I'm contemplating my first real PCB production run. I know that the topic
has been beaten to death in the forum. I realized though that the problem isn't
a lack of information, but instead a overflowing wealth of info. I wanted to
get your experiences of a wholistic view of the process from design to
production.

The situation: I have a prototype design done in wire wrap. For production
it will need a few items added, so the design isn't yet airtight. In the
end I'd like to get a moderate production run of say 100 boards. The board
size is going to be somewhere in the 3 in x 3 in to 4 in x 4 in range.

I envision the process in three stages:

1) Design: finish adding the goodies to the prototype, layout a PCB, then
test and tweak until a rock solid design and board is complete.

2) Prototype production run where a handful of boards are done with the final
design from the board house, which are then tested.

3) Final run. The actual production run.

The variables are turnaround time (TT), limiting cost (LC), and quality (Q).
Each of these vary at each stage. Here are my roundabout guesses on a
0-10 scale.

Design: TT:10 LC:10 Q:4. This needs to be a quick dirty phase because it
        may iterate over several versions. It needs to be relatively
        inexpensive due to revisions. The quality only needs to be good
        enough to test.

Prototype: TT:10 LC:5 Q:10. The prototypes should be the same quality as
           the production boards. Quick turnaround time in order to verify
           the results. Since this step is done once, cost isn't a significant
           issue.

Final: TT:3 LC:9 Q:10. For the final run I'd like to see top quality at the
       best price. Since everything has been tested, turnaround time is no
       longer critical.

What I wanted to see was folks' experiences at each phase. What tools did you
use? Which house did you choose? Why?

There are numerous choices at every stage. Any assistance in narrowing down
the field to fit the criteria outlined above would be helpful.

Thanks,

BAJ

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