On 06 May 2014 22:49:56 -0700, you wrote:
>I've made a circuit board for myself which does something for my cnc plasma cutting table. There seems to be some sparks of interest for it but not at the cost at which I'd "knock one together" for them. I'd therefore have to look at getting them made in quantity at a professional circuit board manufacturer, but have no idea how they work.
As has been mentioned, either you do bare boards as a kit, or supply
the parts to the board stuffer, or have them get the parts.
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> Example, when I design a board for myself, I look at what components are available at the right price, then I design my board to suit.
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That's what a company making a PC board will do, either in house or
any combination. Custom parts (programmed ROMS, processors, FPGA,
etc, they generally supply themselves or put them in sockets (if..).
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> I'm a bit confused though about how the PCB manufacturer chooses the components. They might not have that brand available, or the package is a slightly different size, etc. The board is the easy bit but I don't know how it works with component choice. How do you specify components when you don't know what the manufacturer has available to them, what brand, what quality, etc.
Critical stuff you send to them.
However, this is the most expensive way of doing a board, so the cost
goes up.
As an example of prices I've seen, (and this is only one example), 20
dollars to make the board, then another 20 to 30 to stuff it. At that
cost, I think you had to supply your own parts. Alternatively, you
could (assuming surface mount), add the larger and more expensive
chips with a hundred pins or so, and they put them on, with you doing
the easier parts like resistors, etc.
Most of them seem to be flexible.
No experience here, since I do it all myself.
Harvey
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> Am I making sense.
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> Keith.
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