Good day to all. As many of you may know, I'm part of a small electronics design and=20 manufacturing outfit. We are pretty small - 12 people but we do a=20 lot of projects for a lot of outfits. One of my on-going tasks is to find and qualify vendors for printed=20 circuit boards. I've done business with many Canadian PCB suppliers=20 - some manufacture completely within Canada while others serve as=20 front-ends for Asian suppliers. Several years ago, I discovered a small Chinese supplier named=20 Univelop. Their website is and you get up to 200=20 square inches of PCB for US $70 plus $30 for shipping to anywhere in=20 North America. This last distinction is important - getting a second=20 panel made adds somewhat to the PCB cost but does not appreciably=20 increase the ship cost. Actually, the maximum panel size is 15" x=20 15" which is 225 square inches. I've gotten several tens of thousands of boards from Univelop over=20 the years - quality has been fairly good (some bad boards in 1 or 2=20 batches) - I'd give them a rating of 8 out of 10. I'll happily use them ag= ain. The only downside with Univelop is the slow ship time. I generally=20 budget 4 to 6 weeks to get my boards after sending the Gerber files=20 to them via email. Fast forward a few years - my positive experiences with Univelop=20 allowed me to explore other Chinese suppliers. There are *many* to=20 choose from! However, I have pretty much settled on a company called King Credie=20 Technology Limited. Again, I have received several tens of thousands=20 of boards from them and am not aware of having even a single bad=20 board. I give them a rating of 10 out of 10. They will also supply solder paste stencils. Cost is between US $50=20 to $100, depending upon size and how quickly you want it. This week,=20 I put them to the test. I sent my Gerber files to them on March 12 (last week). However, I=20 caused some problems. I had thought that King Credie had produced=20 the boards for me a few years ago - that was not the case. The=20 Gerber files that I had were for only a single board but what I had=20 produced (by a different vendor) was a panel containing 6 boards in a=20 2 x 3 array. No problem - I passed on that information and things=20 proceeded. Then my contact sent me a file and asked me to check it -=20 it turns out that the Gerber files that I had sent did not include a=20 paste layer. They had manually generated a paste layer from the=20 copper and silkscreen information contained in the Gerber files that=20 I had sent to them. My bad - this board was from a few years ago and automated SMT=20 assembly wasn't part of what we were doing at that time. I was in a=20 rush and had just sent the Gerber files from way back then. It=20 didn't even occur to me that I probably hadn't generated paste information. Well, enough was enough. I opened the original board file in my CAD=20 package and generated a paste layer. Then I panelized the original=20 board into the same array as what I had received from that other vendor. Here's the kicker. I sent that Gerber file to King Credie on March=20 18 at 6:34 PM. The stencil was in my hands today, March 20 at about noon. These are quality stencils. They are made from Stainless Steel and=20 have a nice 2" or so border all around the actual PCB size. Cost for=20 me was US $80 plus $25 for DHL overnight shipping. I can't promise that they can do a quick turn this fast all the=20 time. But I am seriously impressed. Just a note: I don't think that King Credie is set up to do business=20 with hobbyists. They are a serious PCB manufacturer and we order=20 boards in quantities ranging from 25 to 750 pcs at a time. Most of=20 our orders are for 500pcs at a time. Like I said earlier, we've=20 received several tens of thousands of boards from them so far. I've just sent them an order of 11 different PCB's in quantities=20 ranging from 25pcs to 150 pcs. Crimp Circuits of Toronto, Canada=20 quoted me $4111.75 for those boards, not including shipping to me in=20 Edmonton. King Credie quoted me $1765 *including* shipping to me in=20 Edmonton. I expect to receive those boards in about 2 weeks. If anyone is interested in contact information, please drop me a=20 *private* email message. Again, though, people interested in=20 production quantities only. dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .