One more PCB fab house - Cheap stencils

[matseng]

I found this smart-prototyping.com company while cruising the interwebs :) They seem to have really good prices even compared to Seeed.

Same specs as Seeed/Itead: 6/6 mil T/T, 12 mil vias, 32 mil text
Standard 95% E-test (Seeed 50%)

10 pcs 5x5cm HASL Green = $10 (Seeed $10)
50 pcs 5x5cm HASL Red = $40 (Seeed $55)
100 pcs 10x10cm HASL Green = $127 (Seeed $190)
100 pcs 10x10cm ENIG(gold) Black = $151 (Seeed $249)

Aaaaaaannnnnnddddd....! Wait for it! A Solder paste stencil as an add-on to the order = $24
(No mention if it's just a kapton stencil or a lasered/chem etched stainless steel stencil.)

[JuKu]

A PCB house would have its chem etch process well tuned, so I'd guess you'd get a steel one.

[matseng]

I got a reply from them telling me that their standard stencil is a laser cut stainless steel with a smallest pitch of 0.4mm.

[Zuph]

Woah, this is great. Another big win: Cheap 4 layer boards.

[bearmos]

I got a reply from them telling me that their standard stencil is a laser cut stainless steel with a smallest pitch of 0.4mm.

That's insane for $24!

So who's up for taking these guys for a whirl?

[Sleepwalker3]

Nice find Mats! I've been emailing back and forth over the past week or so to Seeed and they assure me they are looking into stencils and I've suggested they offer both Kapton for those wanting cheapies for just doing a few and Stainless.
I've found Seeed great to deal with, but it would be great to be able to order the stencils and boards in one hit and with one lot of postage, much less mucking around and cheaper.

BTW, I think it was Arhi that suggested Seeed was doing 100% etest with all stuff and I found this too; In my last couple of batches, all were marked.

[royco]

Nice Find!

I'll try them out. I sent them an email asking when is the last day I can order and still ship out before the spring festival. I have some files ready for them.

[bearmos]

Cool, let us know how it goes! Are you going for the stencil as well, or just PCB's?

[Sleepwalker3]

I'd be pretty happy with 95%! Interestingly, when I select 100%, it doesn't change the price.

I get different prices to you Mats, says $8.90 for 10 units 50mmx50mm Green HASL. Perhaps it's converting to my local currency, but it says $USD up the top.

Might be a problem with their script, but it's showing me the same price ($18.02) for 10 units 50mm x 100mm, as it is for 100mm x 100mm. It takes a few seconds to update (very very slow), but when it does it still comes out the same price - likely a mix up as it seems it might be a new place. If you select 100 units they are completely different prices, so it'll be an error.

I wonder if they have a set thickness of Stencil.

Hmm, will be interesting to see if they're any good.

[matseng]

Their script is really slow, but so are their website so it seems like the price calculations is done at the server and not locally at the webpage.

$8.90 is for 1-layer... :-) Change to 2-layer and you'll get $9.90

[presslab]

4 layer boards are cheap too! 6 layer are a lot more but still reasonable.

[ian]

Nice find Mats! I've been emailing back and forth over the past week or so to Seeed and they assure me they are looking into stencils and I've suggested they offer both Kapton for those wanting cheapies for just doing a few and Stainless.

Yes, they told me this too when I was there. It has been demanded for years :)

All my boards from Seeed are 100% etested too. I will ask if this is standard now. I assume it is, but they'd rather process orders than update the webpage.

[JuKu]

Good resistor and capacitor kits, too. Thank you for the link, I think they get some business from here.

[matseng]

I also need moar lab power supplies.... This http://smart-prototyping.com/index.php? ... uct_id=103 for $29 seems very cheap.

The manufacturer claim "Current Control Mode 0-3A adjustable" but I really don't think so. I see no knobs or switches for setting cv/cc mode as on the more expensive version. Maybe one of each can come in handy. :-)

The http://smart-prototyping.com/index.php? ... uct_id=105 is cheaper than a similar unit on eBay.

Edit: removed extra c from first url

[bearmos]

I also need moar lab power supplies.... This http://smart-prototyping.com/index.php? ... uct_id=103 for $29 seems very cheap.

This is probably one of the cheapest adjustable supplies I've seen.

Looks like your link had an extra 'c' on the index (fixed in the above quote).

The manufacturer claim "Current Control Mode 0-3A adjustable" but I really don't think so. I see no knobs or switches for setting cv/cc mode as on the more expensive version. Maybe one of each can come in handy. :-)

It looks like there's a button on the bottom - this might make select between CC/CV modes.

The http://smart-prototyping.com/index.php? ... uct_id=105 is cheaper than a similar unit on eBay.

I'm assuming this is basically an adjustable +/-15V supply (the description says 0-30V), but the +/-/GND suggest dual rails.

I wonder how these would stand up over time (and what shipping to my side of the pond would be like).