Hey chaps,
I have all my one-off PCB's done at Gold Phoenix, and have always been really happy with their products. I normally wait until I've got a few small designs up and ready before I put them together into a single Gerber file and have them sent off to get done under their Special Prices offer - 100sq inches for $89US. I usually get a few extra of each board thrown in due to the Gerber being smaller than their 100sq inch panel. They also charge an extra $30 for the Multi Design panel, which I don't mind paying for. Add the shipping and it's usually $129 - excellent value whichever way you split it.
Recently they've started charging me an extra $20 for "Complex Board Shape (routing points greater than 6)". My designs are always rectangular in shape, specifically to avoid this extra charge. When I asked them about it the response was (paraphrasing), "You should've always been charged this fee for your gerbers, due to the fact each board has it's own outline which must be cut from the panel".
Am I missing something here? Surely the Multi Design panel charge is covering for this? I would have thought that a Complex Board Shape charge would be something like a octogon-shaped PCB. I don't really mind paying the extra $20 (it's still excellent value for money for me down here - best local deal I can find for a similar multi-design PCB is over $400), I was more just surprised that this extra charge suddenly appeared.
Should I perhaps be sending them a multi-design gerber with one single board outline around all the designs, and cut the boards up myself?
I have all my one-off PCB's done at Gold Phoenix, and have always been really happy with their products. I normally wait until I've got a few small designs up and ready before I put them together into a single Gerber file and have them sent off to get done under their Special Prices offer - 100sq inches for $89US. I usually get a few extra of each board thrown in due to the Gerber being smaller than their 100sq inch panel. They also charge an extra $30 for the Multi Design panel, which I don't mind paying for. Add the shipping and it's usually $129 - excellent value whichever way you split it.
Recently they've started charging me an extra $20 for "Complex Board Shape (routing points greater than 6)". My designs are always rectangular in shape, specifically to avoid this extra charge. When I asked them about it the response was (paraphrasing), "You should've always been charged this fee for your gerbers, due to the fact each board has it's own outline which must be cut from the panel".
Am I missing something here? Surely the Multi Design panel charge is covering for this? I would have thought that a Complex Board Shape charge would be something like a octogon-shaped PCB. I don't really mind paying the extra $20 (it's still excellent value for money for me down here - best local deal I can find for a similar multi-design PCB is over $400), I was more just surprised that this extra charge suddenly appeared.
Should I perhaps be sending them a multi-design gerber with one single board outline around all the designs, and cut the boards up myself?