About automation for my brewery. I made a board using photoresist, in principle everything works, but I wanted to move to the next level and decided to order a printed circuit board. If you order boards in Russia, it costs about 250 rubles. for 1 piece from 10 pcs, that’s why I turned to my Chinese “friends”. There are many options out there, I contacted at least 10 people, they offered various services, including board development, but I chose the most inexpensive option...
Previously, I made printed circuit boards using programs:
- Sprint-Layout
- DipTrace
They are both simple, but not suitable for making boards. The Chinese recommended several programs, but I didn’t like many of them, because... I couldn’t find any clear instructions on the Internet, so I settled on the Altium Designer program. The program turned out to be more complicated than those listed above, but the network is full of instructions and little by little I figured it out.
It turned out something like this (diagram and 3d model):
The Chinese ask for almost the same format with the extension “.pcb”, for those interested, here’s the finished board.
I wrote to the seller in a chat, sent him a sample, he returned me a screenshot of the finished board, but the first time I sent him a work with a Russian name and naturally they are not displayed in the Chinese, I rewrote it and sent it again when he returned the screenshot, and I was happy with everything, he accepted the order and asked to pay for it.
And 4-5 days after payment I receive a notification that the boards have been sent to the warehouse, and then, as usual, I form the parcel, pay for delivery and wait for receipt...
I ordered a few more parts for my controller, this is what I received: 
The first thing I liked was how the boards arrived, namely in vacuum packaging with bubble film on the bottom: 
The seller promised to send 10 pieces, but in fact 12 arrived: 
Everything is beautifully done and of high quality: 
You can only find fault a little with the silk-screen printing: 
But the metallization of the holes is done at a high level: 
Mask, passage holes, everything is perfect: 
Even the name of the board looks beautiful: 
Everything is well done, even the contact tracks for SMD components: 
They printed a little of “our own” on silkscreen: 
Everything is perfect in the light too: 
When I was soldering, I decided to overheat a track on one board to find out if it would come off, but that was not the case, the track began to come off only when the board began to burn and smell strongly... I’ll tell you, soldering such a board is simply a pleasure!
Dimensions: 
I took almost everything into account, but still, as they say: “the first pancake is lumpy.” When I started soldering the elements, I realized that I had placed the optocouplers on the wrong side, but this did not affect the operation of the device in any way and it turned out like this: 
I already had the case prepared, so all I had to do was flash the bootloader and upload the sketch to the Arduino; I already wrote about how to do this in the last review.
This is how the old board “felt” in the case and how the new one felt: 
Of course, you can’t see much of a difference, but still there is one, especially when I made the board myself, it was difficult to make through holes, for this I simply soldered a thin wire, but sometimes I missed a break, with new board Of course there were no such problems.
The appearance of the controller remains the same: 
Let me summarize:
+ Everything is done with high quality, from packaging to metallization of holes- You can only find fault with the silk-screen printing
Conclusions: I decided for myself that better pay order in China so that everything is done efficiently, rather than having to redo it several times due to overexposure in ferric chloride and other “jambs”, especially since the cost is comparable to a “raw” board, but here it is finished, beautiful and, most importantly, working... Planning to buy +216 Add to favorites I liked the review +190 +380
In China. First, of course, I monitored prices from sellers on Aliexpress. There the scheme is as follows: enter a query into the search bar, something like “PCB Prototyping”, select from the list a seller with a more or less suitable rating. Prices there are indicated everywhere as $1. Don't pay any attention to this. We found a seller, then on the page with the product, look for his email, and write that you need to make a board, in quantities of, for example, 5 pieces, and indicate the main parameters. Board type - single/double sided, mask - (color, most often green), contact coating - HASL, board thickness (1/1.2/1.6 mm), and board size in mm. Attach your .lay file to the letter and wait for a response from the seller. And then everything is simple - he sends you the price for your boards, you should go to his lot and purchase (for example, he gave you the final amount of $30) - 30 boards for $1. In general, I wrote this to 4 or 5 sellers, and each subsequent amount was lower than the previous one. And then I accidentally came across the site itead.cc. There I was attracted by the fact that you can order boards in sizes up to 50*50mm, up to 50*100mm and up to 100*100mm at very reasonable prices. Here is more information about the ordering mechanism and will be discussed in this article. So, let's go to their website.
