Where to obtain cart PCB's cheap?

[Bill Brasky]

What's are some good places to get new cart PCB's made? What are their minimum order sizes? Do I have to provide them with the PCB layout in one of those PCB design software formats or can I just give them a PCB I already have and tell them to copy it? What else do I need to ask them? No, the ones in the AtariAge store won't work for what I want.

[supercat]

No, the ones in the AtariAge store won't work for what  I want.

987822[/snapback]

 

What do you want that the AA ones won't do?

[Kroko]

What's are some good places to get new cart PCB's made? What are their minimum order sizes? Do I have to provide them with the PCB layout in one of those PCB design software formats or can I just give them a PCB I already have and tell them to copy it? What else do I need to ask them? No, the ones in the AtariAge store won't work for what  I want.

987822[/snapback]

 

I don't know any PCB manufacturer who copies existing boards. You have to provide them with some PCB Design Software format.

 

If you only order a few pieces, they will be much more expensive than what you can buy here at AA. They start to get cheap if you order high quantities. But before you can do that, you need to check your design with at least one Prototype. And Prototypes are in general very expensive compared to the AA Boards.

 

But of course it is difficult to say anything unless you tell us what you actually want to do

 

Armin

[Albert]

I don't know any PCB manufacturer who copies existing boards. You have to provide them with some PCB Design Software format.

I doubt any PCB manufacturer would dare make copies of an existing design for the same reason you can't go into Kinkos and ask them to make a copy of a book for you. And if they did provide such a service, they'd probably charge a considerable amount for it, since they'd effectively have to design the board using PCB software, copying the example you gave them as closely as possible.

 

..Al

[Memblers]

I go through myropcb to have boards made over in China. Minimum order for a new layout is about $80 (prototypes + shipping). If you make protos and then 100 boards, the cost is probably not far over $2 each altogether (assuming your proto design was correct on the first try). Just a rough guess, sounds pretty decent to me if you can use 50 or 100 boards.

[Bill Brasky]

I go through myropcb to have boards made over in China.  Minimum order for a new layout is about $80 (prototypes + shipping).  If you make protos and then 100 boards, the cost is probably not far over $2 each altogether (assuming your proto design was correct on the first try).  Just a rough guess, sounds pretty decent to me if you can use 50 or 100 boards.

989794[/snapback]

 

Thanks for the info. Any other good suppliers?

[Bill Brasky]

But of course it is difficult to say anything unless you tell us what you actually want to do 

 

Armin

987992[/snapback]

 

Why? I want to make some carts. I need pcbs for the carts. There, now you know. All I need to know are the names of some good companies where I can get cart PCB's made cheaply. What does divulging my plans to you have to do with their pricing?

Edited December 30, 2005 by Bill Brasky

[supercat]

Why? I want to make some carts. I need pcbs for the carts. There, now you know. All I need to know are the names of some good companies where I can get cart PCB's made cheaply. What does divulging my plans to you have to do with their pricing?

991495[/snapback]

 

I would expect that most people with the technical expertise to do things beyond what existing readily-available cart designs either do or could be adapted to do would be somewhat familiar with how board houses work. Even if your goal is to duplicate the functionality of some obscure bank-switch cart, you may be better off using a "modern" design than trying to simply copy the old one.

[Kroko]

I need pcbs for the carts. There, now you know. All I need to know are the names of some good companies where I can get cart PCB's made cheaply. What does divulging my plans to you have to do with their pricing?

Well, you don't need to describe your board if you don't want to. But in that case I can't judge whats best for your needs. Price is not everything in my opinion. There are lots of board parameters that are important to decide which manufacturer fits to your needs best.

[Bruce Tomlin]

All I need to know are the names of some good companies where I can get cart PCB's made cheaply. What does divulging my plans to you have to do with their pricing?

Yeah, well the thing you've got to understand is that they only manufacture the boards. They don't design them. Before you can get them to manufacture a board, you've got to have a design for them to manufacture. And while you can get small and medium board runs by using files directly from PCB CAD software, those are going to cost you $5-$20 a board (depending on size -- it was a bit over $40 for a run of four 2"x2" 7800 cart boards), the big runs (where the same board will cost $0.75 to $2 each) will need Gerber files.

 

So basically, your first problem isn't finding a manufacturer, it's learning the basics of the industry and learning how to design PCBs.

Edited January 1, 2006 by Bruce Tomlin

[Bill Brasky]

All I need to know are the names of some good companies where I can get cart PCB's made cheaply. What does divulging my plans to you have to do with their pricing?

Yeah, well the thing you've got to understand is that they only manufacture the boards. They don't design them. Before you can get them to manufacture a board, you've got to have a design for them to manufacture. And while you can get small and medium board runs by using files directly from PCB CAD software, those are going to cost you $5-$20 a board (depending on size -- it was a bit over $40 for a run of four 2"x2" 7800 cart boards), the big runs (where the same board will cost $0.75 to $2 each) will need Gerber files.

 

So basically, your first problem isn't finding a manufacturer, it's learning the basics of the industry and learning how to design PCBs.

992248[/snapback]

 

I already have a design. I just needed to know whether or not it has to be transfered into a Gerber file. How many is a "big run"?

[jbanes]

I already have a design.

If you have a design, then you can use Pad2Pad to do runs for you. Their prices are often quite affordable, and they can scale to just about any size order you might need. Pad2Pad accepts standard Gerber 274X files in addition to their own proprietary format.