In response to our post about a competitor offering cheap solderpaste stencil services Seeed Studio announced they are working on the same. Expect them to be available after the Chinese New Year break.
Yes! We are preparing that, will available after Chinese New Year! ;)
Via the comments.
way cool!, hope it will be an easy way of ordering them together with the pcb’s.
Will one need to export other files from Eagle, or will the soldermask templates be the source for this?
You wouldn’t want to use the soldermask for that since the holes in the mask usually is larger than the pads, and you wouldn’t want to get solder paste on the pads for thru-hole parts either.
Luckily the Seeedstudio gerber-cam file already exports the correct layers as separate files. It’s the .GTP/GBP files that is made out of the tCream/bCream layers. Should be easy as pie… :-)
Excellent, getting the PCB and the stencil from the same place can only increase accuracy and turnaround time.
Are you sure? That quote was from a response to a question about 4 layers boards. I think they were talking aout it not solderpaste stencils.
I know sure they will be doing stencils, from the man himself :) Not sure about 4 layer boards.
Did they say anything about what kind?, steel?, kapton? (don’t think it matters, so much but.)
Steel
Neat! I can already do Kapton stencils here, but the laser cutters I have access to cannot cut steel. Any info on the price?
Sorry no, but will hit them up after the holiday :)
Tayken did you ever manage the solderstencils?
Yeah, did 10 boards for Safecast about 6 months ago. Last week made 6 boards for a new prototype. Now I’m trying to find a solution for a round PCB. :) I should’ve posted the pics on the forum somewhere.
Nowhere to hide…
We are going to offer both 4 layer PCBs and stencils! First thing after Spring festival, we will calculate and optimize the price and release by then. Also trying to fasten the delivery time by packages…
Feel free to let us know your needs, sorry for being deaf and lazy till Ian knocks~ ; )
Earlier i saw pcb’s was delivered vacuumpacked?, I got mine pcb’s today, loose in an bag, so I hope when stencils can be ordered, that stencils and pcb’s are packed in a way that doesn’t destroy the stencil.
Now, my pcb’s was just some small adapterboards, so that’s ok, but wanted to mention it.
And, the ability to put the seeed ordernumber on the pcb is gone after the change of ordermethod, but luckily the text seeed adds on the pcb is very tiny. :)
I’ve always got them in vacuum sealed bags together with a desiccant. Actually the RetroTime-PAW even had a thin paper between each pcb in order not to scratch them. That’s really impressive.
Thanks for mentioning it! :)
for small pcbs, it would be difficult to align and vacuum but luckily less damage to each. For stuff like stencils we will sure protect it well against unknown journey.
So who would I have to bribe at Seeedstudio to get panelized and routed boards like this?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BCQXYq1CYAAXas1.jpg
Any news about the stencils? I want to order a couple of PCB designs and I am holding everything in order to order together with a stencil…