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I use their board service and their software and it works great for my little project boards. I can work something up over the weekend, get my order in on Monday, and by Friday I have my boards.

http://www.expresspcb.com/

I haven't used them in a while but when I checked their link it looks like they updated the software so I will have to check that out.

You nailed that one right there. 5-30 days. It may get here sometime in the next month.

I've used Express PCB for about ten years or so now. Free schematic software, free board layout software, and they ship the next day. I've had boards in two days. It's $51 for three boards in a size similar to a BeagleBone or Pi.

I also have the chemicals etc to do homemade boards. I haven't used any of it for a very long time. It was fun to see the board you make etch, but it is more fun to show someone a project that looks professionally made.

Yeah, you get a fixed size board for that price, but you can build prototypes on that and then order the specific size you need when you finalize the design. And yes, I have a few drawers with breakouts and proto boards in them for quick tests.

So they managed to make a flexible printed circuit that can't stand soldering. Not too useful.

There are lots of ways to make printed circuits. Etching them photographically is cheap, simple, and produces consistent quality, so that's how it's done commercially. The iron-on transfer thing some hobbyists use isn't that reliable; a substantial number of boards will be defective. There are little desktop milling machines for making circuit boards.

Nobody does that much any more. Commercial board making services take in a file on line and send back a board by FedEx. Prototype board prices today start at $28, so there's not much incentive to do it yourself. You get good quality and plated-through holes to connect traces on opposite sides of the board. The plating-through process is a mess to do on a small-scale basis, but cheap in bulk.

If you're a software person I can strongly recommend the Atmel STK-500 microcontroller development board. There's great Linux support for the development tools (using the gcc toolchain), so you can develop the software end of things in your favorite environment, and the microcontrollers can run just fine with internal clocks, so the only external connections you need are Vcc (Usually 2, 3 or 4 batteries) and ground.

With a microcontroller and the knowledge that you have to put a resistor in most places to limit the current flow, you don't have to know much more than Ohm's law, Current = Voltage / Resistance and that you can't pull more than about .1 amps (current, aka 100 milliamps) off of a microcontroller pin to do a lot of cool stuff.

That and one of your favorite "download our board layout software and order custom boards from it", ExpressPCB's software works fine under Linux, and you can be making your own kits fairly soon.

In fact, I just made an order of a few PCB boards to give me some basic break-out for an ATMega16 with a real-time clock. Minimum order is going to leave me with a few extra boards, and I can probably scrape together a spare LCD or two and share some code, if you're near Petaluma California drop me an email (I'm easy to find on the web) and I'll see if I've got parts to share.

If the $80 for the STK-500 is too much, there are even plans out there for a parallel port programmer that should work with the boards I just ordered. And, yes, I'll be putting full project details out there as this particular device goes forward, since this is the first hardware I've done that doesn't have a client.

I agree with almost everything you said. First, let me toss out a few part numbers. I know it can be annoying to try to figure out which silicon component to buy when they all look the same but are obviously slightly different.

Digikey is your friend. If they don't stock it, find a replacement they do stock. Buy a hundred each 2N3904 and 2N3906 for your bipolar transistors. At a couple cents each, you don't need to worry about letting the magic smoke out occasionally. 2N2222 makes a great slightly higher current NPN switch. At $0.36 each, the venerable 741 makes an excellent op amp to experiment with; by the time you can figure out what to do with a better op amp, you'll know what to look for. Buy a big assortment pack of 1/4W carbon film resistors; they're cheap, and not having the right value is annoying. For caps, you'll want a big stack of cheap 0.1uF ceramics for local power supply decoupling, some modest size (10-33uF) electrolytics, and some larger electrolytics (100-330uF) (I suggest the Panasonic FM series as inexpensive high quality caps, but there are lots of choices). Grab a few poly film caps in the 1nF - 0.1uF range; that should cover most other uses of caps for experimenting. You'll want some 1N4148 signal diodes, along with some 1N4004 rectifier diodes. Might as well add a few 1N5818 schottky diodes for power supply work. And, of course, the 555 timer you suggested. I don't happen to have part numbers to recommend for CMOS discretes. Add some random indicator LEDs and buttons, and a couple variable resistors. 7805 / 7812 make good fixed voltage regulators, and the LM317 should handle your adjustable needs. Anyway, if you can't build it with those parts, it's probably not a good early project. Eventually you'll get around to the 7400 / 4000 series logic chips.

