[chbot] Seeed Studio's Fusion PCB service.

[Volker Kuhlmann]

On Fri 22 Mar 2013 10:54:41 NZDT +1300, Mark Atherton wrote:

> So I should give up on wire wrapping now ? :)

Probably yes.

> How much was shipping to NZ ?

US$0.00

> What was the lead time ?

Well, you get what you pay for. If you pay extra for airmail (which was
looking reasonably priced, unlike the courier options) it's a little
faster.

But I'd be interested in the actual experience too - Michael?

> Any idea if they take Protel design file ?

Nope. It's a cheap service and they don't want to bother around with
your mess. It's easy to generate the gerber files and there are open
source previewers for them, so you can check the final outcome.

I've had a good look for PCB services over time and they all fell down
on price. Shipping from USA or Oz is a killer. NZ manufacturers are
faster, but don't collate orders, and the quality I've seen from some is
hardly better than seeed's. Do expect a reasonably high registration
error (misalignment of top and bottom copper layer, matters for through
hole rings) from seeed though. You're probably pushing your luck with
the tiny stuff they tell you as their production limit, but that's much
smaller than you'd typically use at home. The misalignment of the silk
print layer is quite big (up to 1mm?) for industry quality commercial
Australian suppleirs too.

Seeed's price is unbeatable. It's relatively low if it was one, but they
give you ten PCBs for that price, and include postage if you can wait.

Volker

-- 
Volker Kuhlmann
http://volker.dnsalias.net/	Please do not CC list postings to me.