>>5. I've seen a lot of posts about manufacturing, usually 
>>for up to
>>100s of boards, but does anyone know of a place that 
>>specializes in
>>making thousands of smaller boards?

Olins recommendation of Data Tehnik and Djula Djarmati (on 
this list) bears repeating (so I have, below).

If Olin recommends them you can be sure they are top class 
(no negative comment of ANY sort intended there :-) ).

I think I've got the quoting attribution correct - apologies 
if not correct.



        Russell McMahon.


Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:21 AM
Subject: re: [EE] Inexpensive low-qty (100-250ish) assembly 
sources


Olin
>> For electronic assembly, I have used a company called 
>> Interactive
>> Engineering Corp., (which is located right near me) in 
>> Akron, Ohio.
>> They assembled a small run of prototypes for me a while 
>> back, and I
>> was imressed with their work.  Their facility is good 
>> size, and
>> fairly well equipped. Visit them at:
>> http://www.4iec.com/">http://www.4iec.com

> Christopher Cole wrote:
> Thanks, but I should have said in China, Vietnam, or 
> anyplace else where
> the costs are low.  I know several small shops around here 
> too.  They
> generally do very good work and are happy to do low 
> volume, but are 2.5-4x
> or so more expensive than going direct to China.

Olin:

I just wanted to follow up on this old thread.  I have 
meanwhile gone thru a
production run with Data Tehnik in Serbia and was very 
pleased.  The
communication was way better than even the best 
manufacturers in China that
I have dealt with.  This was a small (100 unit) run that was 
full turnkey.
They subbed out the PC board fab to a place in Macedonia, 
then put together
the kit, assembled the boards, and tested the built units. 
I sent them
software, a jig, and instructions for testing.  The 
resulting units are well
made and basically directly shippable to customers.

The per unit price was about 1/4 more than a year earlier 
for the same
product from China.  However, this run included unit 
testing, no fallouts,
and no screwups to fix afterwards.  In the end my total cost 
per shippable
unit was actually a little less than the "cheap" run a year 
earlier from
China.

My main contact at Data Tehnik is Djula Djarmati, who 
sometimes also posts
to the PIClist.  He can be reached at djula021-sbb-co-yu 
(replace first "-"
with @, others with "."). 

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist