B
budgie
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Good pointer - they have very good pricing ($99 for 200 pcs)! I wasn't
aware they did PCBs. Do you find their routing tolerances are good?
The only routing I get from them is board outline - no slots or anything. But
the results are very good/clean/straight edges and curves. I haven't used them
for SMD, only through-hole.
Actually a job I sent them yesterday has slots - small ones for a DC power inlet
receptacle. The Chinese fabs know what they are, and I guess in a couple of
weeks I'll know how Futurlec handle them.
Yes, this is SMT on both sides, and I expect it'll be much easier to
paste and pre-heat / solder as a larger panel. One-offs could be
managed, but panelizing seemed cleaner.
Have you run into problems de-panelizing, or just not interested since
you have a good one-off technique? How is your holder constructed?
All my *small* boards have been through-hole. We had some ~2" * 2" SMD boards
which we sent to a stuffing house that handles small batches (20). I really
don't want to get into SMD stuffing, when there are firms that do it (even in
Oz) for relative peanuts.
For the T-H boards the holder is a weighted base with adjustable "hands" that
simply have a V-groove that clamps the board edge. Would be an issue if the
board didn't have straight (and pref. parallel) sides ;-)
Depending what you are after, I note that Futurlec also do stuffing for >20
batches. Never had occasion to try it. Depending on the load this may also
help. I try to stick to my "core business" and leave tasks such as board fab,
SMD stuffing etc. to houses that have that as their core business.