Hi all, hope this is in the correct forum..
I've designed some PCBs for a small project. They work together to form a bigger circuit, but because I know I'll have made plenty of mistakes, I've designed it across multiple boards, connected with ribbon cables (11 boards in total). This way it'll be far easier for me to repair/replace/modify certain parts without worrying about ordering the full PCB again (and the whole desoldering process that would involve). My eventual aim would be to redesign it as one PCB, once I've ironed out the various faults.
Anyway, I'm trying to find a way to get these 11 PCBs printed cheaply, but I'm failing miserably! I've only talked to a couple of places, but I've been told they would treat it as 11 separate circuits, regardless of whether I placed all the circuits on one PCB (that I could cut up myself), or on separate PCBs (that the PCB manufacturers would cut up). Is this really correct? I'm slightly baffled by the idea to be honest... And if this is normal, is there a trick I'm missing about getting this done more affordably?
Roughly speaking, the cost seems to triple, simply because I'm using ribbon cables to connect parts of the circuit together!?
Any advice would be much appreciated - I've no idea what I'm doing, but I'm always wary!
C
I've designed some PCBs for a small project. They work together to form a bigger circuit, but because I know I'll have made plenty of mistakes, I've designed it across multiple boards, connected with ribbon cables (11 boards in total). This way it'll be far easier for me to repair/replace/modify certain parts without worrying about ordering the full PCB again (and the whole desoldering process that would involve). My eventual aim would be to redesign it as one PCB, once I've ironed out the various faults.
Anyway, I'm trying to find a way to get these 11 PCBs printed cheaply, but I'm failing miserably! I've only talked to a couple of places, but I've been told they would treat it as 11 separate circuits, regardless of whether I placed all the circuits on one PCB (that I could cut up myself), or on separate PCBs (that the PCB manufacturers would cut up). Is this really correct? I'm slightly baffled by the idea to be honest... And if this is normal, is there a trick I'm missing about getting this done more affordably?
Roughly speaking, the cost seems to triple, simply because I'm using ribbon cables to connect parts of the circuit together!?
Any advice would be much appreciated - I've no idea what I'm doing, but I'm always wary!
C