The first thing you need to do is register on it. The registration procedure is not complicated, the main thing is to fill everything out correctly.
Now that we have registered on the site, click on ALL CATEGORY, then point at PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD.
There, in the drop-down menu, the first item is PCB PROTOTYPING, and the second is SMALL BATCHES PCB. We choose the first one - PCB PROTOTYPING (we choose the second one if we order boards of non-standard size). After selecting, we see the window:
We select the required size based on the size of the original board. My board was just 5*5 cm, so the choice is obvious. Click ADD TO CART and a window immediately appears:
Here we select the parameters of our board. Moreover, the subparagraphs indicate what exactly is not included in the price of $9.90. For example, the thickness of the board is available in 1/1.2/1.6 mm, if thinner or thicker is required, the order price will increase (the amount is indicated in the sub-clause).
Here is an example of filling without increasing the cost. For example, the thickness chosen here is 1.2 mm, the coating is HASL, 100% electrical control, the thickness of the copper layer is 1 oz ~ 35 microns. Next comes the item Open Source And Get 2 More Additional Boards. If you answer Yes, then you allow the service to bill your board in open access, but at the same time you will receive +2 boards for free. At the end the quantity is selected. Don't be confused, this is not the number of boards, but the number of lots. If you choose 2 you will receive 20 boards. Next, click ADD TO CART, and then go to the cart.
Once again, check that the filling is correct and click PROCEED CHEKOUT. This is the payment procedure. The fact is that in this service you need to immediately pay for the order along with delivery, only after that it will appear in your personal account where you can download the project files and put it into production. After clicking on PROCEED CHEKOUT you will be taken to a page consisting of 5 steps. There you will need to confirm the delivery address, select the delivery method, then the system will sum up the delivery amount and the amount for fees and issue the final amount, pay via PayPal, VISA or MASTERCARD. For example, I have the cost of delivery by China service Post Registered Air Mail was $4.61, so the final amount was $14.51. After making the payment, the payment is checked for some time and then your order appears in your account (My Account tab).
Now you need to add Gerber files. For a double-sided PCB, these are: top layer tracks, bottom layer tracks, top layer mask, bottom layer mask, top layer silkscreen, bottom layer silkscreen, drilling, and board outline. I have a board without silk-screen printing, so I did not add these 2 layers. We export, pack all the layers of the board into an archive, then click View Order. Next we look for the following window: 
As you can see, I have Complete in the Status tab. You will have a wait there waiting for the file to be downloaded, click right there and an explorer window will open, select your archive and click add. As soon as the board loads, a window will open in which there will be a drawing of your board, detailed specifications, which, if everything is fine, are marked with ticks, and if not, with crosses. I always had the contour layer marked with a cross. No matter how many times I redid it, the contour layer was always marked with a cross. So I didn’t figure out what was going on and sent it all like that. After downloading the file, you have about another day to change it, reboot it, and so on. Afterwards the status will change to “In production” and this option will no longer be available. Approximately 4 days from the moment the order is placed, the status will change to “Preparing for shipment”, and then to “Completed”, and you will receive a tracking track, and it (track number) will also appear in the order itself. After 3 weeks I had the boards. Below is an example of implementation. Judge for yourself.
Greetings to all MySku users! This is my first review, please do not swear too much, I will take constructive criticism into account. I want to tell you how and where I ordered the boards in China, as well as how to prepare the project yourself and what to pay attention to. Well, let's get started?!
Preamble
Once I wanted to repeat one of the projects found on the Internet, so much so that there were about a dozen friends willing to buy the finished product. To complete the project, you need to make a printed circuit board (hereinafter referred to as PCB), engage in LUT for such an industrial scale - for me this is the height of masochism, and I wanted factory beauty. Having monitored domestic offices where you can order PP, I was disheartened by the prices; they are clearly inferior to foreign analogues (in terms of cost), if you do not need ultra-precision, as for spacecraft, and three-day urgency, it is better to order in China! I chose this particular office for myself; others, for one reason or another, did not suit me.
