# Alternate PCB Material (Special Run of Thin Boards?) **URL:** \ **Category:** BatchPCB\ **Created:** [March 22, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542 "2009-03-22T18:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spacewrench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@spacewrench](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/spacewrench)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/1 "2009-03-22T18:45:47Z")
Is there anybody else who needs a thin PCB for something? If we get enough orders together, could BatchPCB run a panel of something besides the standard-thickness FR4? I have one project that requires a 32 mil thick board (a plug-in card for a Mattel Juicebox) and another where saving a few mils off the height would be helpful. Neither is worth the hundreds of dollars a full-custom would cost, though (each board is only a few square inches). Any chance BatchPCB’s fabricator could do a small run of thin boards? Regards, d. ---
**Author:** ![gussy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@gussy](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/gussy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 5:00am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/2 "2009-03-23T05:00:32Z")
You could just get a panel made by GPX, it would only be around $100. ---
**Author:** ![spacewrench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@spacewrench](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/spacewrench)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/3 "2009-03-23T05:04:35Z")
Who’s GPX? The Googles, they do nothing! ---
**Author:** ![propellanttech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@propellanttech](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/propellanttech)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/4 "2009-03-23T07:25:56Z")
Here is the url. [http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special\_price.php](http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special_price.php) I don’t feel bad about posting the URL, because GP are the people who make BatchPCB possible. Shane will not respond unless you add your gerbers and relevant information to your email to him. Tell him what you need, and he will respond usually within 24 hours. James L ---
**Author:** ![gussy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@gussy](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/gussy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 8:09am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/5 "2009-03-24T08:09:11Z")
Sorry, I was being lazy… propellanttech explained it better than me 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tetsujin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@tetsujin](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/tetsujin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/6 "2009-03-26T18:34:11Z")
At some point I need to make a Mini-PCI-E card - those need to be 1mm thick. (That’s about 39-40 mil) I don’t know if that helps you with your batch run, since you needed the 32mil card… Of course, I don’t see 39mil as an option on that GPX page at all… I guess I need to check the data sheet for my Mini PCI-E connector and see if there’s some leeway in what it’ll accept… ---
**Author:** ![NleahciM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/dc4da7/32.png) [@NleahciM](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/NleahciM)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/7 "2009-03-27T01:24:55Z")
> tetsujin: > At some point I need to make a Mini-PCI-E card - those need to be 1mm thick. (That’s about 39-40 mil) I don’t know if that helps you with your batch run, since you needed the 32mil card… > > Of course, I don’t see 39mil as an option on that GPX page at all… I guess I need to check the data sheet for my Mini PCI-E connector and see if there’s some leeway in what it’ll accept… Out of curiosity - what are you making a mini PCI-E card for? ---
**Author:** ![tetsujin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@tetsujin](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/tetsujin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/8 "2009-03-27T02:59:55Z")
> NleahciM: > > > tetsujin: > > At some point I need to make a Mini-PCI-E card - those need to be 1mm thick. > > Out of curiosity - what are you making a mini PCI-E card for? I have a EEE and I want to add Firewire to it. Of course, nobody makes a Firewire card as a mini PCI-E card (how would you connect peripherals to it?) so I got myself a Firewire Expresscard - I’m gonna saw off the bulky end with the connectors and hook the Expresscard end to the 3G slot. I’d rather not solder a bunch of wires to my main board, so I’d prefer to make a mini PCI Express card - so that if I ever want to undo the mod all I gotta do is unplug it and take the connectors off the inside of the case. Of course, there’s all kinds of unknowns with this plan… Like will I be able to fit the altered firewire card inside the case, stacked on top of the 4mm PCI-E connector I’m installing for the 3G slot, and the 4G SSD? Does the EEE 901’s 3G slot even provide PCI-E signals? (I think it does, there’s board traces that go to the PCI-E pins) - and will the 901 BIOS do something nasty like disable the PCI-E signals going to the 3G slot before my OS has a chance to take over? I’m not really going to know if this will work until I try - another reason I’d rather not solder this mod to the main board. There’s been some discussion on the EEE user forums as well about creating a mini PCI-e card to host USB peripherals - cut down on the “rat’s nest” effect from all those internally-mounted USB peripherals mounted with foam tape and wired to wherever you can get a USB signal. Since the 3G slot (and the SSD slots, for that matter) provide USB, a card would be a nice place to host a hub, maybe a peripheral or two, and some headers to hook up to other devices. 'Course it’s not worth it if it’s gonna cost $100 just to fabricate the board. But, looking at the mini PCI-e pinout, I think there’s a fair chance I could have a regular-size board made and then file down the connector area to 1mm. Nearly all the important signals are on one side of the connector - it seems like the only thing I might possibly need that would be on the other side of the connector is SMBus - but I don’t think my Firewire card uses SMBus. (I’ll check, to make sure - but I could probably improvise a connection to the SMBus terminals if I had to.) ---
**Author:** ![Labrat\_Canada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Labrat\_Canada](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/Labrat_Canada)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/9 "2009-04-07T04:48:37Z")
Read the initial post, and was wondering what you had planned for your Juicebox? I’m interested in putting together a programmable/bootable cartridge for the 2 boxes I have here. I have a design that uses a NAND device on the front, and a micro-SD card socket on the back. (It’s untested) The issue I have (along with the thickness of the card), is that the tight tolerances of the NAND flash pads, violate the DRC spacing rules. ---
**Author:** ![rinigado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rinigado](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/rinigado)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/alternate-pcb-material-special-run-of-thin-boards/10542/10 "2009-04-07T18:00:13Z")
I second the opinion about getting GP to do it direcly for other board thicknesses. I ran some 0.039 thick (just what you need for SD pcb) boards there about a month back, with 7 mil spacing…the boards came out great! I was in same boat…would have sent to batchpcb but for the .039 thick boards. I still used the sparkfun DRC files, but made a slight change to allow for 7 mil track and pad spacing.