If you're doing real analog work, get a real power supply. Failing that (they're expensive; no, the one from that old computer is not an acceptable substitute) get a cheap wall wart that just has a transformer and a bridge rectifier and a cap in it, and add a regulator. If you're doing it that way, get several -- you'll want multiple voltages around.

I have to disagree about making your own PCBs. It's educational, but it's also a pain. When you need an actual PCB, buy it from ExpressPCB. If you only need to work with surface mount parts, Digikey sells a number of handy prototyping boards that will convert surface mount things into through-hole things, and optionally have space for a couple surface mount passives to go next to them.

1. Learn how to make a general sound compressor.
2. Hire a few electrical engineers and send them to order a few thousand PCB circuits.
3. Hire a mechanical engineer and have them make the encasings. Oh, most importantly, make sure the encasings are iPod white in color.
4. Your design should have a 1/8" audio jack in and a 1/8" audio jack out with a 3" length of audio cable. It's plugged into any media device and then your headphones plug into it.
5. Profit!

How/who would I approach for making PC Boards and such? We are creating a network-controlled fluorescent ballast (like DALI)

That's a field I'm largely ignorant of. I've played around in it, but only doing hand hacking, so I'm clueless about who is likely already making product you could just buy, which would be the ideal way to do it. Ballast making is a fairly specialized field that goes beyond circuitry. However, see my closing statement.

In the old days I would have spent a few days knocking on doors at the WTC. Now I simply Google. The WTC has fallen. The internet has risen. They're all out there on it, vying for your attention.

Linksys routers . . . do you know how we could re-brand that?

That's a sticky wicket, because of course Cisco/Linksys holds their manufacturing as a trade secret. Look over one of the bare boards. There might be a tiny little maker's mark on it somewhere. Then you have to do some research to find the company that matches the mark. Then you simply contact the company over the internet (quite possibly through an already existing American agent) and ask if they supply the same board in bulk, or at least some workalike product.

I know z-com, http://www.zcom.com.tw/, in Taiwan is the actual designer and manufacturer of Netgear routers. You might want to start with them. It's even possible they are the source of Linksys stuff.

Then there's the more expensive, down and dirty way. Simply find your best price of Linksys routers at wholesale, buy a lot, rip out the boards. Stick your label on 'em. Some people get "itchy" about doing this, because they think there is something inviolate about a brand label, but it's really no different than buying the boards direct, other than your unit cost possibly being a bit higher (although it might well turn out to be the same, or even a bit lower, because you are leveraging Cisco's bulk buying power that way. People only assume that buying direct is cheaper. It often isn't. In fact, I've often found it cheaper to buy at retail for small lots than to buy at wholesale. NiCad batteries come to mind as a place where this is often true, because the retailer buys at a wholesale price low enough that they can offer retail prices lower than small lot wholesale. Think about this issue. Think about it hard. Do your research. Don't be afraid to do what works, rather than what you think of as the "conventional" approach).

". . .right now, I'm stuck soldering them myself -- with a toaster oven - whimper, but for qty 1-10, I'm not sure of another way"

You might also want to check out ExpressPCB, http://www.expresspcb.com/, 3 prototype boards for as little as 51 bucks. So much for getting into hardware manufacturing as being expensive. That's about the same as it cost me to crank out my first three plastic flutes with a hand chucked drill bit, an Exacto knife and a bit of sandpaper. Bulk orders get much cheaper. IBM and Lucent use them to make their products.

I'm telling you, the Asians have supplying services to people such as yourself, and even just the woodshed putterer, down to a fucking science and anyone who can afford a Java book can afford to have custom made PC boards. (Notice that their website very carefully avoids giving much of any clue as to where they are actually located? That's a clue).

