Cool that people are trying new things. And I sure hate waiting for a PCB order to make its way from Hong Kong or Taiwan to Nebraska.
I'm not sure I want the trade-off of having to try to fit my existing circuit into those pre-populated vias.
Part of the joy of PCB layout is trying to be "optimal". That might be optimal in board size, optimal in the elegance of the trace layouts. I even trying to minimize vias (or not have them altogether). With prefab vias, there will be kludges to work my own vias into those locations. And, honestly, the unused vias will annoy me as well.
I'm a sucker for solder masks, silkscreening… I think I am too in love with what I get back from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
My "quick prototyping" consists of breadboarding and trashy perf-board mockups.
That fitting problem sounds like an excellent job for a computer program! I wonder how many prebuilt PCB layouts would be necessary to fit most hobbyist requests.
It's a shame there aren't US manufacturers who can manufacture custom PCBs as cheaply as JLPCB or PCBWay.
These types of lasers might be a stopgap if tariffs make buying from those companies inordinately expensive, however the extreme cost, and the need to do a bunch of cleanup kind of makes me suspect there needs to be another iteration of this tech.
Right, but OSH Park competes on quality not price. In fact the other day I came across a reddit post from the owner of OSH Park explaining that e.g. JLC is selling their finished products below his material cost. Add on to that the subsidized shipping and of course they're going to be well below what any US based company can offer.
That post is 7 years old and JLC has changed a lot since then. It would be interesting to hear his current impressions (presumably they're still doing competitive comparisons).
I don't really get this. If I'm doing vias, I'm nearly finished with prototyping. Not to mention routing is a part of that and I don't want to route twice.
So glad to see a Stephen Hawes video make the front page. I've been trying for a few years now to get discussion going around his opensource pick and place the LumenPNP[0]
His goal of bringing small scale manufacturing down to the workshop / home garage level is really inspiring and is especially relevant in the modern era of tariffs and economic upheaval.
To get good at something people need to get hands on experience and it needs to be affordable and relatively easy to use. The kinds of tools that Stephen is promoting make that possible and that's critical if we want people to get good at building things.
Cool that people are trying new things. And I sure hate waiting for a PCB order to make its way from Hong Kong or Taiwan to Nebraska.
I'm not sure I want the trade-off of having to try to fit my existing circuit into those pre-populated vias.
Part of the joy of PCB layout is trying to be "optimal". That might be optimal in board size, optimal in the elegance of the trace layouts. I even trying to minimize vias (or not have them altogether). With prefab vias, there will be kludges to work my own vias into those locations. And, honestly, the unused vias will annoy me as well.
I'm a sucker for solder masks, silkscreening… I think I am too in love with what I get back from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
My "quick prototyping" consists of breadboarding and trashy perf-board mockups.
I would definitely use this to knock together quick prototypes before ordering boards from China.
So many times that I’d happily pay $20 to try a board right fricking now (and I doubt they’ll be $20 all-in).
For me, it would replace breadboarding, not replace a final prototype PCB before committing to a first assembly run.
That fitting problem sounds like an excellent job for a computer program! I wonder how many prebuilt PCB layouts would be necessary to fit most hobbyist requests.
https://toolong.link/v?w=A_IUIyyqw0M&l=en
It's a shame there aren't US manufacturers who can manufacture custom PCBs as cheaply as JLPCB or PCBWay.
These types of lasers might be a stopgap if tariffs make buying from those companies inordinately expensive, however the extreme cost, and the need to do a bunch of cleanup kind of makes me suspect there needs to be another iteration of this tech.
OSHpark and sunstone are pretty good. circuithub is serviceable for turnkey assembly (though they might outsource fab overseas, uncertain).
I've had problems with Sunstone since they got bought by a company in the Midwest. It may just be corporate integration pains, but still.
Specifically we had issues with added graphics not in my GERBERS, and some through hole plating issues.
Yeah that's fair. I don't use them very often. They're in a similar bin as Advanced in that regard.
Right, but OSH Park competes on quality not price. In fact the other day I came across a reddit post from the owner of OSH Park explaining that e.g. JLC is selling their finished products below his material cost. Add on to that the subsidized shipping and of course they're going to be well below what any US based company can offer.
https://old.reddit.com/r/PrintedCircuitBoard/comments/9bt5ed...
That post is 7 years old and JLC has changed a lot since then. It would be interesting to hear his current impressions (presumably they're still doing competitive comparisons).
In the 90’s we ordered them from TX
I don't really get this. If I'm doing vias, I'm nearly finished with prototyping. Not to mention routing is a part of that and I don't want to route twice.
So glad to see a Stephen Hawes video make the front page. I've been trying for a few years now to get discussion going around his opensource pick and place the LumenPNP[0]
His goal of bringing small scale manufacturing down to the workshop / home garage level is really inspiring and is especially relevant in the modern era of tariffs and economic upheaval.
To get good at something people need to get hands on experience and it needs to be affordable and relatively easy to use. The kinds of tools that Stephen is promoting make that possible and that's critical if we want people to get good at building things.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LumenPnP