[sdiy] making PCBs, what's your method?

[Oakley Sound]

> I have had great success using Eagle CAD and sending BRD files to PCB
fabrication companies such as Olimex in Bulgaria. www.olimex.com ...

I wonder about Olimex. In particular, whether they actually do make
their own PCBs, or farm them out as when the demand requires. I have
seen some very good boards from them, and I have seen some not so good
boards. It was pretty clear that were not made by the same process, yet
apparently came from the same company.

I had one set of boards made at Olimex, the tbDAC-2. Suffice to say, the
next issue I had made at a different place. [One Way Circuits in the UK]

They are probably OK for prototyping and one offs, but I wouldn't want
to sell them as they aren't up to the quality my customers would
normally expect from me.

The other thing with Olimex, they weren't able to read my old style
RS274 files wanting the 'newer' RS275X Gerbers instead.

Regards,

Tony Allgood                         www.oakleysound.co.uk

Oakley Modular Synthesisers      Penrith, Cumbria, England