My experience with PCB manufacturing in China

I am working on a project which requires a printed circuit board.

First thing was to buy a software package for drawing the PCB layout. I picked Sprint-Layout. The price was fair (50 EUR), and I've had a good experience with another of their products (sPlan for drawing circuit diagrams).

I used Sprint-Layout for drawing the PCB.

    

I decided to try PCB manufacturing in China. I choose PCBgogo mainly because of the user recommendations on their website. Their prices seemed fair, and their product quality seemed just fine. Their minimum order was 5 pieces. I decided to order 10 x PCB single sided, dimensions 100 mm x 48 mm, payment by PayPal.

Logo of the PCB manufacturer.

Once the PCB layout was finished, I created Gerber files using the Sprint-Layout export function. The Gerber files were zipped and uploaded to the PCBgogo homepage. I soon received a mail from a person in the company. I had forgotten to include board outline data and drill data. I created the missing files and uploaded a new zip-file. The new file was approved, and production began.

The finished PCBs were shipped by DHL from China to my address in Denmark. The packet was delivered at my doorstep one week after file upload. That was fast!

PCB made in China.

The final price including shipping turned out to be 4.10 USD per PCB. The quality of the PCBs were excellent. I was a good experience for me letting PCBgogo produce the PCBs. I will certainly do this again when the need for other PCBs arise!

Regards from OZ1BXM Lars
Homepage: oz1bxm.dk