online making

[Ynot.zer0]

I know you guys love hand crafting your electronic stuff (and casings), but as anyone tried these services out?:


http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/electronics
http://batchpcb.com/index.php/AboutUs


If so, what are your thoughts on service? Have you used anything similar recently?

[steve]

That's very interesting, if we have any members in America then maybe they could investigate how much it would cost to make cartridge casings and expansion boxes in the "Amstrad style".

[Bryce]

I've never had cases made, but I do use commercial PCB Batch services quite often. I also have a lot of experience with these types of companies through my normal work, because we have all our prototype PCBs made by these types of companies. The prices and quality of the PCBs can vary greatly. At the moment I mainly use PCB-Pool which have really top quality. They are not the cheapest, but best. They will produce anything between 1 and 50 PCBs up to 4 layers. Obviously the price per board depends on the quantity you order. They are in many countries, but their UK site is here: http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppuk/index.html
The PCBs seem to be produced in Ireland most of the time.

Bryce.

[OCT]

I know you guys love hand crafting your electronic stuff (and casings), but as anyone tried these services out?:

http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/electronics

Since we talked about SIDs here already and how to interface them with something more appropriate than a 6502, http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=sammichsid happens to be one of Ponoko's showcase products.
Another interesting outfit (at the opposite end of the world) is http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/wherelabs-m-9.html - most notably making pretty much all the Dangerous Prototypes gear.