[sdiy] Cheapest but good Chinese PCB manufacturer..

[Roman Sowa]

When I started ordering from JLCPCB it was just one of many makers with 
very basic capabilities and not so great quality. Lterally 2 layers max, 
FR4 only, limited options in terms of board and copper thicknessand, 
clearly inferior quality than for example PCBway or majority of European 
makers.
Today the quality is much better, and they also expanded a lot. Up to 20 
layers, Rogers, teflon, flex, multiple solder mask color (yes that's 
most important of all) and copper filled capped vias!
Not to mention SMD assembly with huge stock of parts, cheap stencils and 
3D printing.
And shipping to anywhere in the world is nothing to worry about. You can 
order delivery with DDP incoterms, so it comes to your door like it was 
sent sent from 2 blocks away from you, with all taxes and customs 
overhead already done.

Mind you, JLCPCB is not just a single fab but a cluster of 5 or 7 
factories sharing one online ordering portal.

I used to order PCBs in local fab because it was local and it was 
actually cheap, although not so great quality. And I mean local in terms 
of going by the city bus with floppy disk in my pocket to deliver design 
files. Fast forward to 2010-ish and everything changed.
That local PCB fab was closed down last year. :(
The owners literally cut the production line to pieces with grinders and 
sell as scrap metal to pay for property tax. Imagine how hard it is to 
find anybody in Europe interested in buying PCB production equipment. 
Same might happen to many small PCB fabs around the world. I've known 
those people for 30 years.

Roman


W dniu 2023-11-03 o 16:30, Jean-Pierre Desrochers pisze:
>
> I know this question has been asked millions of time..
> Over the last years I did business with a local PCB shop in Quebec 
> City for all my small electronics projects
>
> With very good low priced quotes,
> But unfortunately the shop burnt down this year.. So..
> I’ll ask you all where should I send my gerber files for PCB making
> for a fair price ? I’m thinking about Chinese shops..
> USA shops are surely doing better products but as long as
> the PCB’s do their jobs cheapest is Ok for me.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> JP
>
>
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