$5/sqin batch PCB's in Oz

[EEVblog]

With free shipping.
Awesome price for oz.
http://www.breadboardkiller.com.au

[sleemanj]

With free shipping.
Awesome price for oz.
http://www.breadboardkiller.com.au

"We aim to have them delivered to you within two and a half weeks of submitting your order [...] occasionally longer delays will be incurred."

Seems not that much faster than getting the boards from any of the multitude of far far cheaper fabs in China.

[DerekG]

Seems not that much faster than getting the boards from any of the multitude of far far cheaper fabs in China.

We have found PCB Zone in New Zealand very good for prototypes at a good price. Normally the boards are delivered into Australia in 5 working days

They will also accept your native Altium file format.

http://www.pcbzone.net

[EEVblog]

Seems not that much faster than getting the boards from any of the multitude of far far cheaper fabs in China.

What if you need just a single small 1 or 2 sqin board?
Surely you can't get one from China for $5 or $10 delivered?

[AlfBaz]

Interesting, might give them a go, thanks.

Years and years ago I used a place in Sydney called tranny's (or something like that) they charged a flat rate for 2 sided PTH silk screened for around $470 for a standard A3 size board. If all you wanted was 1 square inch, they'd send you as many as they would get out of the A3 sheet. If my math is right these blokes would charge nearly a grand

[EEVblog]

If my math is right these blokes would charge nearly a grand

Yes, you wouldn't use these types of shared services for large boards.  The prices are geared around small boards in low or one-off qty.

[LukeW]

Sounds possibly competitive with OSHPark.

OSHPark is $5 USD per square inch compared with AUD $5 at BreadboardKiller (for something basically similar - 3x boards, including shipping) - so BK is slightly cheaper.

But OSHPark does beautiful purple. BK does not specify anything about soldermask colors - what do you get? I assume it's just boring green?

What plating do you get? OSHPark does ENIG, will they match that or just offer inferior HASL? If it is HASL is it Pb or Pb-free?

OSHPark usually takes about 4 weeks to totally turn around from order to mailbox for me, in Melbourne, if you choose free shipping.
Hopefully BK will offer Australian users faster turn around than that.

OSHPark gives you a very easy, fast, no-fuss online ordering process, and it remains to be seen if BK offers comparable ease of use.

BK offers 12 thou minimum drill, compared to 13 thou at OSHPark, which is nice.

BK specify nicely routed board edges, with no ugly break-away tabs, which is nice. However I'm not sure if they will add printed ID codes onto your board silkscreen, which OSHPark does not.

OSHPark does 4-layer boards as well as 2-layer. BK does not seem to offer anything >2 layer. OSHPark provides the stackup information (copper thickness, dielectric thickness for each layer, and dielectric constant) with as much confidence as is practical, which is important for RF designs. http://blog.oshpark.com/kb/4-layer-stackup/ Does BK provide this information, or do we have to roughly estimate it?

[eneuro]

What if you need just a single small 1 or 2 sqin board?

Old school PCB thermal transfer and in 1 hour depending on board complexity one can test his prototype 
For better quality  photo method of course.
Makeing holes in PCB manually in garage is boring, but it is time to review design from mechanical point of view. If it takes too long time this means too many elements needed and we have to simplify design 

[IconicPCB]

Iconic PCB out of Brisbane make PCBs locally for 24 hour turn around.
Single, double, mutlilayer, soldermask and component legend with immersion silver finish.

www.iconicpcb.com

[krivx]

Sounds possibly competitive with OSHPark.

OSHPark is $5 USD per square inch compared with AUD $5 at BreadboardKiller (for something basically similar - 3x boards, including shipping) - so BK is slightly cheaper.

BK is only cheaper within Australia, OSHPark does free international shipping. So the difference is down to AU$ vs USD and whether that's worth an unknown manufacturer.

[krivx]

Seems not that much faster than getting the boards from any of the multitude of far far cheaper fabs in China.

What if you need just a single small 1 or 2 sqin board?
Surely you can't get one from China for $5 or $10 delivered?

My last OSHPark order was US$4.20 delivered to Dublin.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

What plating do you get? OSHPark does ENIG, will they match that or just offer inferior HASL? If it is HASL is it Pb or Pb-free?

Does it matter? I assume people using this service will be assembling by hand.

[eneuro]

My last OSHPark order was US$4.20 delivered to Dublin.

PCB 1.25*5cm (1inch2) http://pcbshopper.com/ gives minimum 3 items, which is fine while at price only $1.61 for 2 layer 1inch2, but close to 1 month (25 days) delivery and it is quite long.

OSH Park USA  1.3 × 5 cm   Purple   3   $4.84 total  $1.61 each   USPS First:    $4.84  25 days

BTW: Why Smart Prototyping disapeared from http://pcbshopper.com/  results listing today-it was on the top of those PCB price comparisions ? 

[IconicPCB]

For those amongst us who have used the services of IMP Engineering in the past... IMP have ceased manufacturing in Australia and only on sell imported product.

RIP IMP Long live cheap imports

[rea5245]

BTW: Why Smart Prototyping disapeared from http://pcbshopper.com/  results listing today-it was on the top of those PCB price comparisions ? 

I realize this is 5 months old and the issue was resolved long ago, but I just came across this today and, as the creator of PCBShopper.com, I thought I'd respond.

PCBShopper queries PCB manufacturers' sites to get their prices, and sometimes those queries fail. Back in September, I was getting a lot of failures from Smart Prototyping's site, and at the time, PCBShopper simply failed silently. Smart Prototyping's site works a lot better now (in fact, since October) and PCBShopper no longer fails silently - it tells you which manufacturers' sites didn't respond and even lets you re-try them.

BTW, I have a Contact Us link on PCBShopper. PCBShopper isn't a big, bureaucratic company - it's just me! I'm happy to hear from my users and I respond to every (non-spam) e-mail I get. If there's a problem and someone tells me about it, I often fix it within 24 hours. If there's a problem and no one tells me about, I might not notice it for a while. All you folks combined use PCBShopper a lot more than I do.

So next time you notice a problem with PCBShopper or have a question, please contact me, and you'll get a response fast. Or you can post here, and maybe I'll notice it 5 months later. ;-)

- Bob Alexander

[free_electron]

here is something that would be useful : an additional filter on technology for all these manufacturers.

or a single web pages showing what is the smallest drill and smallest track/gap space they accept .

i am looking for a cheap proto service that can do 4mil track and gap...

[IconicPCB]

4 thou track and gap in what copper thickness... 1 ounce ... 0.5 ounce...?