There are lots of places that do this. They are generally called
'Contract Manufacturers' They range greatly in price and quality. You
usually get what you pay for. Some of these turnkey operations only do high
volume (hundreds of thousands or more), others specialize in low volume. You
need to find someone that wants your type of business. They all have a
'sweet spot' for which their organization is set up.

        I had one product made in St. Louis. Fairly 'cost effective' but
overall quality was very bad. Some components were not soldered properly
(open-circuit), flying leads were not stripped to correct length and usually
the strands were broken. Once a component was installed backwards, once the
wrong component entirely was installed. The reject rate off the production
line varied between 8% and 15% I shudder to think what it will be after a
few years in the field.

        We since switched to someone more local (Ohio) with higher quality
standards and control. Our cost is now over twice (I think close to three
times) what I payed in St. Louis. But (after we got past the new customer &
new desgin issues) we're getting extremely high quality boards, great
support, and best of all, they all work.

Moral of the story:
        Even though the place in St. Louis was much cheaper, by the time you
add in my time to diagnose their problems, fly out there to hold their hand,
cost of rework, cost of scrap, backordered inventory and P.O.'ed customers,
it really wasn't such a bargain.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: rad0 [mailto:rden25@MINDSPRING.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 11:48 PM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: [ot]: another question about board makers and so on
>
>
> hello,
>
> I have seen all the discussions about places to have your
> circuit boards
> made....
>
> But, is there a place, are there places that will instal surface mount
> components
> on your board?
>
>
> I have in mind an application that uses a compact flash card,
> and I have
> yet to find a socket that is not surface mount technology.
> So, if I can't
> beat'em I'm going to have to find a board house that will
> solder on surface
> mount components...
>
>
> Any one have a source or solution?
>
>
> thanks
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
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>
>

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