[OT]Homebrew PCB fabrication

[Doc Shipley]

Paul Koning wrote:
>>>>>>"woodelf" == woodelf  <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> writes:
> 
> 
>  woodelf> emanuel stiebler wrote:
>  >> Just in case it is obvious, but did you check the prices for 2
>  >> layer boards ? I think the prices are as low as never before, so I
>  >> wouldn't even start to do it on my own.
> 
>  woodelf> The prices may be low but what about good cad software?
>  woodelf> Free or under $100 US would be nice.  Here in Canada I was
>  woodelf> looking at about $75? setup and $1.00 can per sq inch.  Of
>  woodelf> course two boards minum. Unless you plan to do 3x4 inch
>  woodelf> pcb's or thousands I too think getting the pros to do it is
>  woodelf> a better idea.  Ben alias woodelf.  PS the homebrew computer
>  woodelf> using CPLD's is going to need a far bigger board than demo
>  woodelf> PCB software gives.
> 
> You should be able to do a whole lot better for board prices -- grab
> any copy of EE Times and look at the ads in the back.

   Some of my friends who are into electronics design professionally - 
I'm at the Rat Shack Casual level.  They use Advanced Circuits 
(www.4pcb.com) for runs of anything over a dozen or so.  AC takes gerber 
files.

> Some PCB shops offer free layout software, but chances are that isn't
> such a good deal because you're tied to that shop for fab and are
> charged extra.

   PCBExpress. The same friends use them for one-off designs, because 
they're considerably cheaper on orders of less than 6 boards.  They anly 
accept their proprietary file format and their software is Windows-only,
but I'm told it runs well in VMware and VirtualPC.

   Both houses are reported to do very clean and consistent work.


	Doc