Board fabrication & manufacture Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[Shape_Shifter]

I am working on a project requires a chip that is only available in surface mount. (24-Lead UMLP (2.5 x 3.4 mm) ) https://www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/FS/FSA642.pdf
I have done a lot of through hole soldering but never smt. I have also never designed and fabricated a board before.
I was thinking that it may be best to have the board fabricated and the smt parts soldered at the same time to reduce the amount of debugging I will need to do. I would like to get a run of 10 boards about 60mm x 30mm with only 2 smt chips.
Does anyone have any advice on how to go about it and what companies will do it for a reasonable price.
I have a feeling that I am being a little crazy and biting off more than I can chew.

[adafruit_support_mike]

For a small order, I'd suggest working with a company that does both board fabrication (drilling, plating, and etching) and assembly.

There are lots of companies who offer that kind of service. Personally, I get boards from Advanced Circuits (http://4pcb.com/) and they do have an assembly service. By all means check around and see what other companies are out there though. When you find one that sounds good to you, talk to the salespeople, let them know you're new to the process, and find out what they need from you in terms of information, parts, and files.

Fair warning: hardware has a significant startup cost. In most cases, having ten boards made will cost about as much as having a hundred made. In both cases the bulk of the price is due to setting things up, you're just distributing that cost across different numbers of boards.

[Shape_Shifter]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep you informed...

[SDMI]

I can offer my services. I own a SMT and THT Assembly House and have over 15years experience assembling surface mount boards. My prices are usually the same as if you had the boards assembled in china, generally less than half the cost of Advanced Assembly. I am able to do volumes as low as 1 unit and as large as thousands per month. I have very low setup fees and no recurring fees on repeat orders.

I have recently expanded my pick and place equipment and am preparing to launch a website later this year, I have high resolution photos and permission from a few current customers that I am able to show if you would be interested.

I am a small company and and am able to be very flexible to best suit customers needs.

You may message me if you would like my contact info.

Sinclair MacGregor

[eskay]

Sinclair, please message me with contact info

[sawyerh]

When it comes to prototyping, you always want to get the best bang for your buck. One tip that I would like to share is talking with your potential manufacturer that also provides assembly to make sure that they are willing to work with you on saving money. Specifically, if their quote has a $300 stencil NRE fee, ask them what components require the stencil and if you changed to a different component, could they hand solder and eliminate that stencil fee. This is important because if you need to make a change to your design on the next run, guess what?, You get to buy a new stencil. That isn't the case if they are able to hand solder all of your SMT parts.

[botcabin1]

Hi Sinclair,

Please post your details. I was unable to message you.

[botcabin1]

Hi,

I tried to message Sinclair in the above post to get his contact details for smt assembly but when I click on his image there doesn't seem to be a link to message. Please let me know how to message someone on the forum.

Thank you!

[SDMI]

www.sdmideas.com

[sunnyduan]

Well, Some China fast PCB prototype & assembly service provider is your best choice. I've used PCBNPI.COM . Let me talk about them:

They often export CUSTOM PCB and PCBA with competitive price and high quality, specialized in low volume quantity,parts sourcing included. All fabricated and assembled as per your requirments,no MOQ limited and NO stencil cost for assembly order !

The Ideal Choice For a New Product Development / Testing and Verification of Designs.

[Kaviee]

I use Seeed Studio Fusion for pcb prototype - the price for 10pcs 10x10cm board can be as low as $9.9. If you're looking for low volume from China, I would highly recommend them.

[Allenxrz]

ALLPCB.com will be a good choice. I have placed some PCB orders and do assembly there. The boards I recieved are in good quality.

[omar_toniutti]

Hello, I need the EU REACH statement for Monochrome 128x32 OLED Display Module. Is this declaration available and, if available, where can I download it? Thank you.

[Hackettxh]

Price is a big factor for me, so I finally chose ALLPCB to make my board. http://www.allpcb.com/T5
I am really impressed with ALLPCB's speed, I submitted my gerber files Friday night (US time -- Saturday afternoon in Schenzen). Within 1 hour my GERBER files were approved and sent off for manufacturing. Several hours later production actually started. You can track the status of each step of manufacturing on their website. The data seems real. Total, it took under 48 hours for my board to be manufactured. About 49 hours after order time, my boards were handed off to DHL. Tuesday morning, I had the boards in my hand.
So basically placed my order Friday night / Saturday morning and had the boards Tuesday noon - that\'s under 4 days - very impressed with this.
Quality is very good for the price. Vias are centered well. The design i submitted used their minimum design guidelines & it turned out great.