BUT before placing an order on the website, we need to prepare the project itself. To prepare the PP, I chose my favorite CAD program, DipTrace.
Preparing a project in DipTrace
So, after tracing in DipTrace, we need to export the result to the Gerber file format.
"File-Export-Gerber..." 
We see the window 
Select “Apertures”, click “Auto” and close the window.
Next, select the “Top Marking” item, where “Objects” are indicated, leave the checkboxes as default. You can also click the “Preview” button and make sure that all the top markings are in place. Click “Export” and save the file with the name Top_silk. Since I have a two-layer PP, similarly export “Bottom Marking” and save the file with the name Bottom_silk.
Next we need to export the mask layers. Select “Upper mask”, do not forget to check the boxes for “Transitions” and “Technical holes”. Click “Export” and save the file with the name Top_mask, and similarly export the bottom mask with the name Bottom_mask.
Let's move on to exporting routes. Select “Top” in the “Objects” field; there are checkboxes everywhere except “holes” and “dimensions”, export a file named Top. Similarly, export “Bottom” with the name Bottom. Please note that we do not check the “Mirror” checkbox anywhere!!!
Next, export the borders, select “Board Borders”, export with the name Border.
Stayed last point, you need to export a file describing the coordinates and diameters of all holes on the board. To do this, “File-Export-NC/Drill...”
Leave everything as in the picture 
Click the “Auto” button, then “Export” a file named Drill
Hooray! We're almost done.
Exported files can be viewed for errors in any program that understands Gerber, for example GerbMagic or Pentalogix Viewmate, the programs are free and can be easily found on the Internet.
All!!! exported files in one folder are saved in rar archive. Now we are all ready to order PP on the website
Now let me give you the capabilities of the factory:
Additional information
I ordered two-layer PP 65x60 mm in the amount of 10 pcs. The width of the traces is from 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm with a distance between traces of 0.2 mm (there was no point in making smaller ones). Silkscreen width 0.25 mm. Via holes: internal diameter 0.5 mm, external 1 mm.
Order algorithm on the site itself
Everything is simple here, register on the site. Go to Online Price Calculator. 
Key points to order
Dimension: PP size in cm
Layer: Number of layers
Quantity: Quantity of PP (minimum order 5 pcs.)
Thickness: PP thickness (it’s better to leave the default 1.6 as it’s cheaper)
Solder Mask Color: Mask color (it’s better to leave green, it’s the cheapest)
Letter Color: Silkscreen color
Flying probe test: Here you can select Free for sample test
We leave the remaining items as default.
Enter your email and click “Calculate”
For example, I filled in the fields, after calculation we see the cost of the work, the cost of delivery and its options, and the technical characteristics of the order. 
Next, click “Upload PCB File, Place Order”
We see the window 
Upload Files: upload the archive of a previously prepared software project.
Fill in the remaining fields and confirm.
Once your order is placed, your project will be audited for specification errors and correctness. Next you will be asked to pay for your order, I chose PayPal. Once payment is confirmed, the work is completed within approximately three days. After which they send you a photo of your PP by e-mail.
This is what they sent me
Next, I waited about three weeks for the mail to work. A pleasant bonus was that 11 boards arrived instead of 10. Apparently they were cutting from one blank, everything that fit was done. The boards came in vacuum packaging!!! There was a tightly sealed package, which was already packed in bubble wrap and placed in a regular cardboard box, wrapped with tape. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of the “unpacking”.
Now a photo of the finished work:
I was pleased with the quality of the boards, no serious comments. I didn't find any manufacturing errors. The silkscreen is smooth, everything is in its place. The trails are well laid out. There are no complaints about metallized transitions either. I rate the quality as 4+.
There are no animals at home, so as a bonus there will be
I will describe my experience of ordering printed circuit boards in China. I decided to produce a small batch of my devices (DaNetka - an electronic coin for decision making) in the amount of 200 pieces and the choice arose: where to order printed circuit boards? In Zelenograd they asked for a very high price and after a little searching I came across a website where the price for printed circuit boards made me very happy.
a lot of photos!
