A look at OurPCB boards

[Aismass]

Hey all:

I recently got some boards made by OurPCB(.com) and thought I'd share my experience since I couldn't find many detailed reviews on them myself. I ordered 2 different PCBs from them (one of which had 3 sub-boards on it) for a total cost of just under 320 USD all-in. One board was fairly large at 150x182mm (4 copies) and the other was 90x56mm (10 copies). Not exactly cheap but the fact that I had 3 boards in one might have added a lot to the 'tooling' cost; 160 + 6.25/board vs. 80 + 1.25/board for the small ones.

Overall the quality is really quite good, especially on the large board. I have used Seeedstudio once in the past and I would definitely rate this as being better quality. Really happy with the way the large boards came out. The smaller boards were not as sharp looking and the silkscreen was a bit sloppy here and there but overall still good. They also included a 4 page inspection report for each board with various measured parameters taken from extra boards of the same run I assume. This is only the second fab I've used so I have no idea if this is standard precude but I thought it was neat.

Pics are attached (excuse the crappy camera). I did notice one odd thing on the back of a few boards - some black residue or something between copper pours. I have no idea what it is but the copper feels noticeably thicker in these areas so maybe it has something to do with the etching?