Seeed Studio allows you to step-and-repeat a design many times and still charge the same $5 for 10 boards 10cmX10cm or smaller. Each design is V-scored to break apart easily. You can have lots of adapter boards for $5.
Bill

Hi Bill,

Very nice... I didn't know about the step/repeat function, but it makes sense.

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Regards, KM
https://github.com/floobydust

JLCPCB does the same - known as panelling. I just had a small audio amp board made up. Managed to squeeze 8 copies into the 100x100 footprint. With a minimum order of 5 boards, that means I now have 40 of the buggers. Only needed 1. Haven’t had time to test if they actually work…

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Does JLCPCB still charges extra “engineering” fee for paneling? A year or so ago, the fee was $8; so considering 10 boards is $5, paneling make sense only when 3 or more designs can fit on 100x100mm board
Bill

5 boards is now $2 US.

They charge $5.17 CDN ($4 US) for the paneling and an extra $2.61 CDN for the board. The total cost increase is about $6 US. A bit better than before, but not much.

I think you'd need at least 4 designs per board to come out even on material costs. However, you will save on shipping so maybe 3 designs is about right.

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Bill