Homebrew PCBs

Hi all,

I have a few boards that I am starting to make as both kits and 
finished products.

As you can imagine, I do not want to be an assembly line worker and 
spend all my time stuffing boards.

Does anyone know of any board houses that will surface mount chips 
and make boards ?

Unfortunatly, I need short runs of only 10- 20 boards at at time.

Dave

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Mucha" 

> Unfortunatly, I need short runs of only 10- 20 boards at at time.

That kind of run might be tough for a commercial board stuffing house 
to commit to and still charge you a reasonable rate.

You might feel out the easy bake group as there are a few there that 
do small run production.

-Dal

> Hi all,
>
> I have a few boards that I am starting to make as both kits and
> finished products.
>
> As you can imagine, I do not want to be an assembly line worker and
> spend all my time stuffing boards.
>
> Does anyone know of any board houses that will surface mount chips
> and make boards ?
>

I have 95% of my assemble prototypes built at Auscon.
http://www.ausconinc.com/ They don't seem to complain about building as few
as two boards, although its cheaper if you do multiples. Normally it takes a
day or two to build prototypes if you provide a kit of parts and good
documentation. If its a consistent build, then they can probably manage the
inventory as well. If the documentation is not correct, they will call,
unlike some outfits that just build blindly.

They are a cable assembly house primarily, but have 3 top notch surface
mount assemblers. One fellow I think used to be a trainer for IBM. I think
most of their people are IPC trained and certified.

The last board I had them build had about 20 SMD ic's including a QFP, and
probably another 100 or so passives. The quality was amazing, no shorts on
the SOT23-5's or QFP44, and the board powered right up. If only I were so
fortunate on the software side.

The other thing I like about this outfit is they are tied in with a volume
CM, so if something takes off, its a simple transistion.

I used to hate building protos, my soldering skills are not that great for
SMD parts. This outfit has been a  real help to me.

The guy that runs is pretty cool. His name is Larry, he used to be a CEO of
a larger CM years ago and saw the need for quick turn low volume and
prototype board assembly.

I think your need for 10-20 units at a time would be a good fit for them.

Ron

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Dave Mucha" <dave_mucha@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 5:53 PM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] assembly board houses ?


> Hi all,
>
> I have a few boards that I am starting to make as both kits and
> finished products.
>
> As you can imagine, I do not want to be an assembly line worker and
> spend all my time stuffing boards.
>
> Does anyone know of any board houses that will surface mount chips
> and make boards ?
>
> Unfortunatly, I need short runs of only 10- 20 boards at at time.

You could try Olimex: http://www.olimex.com

They make PCBs and do the assembly for their own products. I think they also
offer an assembly service.

Leon

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "wheedal99" <wheedal@h...> 
wrote:
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Mucha" 
> 
> > Unfortunatly, I need short runs of only 10- 20 boards at at time.
> 
> That kind of run might be tough for a commercial board stuffing 
house 
> to commit to and still charge you a reasonable rate.
> 
> You might feel out the easy bake group as there are a few there 
that 
> do small run production.
> 


"easy bake group?"

got a url ?


> -Dal

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Mucha" 
> > > Unfortunatly, I need short runs of only 10- 20 boards at at 
time.
> > 
> > That kind of run might be tough for a commercial board stuffing 
> house 
> > to commit to and still charge you a reasonable rate.
> > 
> > You might feel out the easy bake group as there are a few there 
> that 
> > do small run production.
> > 
> 
> 
> "easy bake group?"
> 
> got a url ?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E-Z_Bake