[sdiy] PCB Panel Recommendations

[brianw]

When I was based in Bellevue, WA, I worked with Prototron Circuits in Redmond for PCB orders, although I never made modular panels from PCB material.

Prototron offers 18 different solder mask colors, and at least 6 screen print colors. Of course, you can't have more than one solder mask color on the same board. You might be able to do more than one screen print color - you'd have to ask them.

4 of these 18 solder mask colors are matte - green, red, blue, black - and the matte colors seem to hold up better than other companies. I haven't chosen matte for my projects, though.

The big caveat is that Prototron Circuits does most of their fab in the US, either WA or AZ, so the prices reflect their domestic origins. That said, I've had them match prices or even beat quotes from other fabs for the same Gerbers.

If you guys are throwing away 50% of your boards due to quality consistency issues, then you might want to consider US-based Prototron Circuits and negotiate a good price for a volume purchase. You might pay more for for the small-run prototypes, but you could see how consistent they are.


I used the clear (gloss) solder mask. It's beautiful to see actual copper-colored traces, rather than the usual silver ENIG appearance, because the clear mask keeps the ENIG from tinning the copper. The down side of clear solder mask is that you then see the different colors of the PCB core more readily than with opaque solder masks. I also toured their facility, decades ago, and learned a lot about PCB fabrication.

Brian

p.s. The white solder mask was offered for Nintendo, who are near Prototron Circuits and ordered lots of prototypes. There's also a pink solder mask that was requested by a specific customer and then eventually added to the lineup of options. I mention these because you might even be able to custom-order a "better" matte black finish, since Prototron are already set up to change the mask color in their facility. But give their standard matte black a chance, first.


On Aug 4, 2022, at 1:58 PM, Chris McDowell wrote:
> Howdy list, 
> 
> I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions or insights for where to get quality PCB panels for eurorack modules. I've used itead studio and PCBWay in the past, JLCPCB most recently, but they all have had some quality issues and inconsistency. I look at Instruo, for example, and am jealous of tasty and consistent they look :) though maybe I'm just imagining that they're better! 
> 
> Any recommendations out there? This would be for black / matte black, exposed ENIG finish for graphics. 
> 
> Cheers, 
> Chris M.