If any of this proves useful, profitable, or just saves you a few bucks/hours, I drink cognac and sake; and I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea of "singing for my supper." I do it all the time.

If none of it does, well, I tried.

KFG

There are a lot of companies who will do small runs of PC boards for you, but you have to give them finished layouts (gerber files). This gut provides the tools to do the layout as well as doing the boards, so it saves you a huge investment in software and learning a layout system.

There are a few places that provide free software and easy online ordering for PCB manufacture. One place I've used before with good results is expresspcb. Cost can be as low as $50ish for bare boards up to say $200-$300 for a small run of boards with solder masks and silkscreen. Even with solder masks and silkscreen they can make a board and ship it to your door inside of a week. Very cool stuff.

Or, if you're so inclined to design your own printed circuit board (PCB), Express PCB offers a reasonably priced service.

Windows only, deal with it.

What ya wanna do is subscribe to Circuit Cellar the magazine that is today what BYTE magazine was back in the z80 days. Full of articles on using modern, small processors to do "stuff". They also run some great Design Contests supported by various manufacturers that get you a development board and software (and generally extra chips!) for free.
These days, at the low end (less than 100 MHz), there is seldom a need to wire a processor up to much of any peripherals. For example, the motorola Coldfire processors are basically 200+ Mhz 68000 (e.g. 66Mhz with single-cycle instruction execution compared to the 68000's 4-10 cycle instructions) with just about any peripherals you might ever want onboard. Not really sufficient for a JRE, but not bad for just about anything else. Also, they're roughly $10 each in quantity. Many other manufacturers are making similar types of chips these days:
Hitachi processors
Rabbit Semiconductors
Zilog

One of the problems you'll have to deal with if you want to build your own systems is that Wire Wrap is simply unusable in this day and age. Not only is it impossible to find a socket for somthing like the 256-ball BGA that the coldfire comes in, or the more standard 144-pin QFP packages, the speeds make it unlikely you'll be able to use that technology successfully. I've built fine-pitch boards in my garage using photosensitive PCBs, but the best solution is something like PCBExpress or ExpressPCB and get 2 or 3 3"x3" double-sided boards for $60-$80. Even so, building high-speed systems is not for the amateur; laying out a system using PC-133 SDRAM is not something you want to do without a bit of up-to-date layout knowledge. Good luck, hope this gives you some pointers to get started with! /frank

ExpressPCB- Has an offer that will let you make 3 3.8"X2.5" 2-sided boards for about $60, as well as a more general off that's not too much more pricey. They have their own board design software you have to use, which is a bit primitive but adequate for hobbyist use, though it's a problem if you were to ever want someone else to make your boards.

Advanced Circuits- Has a deal to make 2-sided boards for $33/ea, min qty 3. These boards have a solder mask, which is required for dealing with fine-pitch SMT parts, and makes your board all pretty and professional-looking ;-)

Sierra Proto Express- Has a similar deal to Advanced Circuits, but also has a good price to make four-layer boards.

Some general notes- I've used the first two, and it worked alright, but I haven't tried the third one. The latter two require Gerber and Excellon data- this is the standard format for PCB plotting and drilling information information. Essentially any board layout software should be able to generate them. However, it is not trivial to figure out what precisely to send the board manufacturer- you can't just blindly trust your layout software to do the Right Thing. I keep meaning to write a little tutorial on my hard-won knowledge about this, but I've never gotten around to it :-/

You mean like this?
They even supply the layout software (actually, they require you to use it, to save costs in fooling around).

Oh, for ICs... :)

I have used Express PCB twice and have been happy with their quality and response time. They have a free CAD PCB design tool available for download. This is great for small, do-it-yourself projects requiring better manufacturing than Radio Shack kits can provide. They create two-sided boards complete with vias.

What other services are available?

I have a really great quote, but I'm not going to tell you. -- me

I have used Express PCB twice and have been happy with their quality and response time. They have a free CAD PCB design tool available for download. This is great for small, do-it-yourself projects requiring better manufacturing than Radio Shack kits can provide. They create two-sided boards complete with vias.

What other services are available?

I have a really great quote, but I'm not going to tell you. -- me