PCB-POOL Recommendations

Community PCB Design
1

I would like to ask a couple of open-ended questions on the use of PCB-POOL. I am thinking about using PCB-POOL as a somewhat faster alternative to BATCHPCB. I would still use BATCHPCB for most low-priority, one-off; but PCB-POOL seems like a good alternative. This is strictly for low-quantity prototypes, no more than 3 or 4 (max), where pooling different designs helps reduce cost.

  1. General experience with PCB-POOL?

  2. Recommendations on ordering multiple designs?

  3. Recommendations on using EagleCAD with PCB-POOL?

Thanks in advanced for any comments…

2

  1. While I haven’t used them, I know of many people that have without any issues.

  2. Can’t comment on this as I don’t know.

  3. A gerber file is a gerber file is a gerber file. It doesn’t matter what software was used to generate it so you shouldn’t have to do anything special to work with them. Just make sure you set up your DRC to match the capabilities of PCB-Pool.

-Bill

3

Hmm. I took a look there, and tried the online calculator. It looks to me as though they’re charging significantly less if you submit Eagle CAD files rather than the Gerbers. I’m surprised at that - I’d assumed that Gerber was always the preferred format for board makers, and that asking them to work from the files produced by a specific program would always increase the costs.

Am I missing something, or is it simply that my assumption is incorrect?

4

I was one of their first customers when they set up their UK and Irish operation. Both quality and service are excellent. On the two occasions when they have made a mistake they have sent corrected boards very quickly, and didn’t even charge us on the second occasion which involved 100 production boards costing quite a lot of money.

It’s best to send a PCB file, they charge extra for processing Gerbers. They can deal with most formats, including that for the Pulsonix software I use and Eagle. It’s easy to forget something when sending Gerbers, I like their system.

5

sylvie369:
Hmm. I took a look there, and tried the online calculator. It looks to me as though they’re charging significantly less if you submit Eagle CAD files rather than the Gerbers. I’m surprised at that - I’d assumed that Gerber was always the preferred format for board makers, and that asking them to work from the files produced by a specific program would always increase the costs.

Am I missing something, or is it simply that my assumption is incorrect?

If you submit separate Gerbers, they charge a handling overhead. While Gerber is a standard, there are many different ways of naming layers for example, so it is easier if the files are part of a package with known conventions.

Since I use Kicad, to get around the handling charge on Gerbers, I use the GCPrevue software which basically imports Gerbers and drill files from Kicad and creates a package. There is no additional charge for files submitted in the GCPrevue format.

6

Almost 30 eur. is a lot of money to charge for the standard format. I won’t use PCB Pool because of it since they don’t take the native format of my PCB software.

I use PCBCART instead, very good quality (although I’ve only had 10 boards from them, I’ve never had a dud, they are nicely made, they don’t have lots of niggling requirements, they can do things like slots and gold fingers - and best of all, if they have any doubt at all about your layout they email and ask you, I’ve found their customer service so far very good, and I’ve currently got an order in with them). Others I know have said lots of good things about PCB Train if you need a UK operation that accepts Gerbers.

7

As was suggested, you can use GC-Prevue instead of supplying Gerbers to PCB-Pool.

I’ve also used PCBTrain’s 24 hour turnround service (no silk and no soldermask) a couple of times. There were no problems; I got the boards in three days and they weren’t expensive. PCB-Pool can do narrower tracks and smaller vias, IIRC.

8

Hi

This is Rob from PCB-POOL®.

It is very interesting for me to read comments & queries about our service,

and I would like to thank people for their positive feedback.

With regards to gerber file charges which have been mentioned here, as people are aware we accept native files from many different pcb layout packages ( eagle,altium,ect,etc) we also accept gerber files ( ext gerber & standard gerber)

Gerber files can be classified as “Standard Gerber” - RS 274 D & " Extended Gerber files " - RS 274 X

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_File

Standard gerber files ( RS 274 D) are files which contain seperate aperture list for each layer - the aperture list defines the size / shape of the pads and tracks ( etc).So for each file ( ie top ,bottom layer) you may also have a separate apeture list to load. Depending on the PCB layout software which was used, manipulation or loading these files into a CAM software can be troublesome and time consuming. In PCB-POOL® we do charge for accepting standard gerber files ( RS 274 D ) because of the extra time and care it takes to ensure the data is correct, but most modern PCB software packages have the ability to export extended files ( RS 274 X) which is a accepted file format in PCB-POOL®.

I thought Kicad has the ability to export extended gerber files ( rs-274-x) ?

If not, this would add a valuable element to the software.

Rob

bobcousins:

sylvie369:
Hmm. I took a look there, and tried the online calculator. It looks to me as though they’re charging significantly less if you submit Eagle CAD files rather than the Gerbers. I’m surprised at that - I’d assumed that Gerber was always the preferred format for board makers, and that asking them to work from the files produced by a specific program would always increase the costs.

Am I missing something, or is it simply that my assumption is incorrect?

If you submit separate Gerbers, they charge a handling overhead. While Gerber is a standard, there are many different ways of naming layers for example, so it is easier if the files are part of a package with known conventions.

Since I use Kicad, to get around the handling charge on Gerbers, I use the GCPrevue software which basically imports Gerbers and drill files from Kicad and creates a package. There is no additional charge for files submitted in the GCPrevue format.

9

Another cheap board house with decent service is [Olimex. So far I’ve only received one batch from them and I have 2 orders with them right now. They forgot to do silkscreen on the bottom layer on my first batch and they don’t remove silkscreen from pads, but other than that the boards looked very good. €30 for a doublesided Eurocard with soldermask and silkscreen isn’t too shabby… :slight_smile: One thing to keep in mind if you order from them is that the drills are before plating, not the normal finished holes.

Stig](http://www.olimex.com)

10

I have never used the above sites - I have used eurocircuits though - similar operation - similar charges.

Sending Gerbers out as RS274-D + aperture files is way old, much better to provide extended Gerbers with embedded apetures.

If you cannot provide RS274-X then Maybe ask if they can accept GWK files from your version of GC-Prevue ?

(GWK is the save file for prevue).

That way there is little to do but export them as full RS274-X Gerbers, they also see on screen exactly what you see with no translation errors.