Hey,
I was wondering if BatchPCB offered any discounts for large orders.
Sorry if this question was asked. I searched the forums and FAQ section and didnt find an answer.
Thanks,
robodude666
robodude666:
I was wondering if BatchPCB offered any discounts for large orders.Sorry if this question was asked. I searched the forums and FAQ section and didnt find an answer.
Robo,
What did you have in mind? (Quantity?, process limits? Delivery times?)
BatchPCB is already a low price service. I’m not sure where the cost savings from bulk orders will come into play, creating a lower price for you. The process, as you already know if you are designing your own PCBs, is very labour intensive. Ordering multiple copies of the same design does not take any material or labour cost out of the factory, unless the quantity creates discounts form their material suppliers (etchant, raw boards, etc.). The Spark Fun process is probably about the same effort for “many of one design each” compared to “many of the same design each”.
I just placed a BatchPCB order for five copies of the same design. Batch PCB was 40% less that the next lowest quote that I got. Had I ordered 500 pieces from the second vendor the price would have dropped to about 15% of BatchPCB’s single piece price. However, to get there I’d have to pay for tooling of the prototype and need to buy another 495 pieces.
So be thankful for BatchPCB, unless you can share with us a plan to reduce their costs further, I think it’s a very sweet deal!
Comments Welcome!
Peter
I have found that for many boards, dealing directly with olimex or futurlec gets alot better price pre unit that the one off BatchPCB price.
I understand that BatchPCB uses gold pheonix? Why not just deal directly with them?
I have about 80 boards comming from futurlec right now, first order from them so cant wait to see the quality.
gussy:
I have found that for many boards, dealing directly with olimex or futurlec gets alot better price pre unit that the one off BatchPCB price.
Gussy,
I’ve sent projects to Olimex and was rejected for not following their min drill size. I was pushing BatchPCB with 24mil holes, IIRC Olimex was at 0.7mm (0.0276mil). Doesn’t sound like much, but you either pass DRC or you don’t…
Comments Welcome!
Peter
Well, I ment like Pad2Pad can do 100 boards for like $2 each. I was wondering if BatchPCB offered something like this. If not, its cool :). $2.5 per sqr inch is a pretty good deal I would say. Its a lot cheaper than a ton of places I seen.
robodude666:
Well, I ment like Pad2Pad can do 100 boards for like $2 each.
Robo,
Did you miss-type? Wouldn’t we need to know how big those boards are to make comparisons?
Assuming they’re the same spec as BatchPCB, they’re not very different in price. See this page for details: http://www.pad2pad.com/quote/samples.htm#nowhere
(and click on “2 layer boards with soldermask and silkscreen”)
1 sq. in. - 12 days Dimensions: 1.0’’ x 1.0’’ Min Trace: 8 mils
40 boards: $114.80
114.8/40 = $2.87 per square inch
20 sq. in. - 6 days Dimensions: 5.0’’ x 4.0’’ Min Trace: 8 mils
5 boards: $247.80
247.80/(5 *20) = $2.48 per square inch
Comments Welcome!
Peter
According to the info on BatchPCB, one of the reasons Gold Pheonix is willing to handle BatchPCB orders is that they are hoping that it will result in some BatchPCB users having Gold Pheonix do larger orders. To quote the BatchPCB FAQ, “So we’ve found a fab house over in China that is willing to work with our flexibility in return for a chance at a larger volume customer. Of course you’ll design the next greatest widget! Gold Phoenix hopes you’ll use them for your production run of PCBs.”
So if you’ve got a large order, it seems like a good idea to at least check out Gold Phoenix (http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/).
And if you send them work, be sure and tell them it was because they do the boards for BatchPCB, so they’ll know that it’s worth continuing to do the BatchPCB work. Hmm, according to their web page, they offer commissions for bringing them new work, so hopefully BatchPCB would get a commission as well.
No, I don’t work for BatchPCB, I’m not even a customer, yet (although I am a happy SFE customer). But I’m impressed with the service they offer and expect to be a customer soon. They’re offering a good service to us, so I think they deserve good treatment in return. You know, that Golden Rule Thang. 
Keith
Sorry, I made a mistake… Its EMS which offered 100units for 2$ each not P2P. I mixed up the two sites…
khern, thanks a lot! I didn’t notice that AT ALL on the BatchPCB website and I read the FAQ section like 20 times! I will ask them for a quote later on when I need them I will make sure to mention I am a referral (couldn’t figure out past tense) from BatchPCB
Cheers,
robodude666
I deal directly with Gold Phoenix when I need a couple panels made. They have pretty good rates especially when you can get 2+ panels going of the same design. Fast turnaround too - 2 weeks max, usually more like 1 for me. I’ve had very good results with them, but you have to make sure they understand exactly what you what with your panels - there is a language barrier, but not too bad.
http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special_price.php
For single prototypes though, BatchPCB is impossible to beat.
Ray
Ditto what others have said go direct for a panel. pcbcart is another chinese outfit that does good work.
You might want to panelize it yourself, though. that allows you to define actual board outline and routing width for more precise control over the resultant size. I’ve never understood how gp can get it right without an outline. gerbmerge is a great tool for that.
I just put another order of 250 boards, which is 2x150"sq panels.
I used to deal with futurlec, but gold pheonix are great for larger runs, plus they have a short lead time.
The reason I moved to gold pheonix is because of their assembly service, I can get 250 boards, each with 12 5mm LED’s and 0805 resistors, plus a 2 pind header on it, assembled for 250usd!!! Thats $1 a board!!!
For medium runs, that dont fit a GP panel, I may still use Futurlec, as they will give you different color soldermask for free, and are great to deal with.
Lots of people told me that oilmex are great too, but to me they wwrer rude and obnoxious.
Hey, gussy! The parts they place on it you requested them to place? Or is this like a combo option? Also, do you need to provide the components? Thats pretty sweet. Could they assemble the whole board? Put caps, resistors, multiple holes, and thu-hole parts?
Yepo!
They will do full assembly, im sure if you paid them more they could supply parts, but I already had a reel of the resistors I wanted, plus the LED’s are special ones, 40,000mcd
If its all SMD they will have to create a solder stencil for you, once off fee of 200us and a minimum of 150 for the assembly.
My boards have the following on them.
12 x 5mm LED’s (thru-hole)
12 x 0805 Chip Resistors (SMD)
1 x 2 pin male header
They will hand solder all this, on 250 boards for $250US, which is awesome I think, and I dont have to pay for stencil because its done by hand.
I will try and post some pics when i get them.
Also I pais the $100US to reduce the 12 day assembly lead time to 8 days, I need this product out before christmas 
pics later!
80 boards is not a prototype is it? Would it still be cheaper to order 5 boards? 1 board?
gussy:
I have found that for many boards, dealing directly with olimex or futurlec gets alot better price pre unit that the one off BatchPCB price.I understand that BatchPCB uses gold pheonix? Why not just deal directly with them?
I have about 80 boards comming from futurlec right now, first order from them so cant wait to see the quality.