My experience with the pcb manufacturer 3PCB.com

[AndyJott]

Hello people,
so my name Andy and I there I am. I like this site and hopefully will find some interesting things for my upcoming projects. But before I start new projects I have to finish my actual ones. But I try to keep getting inspired by sites like this one. My actual project is the Mutable Instruments Shruti. I am building 2 for me and 1 for a friend. What I want to tell to you is a recommondation for a pcb manufacturer called 3pcb.com . I know lots of you are interested in building cheap pcbs and because not everybody has the possibility to create his own pcb I'll show one of the, for my oppinion, best pcb manufacturers you can get. 3PCB is located in China which causes really very low prices, but with a high quality production. PCBs can get manufactured with a minimal amount of 5 units up to everything you want. "Oh, but I don't want 5 units" you'll perhaps say. But let me tell you that probably these 5 units cost less or not much more than the production of a single prototype board if you buy elsewhere. Let me tell you about the possibilities:

Layers:                      ?1 Layer    ?2 Layers    ?4 Layers    ?6 Layers
Thickness:                ?0.4    ?0.6    ?0.8    ?1.0    ?1.2    ?1.6    ?2.0    ?2.4  (mm)
Solder Mask:              ?Green    ?Red    ?Yellow    ?Blue    ?White    ?Black
Silkscreen:              ?White    ?Black  
Surface Finish:      ?HASL with lead    ?HASL lead free    ?Immersion gold
Finished Copper:      ?1 oz Cu    ?2 oz Cu  

I paid only 83 dollars plus the shipping costs for five board sets with a size of 385x100mm and a thickness of 1.6mm each. They would even be more cheap if I didn't want white boards with a black a silkscreen on it. And the quality is really great. There are no sharp edges or a bad silkscreen. Everything is very professional like it should be.

So, but something more related to the people working there........

I am not the most professional person when it's on to build up pcbs and I dodn't know how to order them correctly. That means I didn't know anything about what files I have to supply to a pcb manufacturer. All I knew is that there is something calles Gerber format which should be delivered. At 3PCB you have to upload your gerber files in a zip archive when making the invoice. After that they'll check the files and give a feedback to you if everything is correct and producable. I opened up Eagle and tried to export the ready .brd file which I have from the Mutable Instruments site to the gerber format. After opening the export page I felt very helpless. I didn't know which layer I should place into that file which gets written there. I did wrong in every aspect. I exported all layers to a single gerber file and uploaded this to 3PCB ( I hear you laughing :) ) . The next day I received a response from 3PCB where they told me, that I uploaded wrong files and they described me moer detailed what files they need. They told me about various files for the upper and lower copper, silkscreen, drills and holes and all that stuff. The text was written by hand and it was no kiond of copy and paste styles response what I got what I felt very happy about. I knew I got some real support from a real human. Suddenly I exported again some unusable crap. It has been several files, but somehow some details were wrong again. After I uploaded the faulty files and got a reply again after jut 24 hours. No joke. In that mail I was told more clearly about the differences of the kind of files I have to supply. The best thing was that they sent me a document where everything was described really clearly. The supplied a link to me, where I was able to download something like a 'preset' for exporting which I had to load in the Eagle export screen. Then I saw my (big) mistake. Now there were much more tabs and in each there has been exact specific setting for each of the files they needed. All I had to do now was to give the files names. After exporting the files all corresponding layers were grouped correctly and in the correct file format. I never were able to get this done without their really great help.
So after the correct files has been delivered to 3PCB I was able to see the exactly production stage my pcbs were from the initial cuttings of the pcbs over to etching to silkscreening to drilling to electrical test and finally to the delivery to sending them out to me in real time down to minutes.
When I talk about delivery ... you can coose between Hong Kong Post Airmail and DHL express. I've chosen DHL and after they sent out the PCBs they arrived in under one week. The hole process from the start didn't last longer than 2 weeks (including the correction I had to do on the files I supplied). If you are not satisfied you are able to open a complaint, but to this I can't tell you anything, because I had not to do it. I am really satisfied with their work.

So my tip for you, if you want to let produce some pcbs, go and try 3PCB. I just have the n ext project where I need to get some PCBs made. ( It's the Ambika of Mutable instruments ). The PCBs I need have a size of 325 x 280 millimeters. I'll order again the minimum amount of 5 pieces which costs only 190 dollars plus the shipping costs. In reality this are 5*7 PCBS, because its not one big pcb but one mainboard and 6 so called voicecards. Another nice thing is, that you dont need to order every single board. Instead of that you are able to put everything in a single layout and they cut the various pcbs for you. Isn't that great ? :D So last but not least I am very sure you ask why I tell all this to you so very detailed. The answer is that beside I don't want to let you not know about this great manufacturer is, that 3PCB gives redeem coupons if you share your expirience to other people. This will make your next order quite more cheaper than it is. They'll redeem from 30-100 dollars for it.

Regards, Andy

[AndyJott]

Here are some pictures

[Zam]

Hey

New user with first post about 20 time the name of a pcb manufacturer...

Is that just me ?!?

Zam

[AndyJott]

I didn't want to feel you get spammed. Sorry for that. Perhaps some people are interested in it, for sure others won't be. I am reading the forum a long time yet. I am still waiting for some synthesizer stuff here instead of only controllers.

Edited September 17, 2015 by AndyJott

[AndyJott]

OK there is the MBSID, but I meant a more up to date styled synth. I think the STM32 Core could be suitable for this. Perhaps I'll start something on my own some day when I have more time left to spend.

[Phatline]

5x350x350mm=233USD...ok good price...wtf how? ok i know how china...

yes start such a synth on this platform... because i dont know how to , but i like to watch and learn from... (grabbing the code) 

cheers.

 

Edit: did you paid "zoll" (landed cost)???

evertime i order pcbs from smash tv (america) i pay "zoll" (to Austria) past week i paid for a 160$ order 40€ "zoll"

Edited September 17, 2015 by Phatline

[Altitude]

might take you up on that coupon, have some 4 layer stuff that needs to be fabbed

[AndyJott]

@ Phatline: Up to 22€ you don't have to pay tax. From 22 to 125€ you only have to pay the German 19%. Above 125€ you'll get charged some extra tax from the customs duty.

@Altitude. I I have a redeem code for new customers too. So you can save extra 5 dollars if you are interested. http://www.pcbway.com/setinvite.aspx?inviteid=7680

[novski]

wow. i thought i had found the cheapest factory ever but that 3pcb is even cheaper. Especially the 4 Layers are crazy cheap. Until now i ordered makepcb.com but they have shitty prints. And variating quality. 

thanks for that... Maybe now i can make my Encoder board on less pcb size with 4 Layers. wold be nice...

Regards, novski

edit: for those who consider to let the standard modules get done: https://github.com/novski/Midibox i redraw some of them...

Edited September 18, 2015 by novski