As you probably know, Olimex is having capacity problems and has therefore stopped taking orders for PCB's to be manufactured. As I needed some boards made I decided to look into alternatives. I found this one: http://store.iteadstudio.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19_20 Apparently, their boards are manufactured in China. They're also dirt cheap, cheaper even than Olimex, so I decided to give them a try. I got the boards back about a week after them being shipped from China. They confirmed my order about a week before they were shipped so it took about a week for them to be manufactured. The boards I got back were small (5cm x 5cm) and double sided. I also noticed that I could have ordered even cheaper ones ($10) if I had picked the green boards (I picked the more expensive red boards by mistake). Since the Chinese have longer working hours and less vacation time the boards were processed even during the holiday season. The Bulgarians (Olimex) shut their factory for two months during the summer and during the Christmas holidays as well, so this is a real boon. Especially if you need boards made during in the summertime. I got 10 PCB's for about $18 including shipping and handling. Their site has Eagle ULP and CAM scripts available which you can use to check your design with their design rules and to produce manufacturing files. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with these guys so I'll be ordering more boards in the future. They even do multilayer boards and SMD stencils! In general it's unusual to see Chinese manufacturers do low-volume PCB production, but so far my experience has been a happy one.

Olimex alternative for PCB manufacturing
Started by ●January 22, 2013
Reply by ●January 23, 20132013-01-23
On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:26:44 -0500 (EST), the renowned Anonymous <anonymous@foto.nl1.torservers.net> wrote:> >All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with these guys so I'll be ordering more boards >in the future. They even do multilayer boards and SMD stencils! In general >it's unusual to see Chinese manufacturers do low-volume PCB production, but >so far my experience has been a happy one. >Keep in mind that the Chinese makers generally close for a week or so around the lunar new year (Spring Festival/Golden Week). It's Feb 10 this year. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany -- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Reply by ●January 24, 20132013-01-24
Sorry the link is wrong. This is the right one: http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html