Having prepared the gerber files, I began to place the order: 
There were no registration difficulties. Everything is intuitive.
Having selected the necessary options, the price came out to 1,683 rubles and kopecks. Very good price for a batch of 200 pieces!
By adding an order to your cart and clicking continue checkout, you will be taken to the delivery and payment selection section.
Since I was in no hurry, I chose regular delivery (it’s also more affordable) 
I was expecting a delivery cost of over 1000.
Having paid for the order, I began to wait. 14 days later (very quickly, I was surprised) from the moment of payment the boards were in my hands! 
At the same time, I ordered the package already in Russia. It seems that all the components are not expensive, but the amount came out to about 17,000 rubles (including 200 boards)
A big box came out))) 
And now the moment of truth has come! Assembly has begun!
Since there is only one device, and there are two versions of DaNetka, 2 firmwares for the controllers were written.
In the first version, only 2 LEDs work: green and red (answers Yes and No, respectively)
The second version adds a yellow LED (the answer to the question is asked by the user himself)
Here's what we got (small batch) without the battery compartments installed. 
With battery compartments installed, but with different buttons 
The device turned out to be very tactical and is selling like hot cakes.
Yes, I admit, I made it for sale, but I’m giving it away at a ridiculous price)))
Wow! the effect is achieved like this: A question is asked, for example, should I order pizza? and the button is pressed 
Everyone is sad - sadness (((
Should I order sushi? 
The wife is happy!!!
The devices are assembled, my wife is happy and I’m happy!
), and order from production for mass production of your devices or complex cases when you are too lazy to make it yourself or don’t have the skills. You can use production as if it were local, but cheaper, and if deadlines are tight, you can order it from China.
The article will discuss how you can prepare and order the production of boards using one of these Chinese services, ITEAD Studio. Its special advantage is that you can order “prototypes” - i.e. small batch of 10 pieces for $10. And these are double-sided boards with a mask and silk-screen printing.
I have already ordered boards from this service twice, both times the quality was about 9 out of 10 points – i.e. The quality is good, you can order it, there are only minor quibbles about a slight non-critical shift of the silk-screen printing on some boards. Not critical – i.e. It has shifted a little, but is still quite readable, retained its functionality and, most importantly, did not interfere with the contact pads.
And then there was the experience of ordering boards in the local “technosvyaz”, when silk-screen printing was shifted to the smallest areas for sealing QFN cases, thereby covering them by half, making the boards poorly solderable + if they are soldered, then less reliable, i.e. e. marriage.
In terms of price, a single order of 10 boards measuring up to 5x5 cm costs $9.9 + delivery $3.9 = $13.8 or approximately 470 rubles or 47 rubles per board (price at the end of 2013 at the rate of 34 rubles for one green, this is an approximate rate for online purchases taking into account currency transfer via PayPal). If you order a larger number of boards in one order, order prototyping of boards for some other project, or walk around their store, then the price per board will naturally decrease, spreading across other products.
They also produce printed circuit boards measuring 5x10cm (now with a discount of $14.9 for 10pcs, and so $24, but delivery will cost $7.49), 10x10cm (with a discount of $19.9 for 10pcs, and so $29 , shipping $14.09). And they are all two-layer with a green mask and white silk-screen printing; you can also color them, but you will have to pay extra. If you need a single-sided board, then the files of the second (empty) layer are not sent. They can also produce flexible circuit boards with the same maximum dimensions. Recently they also began providing installation services.
In terms of time, they produce boards within about a week (I don’t remember exactly), but delivery by Russian Post takes more - on average 2-4 weeks. My last order was placed on October 22, and the parcel was received on November 19, i.e. a little less than a month, which, taking into account the slow delivery, can be considered quite quickly.
