I recently found out about CircuitHub and Macrofab. Both companies seem to be great options for hobbyists. I submitted a design for a small Arduino-type board, about 1.5"x1.5" with 27 components on two sides. Macrofab quotes $31 for a single board, $251 for 10, and $1,847 for 100. CircuitHub quotes $188 for a single board, $315 for 10, and $1420 for 100. These seem like reasonable prices for small batches, which includes manufacture and assembly of the PCBs. Even better, I can just dump my Eagle files directly into the website; no need to generate my own BOM and gerbers beforehand.
Has anyone on this forum used either of these services? I haven’t found any reviews online, but there’s been plenty of press. I’d like to hear some opinions and stories of your experiences (lead times, customer service, quality, etc.)
It seems that your posts are on the verge of being spam. No need to post in every forum.
codlink:
It seems that your posts are on the verge of being spam. No need to post in every forum.
I don’t think that’s the case at all. I posted this question here and on Element14, thinking that those were two places where “makers” go. I posted a comment regarding Macrofab to both forums about a week ago when I found out about them. I’m just surprised that I haven’t seen any talk about them or CircuitHub on either forum. They seem like they’d be a great resource for the maker community. For the record, I just ordered 10 boards from Macrofab, but I have no association with them. I’m just a hobbyist that’s excited to have found an affordable way of outsourcing my own SMT circuits.
Please don’t give me a bad rep on the forum. I’m not selling anything, just asking a completely relevant question.
It seems that the price of circuithub and macrpfab are not competitive.I ordered some PCB from EzPCB.For 5pcs 1.5"x1.5" pcb,just USD40 with free shipping.The quality is very good and they can be free assemble 1pc board for me.
dearyln:
It seems that the price of circuithub and macrpfab are not competitive.I ordered some PCB from EzPCB.For 5pcs 1.5"x1.5" pcb,just USD40 with free shipping.The quality is very good and they can be free assemble 1pc board for me.
You can order the same size from OSH Park for half that. So what’s assembly AFTER the first piece?
I have used Macrofab, the boards aren’t the cheapest I’ve seen, i usually use iTead (www.itead.cc) if i want unassembled boards (they run about $2-3 per board). but for assembly they have a very good price for hobbyists. I design/order PCB’s for work and the “professional” places will charge me around $3-4k for something macrofab will charge around $200-400 for. quality wise their boards are nice, I’ve yet to have any problems with them, and their customer service is great! they’re also US based (texas) so thats nice too (although im pretty sure they order their proto boards from China). i havent tried CircuitHub, maybe ill give them a try!
I’ve used CircuitHub, letting them make the boards, source most of the parts, and do assembly. They’re not cheap, but they’re willing to work with me on issues, and generally do top-drawer work.
dearyln:
It seems that the price of circuithub and macrpfab are not competitive.I ordered some PCB from EzPCB.For 5pcs 1.5"x1.5" pcb,just USD40 with free shipping.The quality is very good and they can be free assemble 1pc board for me.
Yes, I also used EzPCB services and I am quite satisfied.