I recently created a printed circuit board for a raspberry PI design i’m working on. By the past, when I did such things, the cost to make it was not accessible for a home made design. In 10 years things have change a lot and now, you can do it for less than 100€ for a 10×10 two layer board. 4 layer is also something accessible.
I want to share with you this experience, because, I had a good and an bad experience to share.
Firstly I want to notice that i have used kicad opensource pcb design tool. This tool is working incredibly well even on Linux and It just taken a couple of hours to design my board following the tutorials.
Next I had to order for the PCB. Looking on Internet I found some with really good price and the first one I retained was mixelec – Do not buy in the shop !! – I’ve payed 70€ to get 10 of my PCB requesting them in a 5 days to be on time for my project. At this time I did not received anything. I contact them a lot of time using the skype account (always off) the phone number (never responding) and the email (sometime responding – rarely – with on good effects). Now we are 2 months later and I assume I will never receive my PCB, neither have my money back.
So I decide to go to another website. I was recommended on pcbwing by a colleague who has already ordered. The price and quality is really good. The processing time is about 3 weeks, the products are coming from china. As this processing time was a little too long to me I’ve tried another website : eurocircuit.
This website is really good and professional, I’ve got the circuit on the expected time and payed after reception. This is a standard way for this site. The quality is good and the price was 86€ for my 10 PCB, 2 layers. What was the best in my point of view is the online tool they provide to check the PCB before make it. You can see exactly how your board will look like and check that your gerber files are correctly interpreted by the system. Personally I really recommend this site. PCB are made in Est-Europa and delivered with ups.
I was surprised that the processing time was 3 weeks.i have used ANOTHER, also a PCB Manufacturer from China and they gave me a well impression of Chinese PCB Manufacturing.It was amazing that i need rush boards although with only 10PCs but they regards very important and i received my boards in only 5 days since i ordered. And then i went to soldering.Their boards is not expensive but also with the super quality! I was very satisfied.
Don’t be surprised, it is just you eyes passing too fast on my post … read it again I you will get it : it’s a question of transport. I don’t think you other (hide) solution offer the DHL transport for free and also the associated custom fee 😉