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aelbric writes "PC Magazine is running an on some entrepreneurial businesses that are taking an interesting approach to prototyping and one-off manufacturing. Apparently, you can send in schematics for circuit boards to Pad2Pad, where they will quote, build and ship you a part based on your exact specifications. There is also reference to eMachineShop, for those of you more mechanically inclined, for building some home projects.
Design the part on your PC, send it to the shop electronically, recieve custom built component(s). "
Get a clue, editors.
that's difficult (at least for electronics), it's the realisation. If I have a spartan-3 FPGA in an FG456 package, I need it professionally soldered onto the board - finding that facility for small runs (ie: 1 :-) at reasonable rates is a far harder proposition than firing up Eagle and creating a design.
I know pad2pad will assemble some of the more commonplace components, but I can't see them running to large-sized chips, and anything up to a QFP100, I can do myself anyway...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Or, if you're so inclined to design your own printed circuit board (PCB), Express PCB offers a reasonably priced service.
With freeware programs like Eagle available and really cheap circuit board manufacturing options, there's no reason to get locked into a service like Pad2Pad.
Check out my Digital Design & Construction Wiki for lots of resources on do-it-yourself electronics design.
At work, we use www.protoexpress.com. They're similar to pad2pad for what we use them for, 'no-touch' custom circuits. No-touch means they don't do any verification of the board, and is what lets you get your own board quickly and inexpensively. We've had them do some pretty complex stuff without any problems. Their turn-around times are also very good (generally less than one week), and they are affordable and don't have any problems with small runs -- we often do only 2 prints of a new design.
Of course, a significant portion of the time involved in this is in populating the board. Soldering 2,000 points is never any fun.
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It doesn't look like they offer testing services. Their software will catch errors such as overlapping traces, etc., though.
There is absolutely no way for them to check your design to make sure it works, however. Unless you sit there and explain every detail to them, in which case they can still only moderately check certain aspects. There are just way too many different things involved in the design process for them to check every design. It would be like handing a company millions of lines of source code and telling them to check if it works, without running it first.
Why would they?
Does Kinkos proofread your brochures, or ask if your graphic designer is colorblind?
PC Magazine is running an on some entrepreneurial businesses that are taking an interesting approach...
And someone calls these people _Editors_ ???
sad robot making broken music
I've used ExpressPCB for a lot of mini projects in the past. The rates are pretty good if you know how to maximize your layout properly, and you can get multiple boards out of 1 panel (ie: 5 silkscreened/soldermasked panels of 21sqin/ea are about $250, ($50/ea). But, if you can get 5 boards out of 1 panel (and you need 25 boards, give or take) then your per-board price is effectively $10/ea, which is reasonable for a small, custom job). The quality of the ExpressPCB boards has always been excellent.
.1uF caps?? WTF??), but the prices for boards with a few components soldered on is pretty reasonable (again, if you are ordering in a manner that spreads your cost over 25 or 30+ boards).
I converted one of my projects to pad2pad just last night. Their component selection is horribly small right now (no
FrontPanelExpress is another good option for custom metal panels.
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looks like you are off-topic. Would you like an autoban?
I'm a subscriber. I agree with what you are saying.
I've paid for page views, not 503 errors.
I don't understand what's up with this crap. Maybe someone at VA will give a crap if we gripe enough.
Yes, if fed up enough, I can go else where. But dang it, they've already got my money. How do I get it back?
Sent from your iPad.
Why? What's out there? Wireless access?
You hit the nail right on the head. These kinds of services are the Kinkos of electrical/mechanical fabrication.
A full service PCB fab house, like a full service printing shop, looks over your design to make sure it makes sense and nothing will get lost in the tranfer from design to implementation.
Customers are never happy when they spend $5k and what they get back there's a completely bonehead error- even if it is their own fault! From what I see, Kinkos and PCBExpress specialize in orders under $1k.
Obligatory link to the previous slashdot post about the same article, five days ago.
Here, and in the comments following the original post about eMachineShop (5 days ago), everyone is talking about Pad2Pad and hardly even mentioning eMachineShop. And the truth is that eMachineShop marks a huge, huge milestone in our history. Ok, that's just my opinion, but think about it for a second. You can draw up a three dimensional object, click a few buttons, and have that object delivered to your doorstep within two weeks! I know what the cynics are saying... "You could already do that" and "It's too expensive" and "You can't build ridiculously complex shapes" and whatever else... but forget about all that obligatory naysayer BS for a moment.
You can download their software, for free. You draw up your part, and immediately get a price quote. Then you modify your design, experiment with different materials and different machines, and get as many price quotes as you like, until you find the one that you can afford. Then you click the "buy" button and you get the part delivered right to your doorstep.
Yes, of course there's no really new technology involved here, but there really is genius in this business model. This idea has put more power in my hands (the average home PC user) than anything I've seen in a long time. What were my options before? Buy a CNC machine and rent space in a warehouse? Draw my design in a CAD app and then send it to a B&M machine shop a dozen times until it finally meets their design rules, only to find out that it's too expensive?
And, finally, and most importantly, just think for a minute about what this could mean in the very near future. What if this idea catches on, and suddenly there are websites that do the same thing as eMachineShop, only with fabric? Or clothing? Or more sophisticated stuff, like motors and gears and robotics?
This really could mark the beginning of a new era. Imagine a world where people use P2P programs to share designs for CARS, rather than Eminem albums. Hey, you got that new Ferrari? I'll trade you this custom convertible that some guy designed and posted to Usenet. What's happening is that the advancing technology of the internet is making all forms of information accessible to everyone. 3D objects are nothing more than information, just like music, movies, pictures, etc... Some day piracy of music and movies will be the least of the **AA's worries. Maybe AAA will be the next "Association of America" to try to stop P2P.
Why no meta stories on Slashdot?
Yeah, i've always wondered about this... is it because taco and crew are just that terrified? I mean... with all this talk of open source and YRO and on and on and on... why not turn that spotlight around on themselves?
Are they that affraid of what they may learn? That there are legitimate grievances here with users?
Why the fear of an open and transparent exchange of those grievances? Insecurity on the part of Taco and crew? I think so.
Yes moderators... this is way the fuck offtopic. But that doesn't mean these things shouldn't be said... heh, and in the context of this thread... it *is* on topic.
sad robot making broken music
true.
But oh well.
If nothing else, maybe the editors will pause and realize that:
1) banning entire subnets to get rid of problem posters deprives legitimate PAYING customers at the same time. It's a YRO issue that they are ignoring. Do you have the right to get what you pay for? Yes.
2) I seriously think no one here would have a problem if the coders would merely state "Hey, it's time for a code push, we are pretty sure it's solid, but if something breaks, email us." We don't get that. Again, as someone who has paid money for this site, this is WRONG. Imagine if MS or some other website did something like this? Slashdot would be all over it. But if it occurs on their own turf, it's ignored, or flippantly remarked about in the creator's journal. Whatever.
3) Moderation is BROKEN. BADLY.
4) Duplicate stories. I don't expect the slashdot team to catch every article, I don't. But it does get ridiculous some times.
The bottom line is this:
a lot of us PAY for the content here. Granted, you can't have everything, but our voices are NOT EVEN BEING HEARD. We are after thoughts. I can't post what I think to Taco's Journal because I'm not his "friend". If you email him, you often get either ignored completely or treated like you don't matter.
This site started out in his dorm room. It's not a dorm room job anymore. Things are different in the real world. Perhaps they'll learn someday.
Sent from your iPad.