <email at adamhaile.net> wrote:

> You are correct... I have never done SMD assembly before. I figured that
> was probably a decent price, but just had nothing to compare it to, hence
> the question. Was looking for a baseline. I guess it wasn't so much that I
> thought I could do better but wondered if I it was possible.
> The list of local shops is much appreciated. I will definitely check them
> out.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 7:39 PM, Fred Ebeling <FEbeling at ecpdesigns.com>
> wrote:
>
>>   I was wondering, if you have never done this before, why do you
>> believe you can do better than
>> $8.00 a board.  You are correct 200 is a small run.  To build your board,
>> some one has to purchase
>> and stock all the components.   Load them onto a SMD placement machine.
>> Apply solder paste,
>> place all the components, run it thru a IR oven and then verify by hand
>> that all the solder joints
>> are ok.   OH and they have to have space to store all the stuff while its
>> being done and after its
>> done before shipping.  So I say around 10 minutes per board when you add
>> up all the handling
>> and setup.  So the company is going to average around $40 dollars an
>> hour.  Which once you remove
>> overhead, hour rate for employees, calls on the phone to fix things.
>> Means they will probably
>> break even or loss money.
>>
>> There are some shops in the Raleigh area:
>>
>> Anuva formally IES Lighting near Aviation and Evans
>> GRT on the east side of NC State
>> Catalyst by the airport
>> GMI in Charlotte
>> Fawn
>>
>> Good luck in your search.
>>
>> Fred Ebeling
>> ECP Designs
>>
>>
>>
>>  *From:* Adam Haile <email at adamhaile.net>
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 11, 2014 2:43 PM
>> *To:* triembed at triembed.org
>> *Subject:* [TriEmbed] Reasonable PCB Asembly
>>
>>  Now that I'm on the mailing list I figure I'll dive right in...
>>
>> Working on designing a geeky clock for resale and trying to make it all
>> surface mount components in an attempt to save board size and possibly
>> component cost. The board has about 40 components on it in total that are
>> surface mount and 4 more that we were planning on soldering by hand because
>> they are through hole (and that would've added even more cost to the
>> assembly). I've been working with Advanced Assemblies out in CA because
>> they work with my usual PCB fab house but they are quoting me at around $8
>> per board for the assembly (in quantities of 200 board). I realize that at
>> such low volume I'm probably going to run into some pretty high prices, but
>> it still seems to me that I can do better. I've looked around online but
>> figured I would see if any of you have direct experience with other
>> companies and if you liked them, should stay away, etc. We'd love to go the
>> surface mount route instead of making it a user assembled kit (hoping for a
>> broader audience) but that extra $8 would mean the retail price would be
>> *much* higher than we would like and think is reasonable.
>>
>> Any suggestions for assembly companies (and even PCB fab!) would be
>> greatly appreciated.
>>
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>>
>>
>
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