Electronic assembly

[evandude]

Does anyone know of a good place for getting an electronic device manufactured professionally? I am looking at a reasonably small board maybe a few inches on a side, with maybe a couple dozen SMT and a couple dozen through-hole components, and would expect production run sizes on the order of several 10's of units, which might only classify as prototype quantities, I don't know.

I'm just looking into the idea of getting something made professionally for the first time, and thus don't even know where to start. Yes, I've done some google searches, but I know that hearing from folks with some personal experience with this will be much more valuable.
Thanks in advance for any pointers!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Does anyone know of a good place for getting an electronic device manufactured professionally? I am looking at a reasonably small board maybe a few inches on a side, with maybe a couple dozen SMT and a couple dozen through-hole components, and would expect production run sizes on the order of several 10's of units, which might only classify as prototype quantities, I don't know.

No idea where you might get it done?, but (as you say) those are probably only prototype quantities - expect to pay a LOT for a small run of units.

For that size run I suspect it would be a LOT more cost effective to assemble them yourself, but have the PCB's made for you.

 

[evandude]

No idea where you might get it done?, but (as you say) those are probably only prototype quantities - expect to pay a LOT for a small run of units.

For that size run I suspect it would be a LOT more cost effective to assemble them yourself, but have the PCB's made for you.

Yeah, I'm sort of getting that feeling as well, the more I look. One place I looked had an online instant quote service, and the total price quote based on my quick estimated description was only 10% more for 40 units vs. 10 units, so it seems i'd have to get up into the 100's of units for the per-unit cost to be reasonable.

And hey, I am a college student, I'm sure I could find some underclassman that would be happy to work for minimum wage soldering PCB's, if I got really sick of it

 

[philba]

I've always used a rule of thumb of 50 units where it makes sense to contract out assembly. The problem for this kind of stuff is that you have to think like a manufacturing engineer and that means assembly drawings and VERY detailed assembly instructions. what about testing? rework?

for 10-20, you are better off doing it yourself though it might make sense to get a paste stencil made and use SFE hotplate reflow https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Reflow Skillet . You could probably make up to a couple hundred that way before you got sick of it...

Even if you farm out the work, I recommend you assemble more than a couple to understand what the process is like.

 

[tunedwolf]

and what the fault finding is like...

 

[Papabravo]

I can recomment another contract assembler if you're interested.

**broken link removed**

We use them for everything from prototype to production. They are fast, competent and reasonably priced.

 

[evandude]

Thanks for the info guys. No matter what I do for manufacturing (whether it be getting them professionally made from start to finish, or just getting professional PCBs and soldering them myself), I would be doing all testing/support/rework/etc myself. I don't at all think that the device I have in mind has a big enough market to require that to be contracted out professionally as well. The target customers are a bunch of DIY'ers and from what I have seen of their reception of similar products marketed by individuals or very small businesses (many of which have proven to have some issues), are a pretty forgiving bunch, so I don't have to worry about making a 100% bulletproof commercial product.

The typical process of release for such products has often involved a beta test phase, where 10 or 20 units are given out (or sold at a low price, perhaps at cost) to respected members of the community, who stress test them, report any issues, and write up some reviews if everything works well; that takes a lot of the stress out of it, not having to over-engineer the crap out of it first. If this whole idea of mine works out in the end, I plan to do this beta-test type of thing, to make sure my device is suitable for general release, documentation is complete enough, and it creates a foundation of (hopefully) good reviews.

 

[BrianWI]

Try **broken link removed**

 

[fingaz]

hey,

For printed circuit production, you could try here

**broken link removed**

don't know what they're like, just seen them on ebay a lot.

in case the item has ended before you get chance to look, their email is helloproto@petpirates.com

oh, seller's name is petpirates.