Technical capabilities
| Number of layers | 1-2 |
| Material | FR-4 |
| Minimum fee | 10x10 mm |
| Board thickness | 1.0-1.6 mm |
| Minimum track thickness | 0.15mm (>8mil recommended (0.2 mm)) |
| Minimum gap between tracks | 0.15mm (>8mil recommended (0.2 mm)) |
| Thickness of outer tracks | 35 µm |
| Thickness of internal tracks | 17-100 microns |
| Indentation of tracks from the edge of the board | 0.25, 0.50 mm |
| Hole diameter | 0.3-6.3 mm |
| Minimum warranty belt | 0.15 mm |
| Solder Mask Clearance | 0.1 mm |
| Mask color | Green [black, white, blue, yellow] |
| Tinning | HASL, ENIG |
| Minimum line width for silkscreen printing | 6mil (0.1524 mm) |
| Minimum text height for silkscreen printing | 32mil (0.8128 mm) |
Tolerances shown in square brackets are available at an additional cost.
The procedure for preparing boards for production.
All the services I dealt with accept the draft board drawing in gerber format. Those. This special format files describing your board, where for each layer (top, bottom conductors, mask, silkscreen, board outline) is created separate file+ one more file for drilling. This format can be prepared by any program for laying out printed circuit boards.
An example of preparing a double-sided board in sprint-layout would look like this:
- At the very beginning, we go to the selected service and look at the permissions, i.e. the minimum dimensions of the gaps between conductors, contact pads, holes... production at which our boards will be manufactured, and we set them in the program for subsequent DRC control of the board (Options -> DRC control) and so that we ourselves know them and rely on them , during tracing.
- We trace the board.
- Draw the outline of the layer board “F” - milling. For simple boards, a rectangular shape is recommended - in most cases it will be used by scribing (cutting a layer of fiberglass, after which the boards will be easily separated from each other by breaking). If you need a complex contour, then milling will be used, which will be more expensive in most board manufacturing services. Well, or everything will depend on the wishes of the customer.
- We place the board with the top layer facing us, i.e. the bottom layer will be mirrored.
- Align the board to the top left corner.
- We carry out DRC control, i.e. We check whether our board meets the minimum tolerances, and if there are violations, we correct them.
Converting signet to gerber format:
As a test, I recommend building a model of the resulting board in order to look at its virtual version and notice possible errors, both global (for example: mirroring of both the entire board and its individual layers), and local in the form of correct layout and compliance of the printed circuit board with the circuit diagram and installed parts. For this I can recommend using webGerber.
But I note that this service does not display drilling correctly if you follow the suggested order of preparing files in sprint-layout for production. And complex boards with a bunch of elements can be displayed with some bugs, in the form of the disappearance of some elements or a decrease in their clarity, but, nevertheless, this does not interfere with checking the board for global errors and assessing its future appearance.
This procedure is valid not only for the service - ITEAD Studio, but is also suitable for all printed circuit board production (with the exception of the names of layer files; for other services they will need to be named in accordance with their rules or more informatively), unless they have special any requirements.
Procedure for ordering the production of boards at ITEAD Studio.
- Register on the ITEAD Studio website.
- We select the required board production option in the “OPEN PCB” section: for the selected size (up to 5x5 cm, 5x10 cm, 1x10 cm) and quantity (PCB prototyping – 10 pcs. or small-scale production “Small Batches PCB” 50 pieces or more). For example, prototyping 10 2-layer boards up to 5x5cm in size - “2Layer Green PCB 5cm x 5cm Max”.
- On the page select:
- Board thickness – “PCB Thickness”, let’s say 1.6mm
- Coating of contact pads - “Surface Finish”, for example the simplest tinning “HASH”
- Electronic testing - “E-test”, 100% - then they will check the entire board or refuse the service.
- Thickness of copper foil (tracks) – “Copper Thickness”, for example 1 Oz or 35 microns.
- And we indicate what kind of project we have - “Open Source And Get 2 More Additional Boards” - open or closed, in the first case they will add two free boards to the order and there will already be 12 of them.
The service will notify you when the payments are made and send a tracker to track the parcel. You can track your parcels on the Russian Post website or using special services, for example – GdePosylka. Upon arrival of the parcel, which can be found out from the notification post office or by tracking the parcel using a tracker, we receive it and assemble our devices on factory boards.
I would like to note that since the beginning of 2014, the service has mastered vacuum packaging and now sends all produced boards neatly packaged in a sealed package.