At 04:27 PM 6/10/2004 -0700, you wrote:


>My impression is that you don't GET that sort of board as a
>'prototype.'

There are expensive proto houses that will produce single-sided boards
as for consumer products with V-groove, conductive printing, and all
the rest. They can cost rather more than double-sided prototypes from cheap
suppliers because they make it VERY close to the production boards.

>  You can start talking to providers of that sort for
>production runs, but for less than 1000 board, the setup and labor
>costs are SO much higher than material costs that no prototype house
>offer cheaper materials.

Typically on punched boards one free prototype is supplied... before
the pallet load is made..

>When you order your $40 3x6 inch board from olimex, you're not REALLY
>paying $26 per board, you're paying something like $20 for setup,
>labor, and tooling, $4 for chemicals, inks, and tooling, and $2 for the
>board material itself.  Reducing board material costs all the way to
>$1.50 just isn't helpful to the end price, and requires the boardmaker
>deal with additional details...

The barriers to entry on single-sided boards are lower. Many hobbyists and
small companies actually etch their own, you know (and deal one way
or another with the messiness and chemical disposal issues). We used to
have a supplier who did this as a sideline. Mail is cheap for PCBs (a
couple of dollars) and labor can be arbitraged. I would not expect a
supplier who can do two sided or multilayer boards necessarily to be
interested. Mostly, different factories are used for the two types of boards
in production.

I do recall seeing a web page for someone who charged so much per
square inch, aimed at hobbyists..

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

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