Recommendations on PCB Prototyping / Fab house

Hi all,

Can I glean from your collective wisdom a few recommendations for PCB fab houses where folks have had a good experience?

For this project I'm looking at needing ~2 prototypes for testing purposes and then a board run of 50-100, maybe 200 at the most (assuming the prototypes prove working).

Any particular fab house you like? Hate?

Thanks!

Jed

I did a search when i needed to know that same answer!!
Altough i did a pcb proto by Lukas..

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=13604.0
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=31070.0
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=22961.0
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=23346.0

And Gustav, of course. I assume that by 'fab' you mean plain PCB fabrication, not full-service routing/PCB/assembly houses.

JDB.
[while most posts to those threads discuss protos, a brief look suggests that small runs should be no problem. And wouldn't this question be more likely to get a good response in The Lab?]

Forrest gives a discount for 1st time customers
plus you can use their site to check for board errors
I think everyone is competitive these days

Thanks, guys.

I didn't spend enough time searching (obviously).

I appreciate the help pointing me in the right direction.

I just sent off artwork to Imagineering.  They're running a helluva deal for 1st time customers.  2 sided boards up to 60 sq/in w/ solder masks and silk screen for $25.00 a pop and no tooling fee.  Thus far they've been very responsive.  I guess I'll know in about a week if their product is any good.  Here's my mock up.

I've used Imagineering a lot, they usually do pretty well, keep in mind they're a
broker, so you don't really know who will wind up building your board.

When we did have some problems they were taken care of quickly.

That is a great price!!

2 sided boards up to 60 sq/in w/ solder masks and silk screen for $25.00 a pop and no tooling fee

Click to expand...

I thought Olimex were offering a pretty good deal with 15 day turnaround time.

DOUBLE SIDE BOARD (one board per order)  EUR 300.00 with these specifications:

   * Total order area of 50 sq.dm (1 DSS = 1.6 sq.dm; 1 sq.dm = 100x100 mm)
   * Laminate: FR-4, 1.5 mm thickness, 35/35 um base copper thickness
   * Double side soldermask (choice of colors: blue, red, green, yellow, black, white)
   * White ink component print
   * routing to contour or v-scored
   * 15 working days turnaround time

That would be nearly 15 eurocard size board if I understand the dimensions correctly (less depending on how they panelise)... not a bad price if you need a big sheet you can cut later.

Thanks for the tip in imagineering.  I liked ourpcb.com for protos (as long as you don't need much English speaking support).
I made a big mistake using custompcb.com for protos since their tolerances are horrible.  I like e-teknet.com, they are in
Arizona and they fab in Taiwan(i think).  Their salesmen in the US are very helpful and panelizing was very good.

I wasn't too happy with the quality of Advanced circuits recently.  I would like to use them since they are in the US, but
the boards were not consistent.

Advanced came highly recommended to me but they completely blew me off.  No eMail response whatsoever.
I'm actually sitting on pins and needles.  This is my first PCB since tech school (83) and that was a learn to etch, total BS PCB.  I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst.  I done a ton of mock ups and spent a lot of time with calipers and cut sheets.

Great for protos..

http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special_price.php

Fast shipping great service. 
You can find cheaper services on larger production Quanties however.

GARY

here's a cool link
http://www.opencircuits.com/PCB_Manufacturers#UltimatePCB

anyone try this place?
http://www.speedypcb.com/

4pcb.com has a $500 discount on first time customers.  I used them twice and the product was great and shipping was fast.  Great customer service as well.

I've used Imagineering too, super cheap for proto boards.

Thumbs up to Imagineering.  8 days from order to doorstep and that's with UPS ground shipping (which was free BTW).  I'm by no means an expert since this was my first PCB, but I'm very pleased with what I got.  Everything works.  Here's a couple of pix:




-Richard

Don't you just love when a plan comes together...

JR ;D

I've been doing so much P2P wiring that this was almost alien to me.  The whole look for the wiring error step was almost nonexistent.  It's either gonna work or it isn't with the first PCB.

i was mistaken on the name it was Advanced i delt with
it worked out fine for me