SMT Assembly Prototype service

Chat about pick and place machines, reflow ovens, assembly techniques and other SMT tips & trix

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

Hi i like others looked at open pnp and used machines and found the quote from aapcb to be 400$+ :'( =-O x-(
So i tried to find some service like sparkfuns batch pcb or dorkbotpdx oshpark for printed circuit boards.

Smt assembly
smd assembly
were good searches and got back over 20 results.
Smt assembly prototipe service
might be a better search.
Every place offers quotes so there is no mentioned deals like dorkbot or batch pcb.
Smd assembly prototipe quote
or
smd assembly protoripe service review
might be good has anyone receved good quotes?

might be good.

josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

I found 2 places under 200$USD for my small board. Now I emailed many more for better quotes I have the pnp xyrs file.
I think it is logical assembling the circuit to test is a thing many designers would need. But they don't need many and SMT assembly is difficult and time consuming.

Says 80$ on its site.
http://www.ourpcb.com/pcba-product.htm
calculated for 160
http://www.pcbtrain.co.uk/

This one is usa but no quote price yet.
http://www.americanproductsinc.com/smt-assembly.php
It would be realy great if dorkbotpdx's service offered something or batchpcb just a assembled pannel...
dorkbotpdx's new board site is oshpool

User avatar
lyndon
 
Posts: 281
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:28 pm

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by lyndon »

Honestly, $400 for any quantity seems like a really good price. Is that just the setup price or is that setup + assembly of a certain quantity?

Not so long ago, $400 was the price you'd pay to get 3 prototype bare PC boards done.

josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

lyndon wrote:Honestly, $400 for any quantity seems like a really good price. Is that just the setup price or is that setup + assembly of a certain quantity?

Not so long ago, $400 was the price you'd pay to get 3 prototype bare PC boards done.
really ? Well with automation and sending the boards and partd and xy rotation and side spread sheet csv txt file for pick and place on quantity of
1 is high becausse why would someobe want three coasters. :mrgreen:
but 100 could be more fair i dont know never bought or ran a machine like that.

User avatar
lyndon
 
Posts: 281
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:28 pm

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by lyndon »

"Fair" has nothing to do with pricing. Businesses price what they need to in order to make a profit and stay in business. If you can't afford it, then you're just not a potential customer.

There was someone on here (and SparkFun) a few weeks ago asking about starting up a low cost assembly service and the consensus was that they would lose their shirts doing it how they proposed.

Look, the way an entrepreneur would approach this is "I just tried to get some boards assembled and the price is too high. Maybe there's a market need for a low cost assembly service?"
If you want to be an entrepreneur maybe you've found a market niche. Now the question is can you fill it while still making money?

User avatar
vincentp
 
Posts: 112
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 3:29 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by vincentp »

seconded. That's more or less (a part of) the foreword of the upcoming MDC 7722 handbook. Not that you can't start an assembly service business but the cost involved will make your time and equipment way more expensive than "low cost" allows.
Now I know exactly what it takes me to assemble my own boards, I know what I would have to charge to customers if I was proposing such a service. And it kills the wishing well :shock:

have you checked screaming circuits ?

josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

521$ for one http://www.screamingcircuits.com 40 smd parts

User avatar
alphatronique
 
Posts: 231
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 8:30 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by alphatronique »

Hi

just curious for 1 or 2 board wly not just ask for hand assembly ?

whit stencil and past hand assembly was cost effective

~75$ for a stencil + 35$/ hour rate you may got small board for bit under 100$

some very simple board may even not need stencil

but put it on pick place need to load feeder and program machine so this require lot of time
it may take me 2 or 3 hour only for unlaod and relaod all feeder on my machine
and more if need to program part into machine .....

but past hand assembly was solution for small batch ...

you may try my online qoute tool price was very aggressive on PCB assembly
http://www.alphatronique.com/instant-quote/

Best regard
Last edited by alphatronique on Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
vincentp
 
Posts: 112
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 3:29 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by vincentp »

That's what we had going for a small batch of prototypes 2 years ago. The company had a small placement machine but it's actually easier for them to do hand placement especially when you have a very few components per board (like 30).

IMO The niche market of PnP for prototypes sounds interesting when :
- you need to validate an industrial assembly before going with high numbers. Sometimes even if the board is "simple", you don't know what sort of problems you can get into when going full auto
- placing complex parts like BGA and low pitch parts with a huge number of leads.

but most of the time, for a single board (to validate hardware at dev stage #0 or start firmware programming) hand assembly plus an eventual semi auto placement by a PnP for difficult parts make it cheaper than a fully automatic process. Programming and loading the machine takes indeed a lot of time (not talking of part definition if they aren't in the data base)

josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

Here are some place I got quotes:
http://www.ourpcb.com
http://www.nelson-specialties.com
Minisota USA
GOOD PRICE FOR 1

tinkerbee
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 3:45 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by tinkerbee »

Hi Folks;

I run a mod shop, we ended up purchasing a pick and place. We would offer these kinds of services. However I did not want to go advertising here as I am brand spanking new to the forums - is posting an ad for PCB services in this thread appropriate?

User avatar
adafruit_support_mike
 
Posts: 67391
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

tinkerbee wrote:I run a mod shop, we ended up purchasing a pick and place. We would offer these kinds of services. However I did not want to go advertising here as I am brand spanking new to the forums - is posting an ad for PCB services in this thread appropriate?
Your best bet is to head over to the Jobs board (http://adafruit.com/jobs/) and post under "Skills Offered".

BTW - thanks for having the courtesy to ask about it!

Andy_123
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:29 pm

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by Andy_123 »

I recently used SMT assembly offered by TinkerBEE two posts above and under "jobs" section.
http://www.adafruit.com/jobs/job/380/ma ... kerbeecom/
Very good quality, reasonably priced service with quick turnaround.
Let me know if you need more details.

josheeg
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:38 am

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by josheeg »

Neat i will look at it.

User avatar
cstratton
 
Posts: 294
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2010 3:52 pm

Re: SMT Assembly Prototype service

Post by cstratton »

After seeing the listing here, we ended up using TinkerBee's SMT assembly service for a pilot production run of a small product we are developing at my day job. It was very useful to be able to get the person who would be programming the job on the phone to talk through the various issues. Einar provided a lot of support and explanation of their process needs, discovered and corrected an error in our placement data, turned the job around quickly, and put a lot of effort into achieving quality results.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “SMT (Surface Mount Tech)”