PC board manufacturers

[ippytattoo]

I know this has nothing to do with an XS or even motorcycles but I figured maybe somone on here might know of any PC board manufacturers that would be willing to make a couple of one off pc boards (we have the foil designs and the layout specs) for a reasonable price. My son is making a work sample project (electro-magnetic levitation device) for his application to a specialized high school and we need to source a couple of boards. If anyone has any info or would like to help some of the parts needed to build it feel free to hit me up. We will post a log here and give credit to anyone that helps out in both the log here and his project write up.

 

[bradshaw106]

I designed a tach circuit for my old pickup truck. Printed the schematic on transfer paper then used a laminator to transfer to some copper blanks that I bought of ebay. Little bit of etching fluid from radio shack and I had a nice board. I built about 10 boards and sold them on ebay.

 

[xjwmx]

You can make the boards yourself. Especially appropriate since it's a school project. Wire wrapped assembly might be an alternative to that. Otherwise it's a prototype shop, which will be pretty darn expensive.

 

[bradshaw106]

I forgot to mentioned when I prototyped I bought a board from RadioShack and just made a million little solder bridges, it was crude but it worked and proved my circuit Worked. I new of one place that offered small batch ordering but it had a couple week lead time I will see if I can find their address

Ok I found it, Batchpcb.com.
If you go there you will see the site has changed to a different company, "oshapark". I'm prettysure its what your looking for.

 

[xjwmx]

I was assuming the board is too complicated to just wire up on a perfboard or prototype kit board?

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I used to source-out pc fab to a shop in Wichita 25 years ago. Very expensive per unit for small runs. Need to replicate the pattern on 1 board with break-off holes for each pattern for best cost. That shop is gone, everything went overseas. Your best bet (and for your son's experience) is to perf-board your own like the previous posters suggested...

 

[ippytattoo]

The layout is pretty complex. I have pdf prints of them. I am attaching them if anyone is interested. The credit for figuring these out goes to my son Justin. He is a true genius and very driven. He wants to attend MIT for his undergrad studies and Oxford for his grad studies in advanced theoretical mathematics.

 

[bradshaw106]

I bet you could do those with the toner transfer method I mentioned in my first post

 

[ippytattoo]

I will look into that and put him to work. I appreciate the insight

 

[xjwmx]

Yeah, it's do-able. Here's a tutorial on making your own boards. Surprised he hasn't caught on to this stuff while learning what he learned to design his circuit.

http://www.robotroom.com/PCB.html

Incidentally, the easiest way to cut fiberglass board material is with a paper cutter. Many were the times I sneaked into the library, waited till no worker was around, and sliced out a circuit board.

 

[glaswerks]

I use a company that is tied into eMachineshop. It is called Pad2Pad, prices are reasonable and quality is good.

www.pad2pad.com

 

[xjwmx]

^It's $100 for one 3"x6" board with two weeks lead, $200 for one week. But it's still five times as cheap as I thought it would be. But I haven't looked into this since the early 90s.

But these days it night be more impressive if he could say he created a gerber file and had a board made from it than it would be to actually make the board himself Former is marketable, the latter not.

 

[bradshaw106]

Yeah, it's do-able. Here's a tutorial on making your own boards. Surprised he hasn't caught on to this stuff while learning what he learned to design his circuit.

http://www.robotroom.com/PCB.html

Incidentally, the easiest way to cut fiberglass board material is with a paper cutter. Many were the times I sneaked into the library, waited till no worker was around, and sliced out a circuit board.

I cut my boards using the bandsaw at work.. Finish carpenters love it when you cut fiberglass on their wood saw....

 

[xjwmx]

^And librarians love it when you cut it with their paper cutter. But it goes through it like hot butter. Probably doesn't hurt the blade. Never had much luck with a saw, but never tried something like a good band saw.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Generous conductor widths and spacing, minimal etching, the foils look quite dooable using at home kit. Gerber file would be large trying to fill-in the larger conductor zones. There's a lot of banter on the net about precision pcb drilling, seems dremel drill kit is too wobbly. You'll go thru a few drill bits. I assume this is all low-freq, else need to double-check stub lengths...