I think that I have my own 6502 project board to the point where I can commit it to fiberglass and copper. So, I wanted to poll the membership and see which board houses others use.

Any recommendations???

Rich Cini

_________________
Rich Cini
Build Master and maintainer of the Altair32 Emulation project
http://cini.classiccmp.org
http://altair32.classiccmp.org

Rich,

I haven't really looked into the different houses yet, but no doubt I will be an expert by the time the "Iteration One" PCB Design Project is done.

There is a service called ExpressPCB you may want to check out if you're only going to make a couple of boards for yourself. Check out http://www.expresspcb.com . They have a simple PCB CAD program you can download and once your design is completed you can send it to them with one click. Small quantities are around $100 shipped in 2-3 days and the boards I had made (which even had tiny TQFP packages on them!) were extremely high quality.

_________________
- Mike Naberezny (mike@naberezny.com) http://6502.org

Mike:

I've seen ads for Express before, but I really haven't checked them out yet. The CAD program that I have (EDWin) is a complete CAD system, and produces Gerber files directly.

I'll check out Express now and see what their requirements are like.

Rich

_________________
Rich Cini
Build Master and maintainer of the Altair32 Emulation project
http://cini.classiccmp.org
http://altair32.classiccmp.org

Rich,

My biggest gripe with ExpressPCB is that there isn't (or wasn't) an easy way to get files into or out of their proprietary editor. For small boards it is a good service, but for something really complicated I don't think it is the best option.

_________________
- Mike Naberezny (mike@naberezny.com) http://6502.org

Mike:

In Circuit Cellar, I found several PCB houses. Here's my report...

The My6502 board is 7.5"x6.5" (roughly 48 sq-in) double-sided with 991 holes (667 pads, 324 vias). This results in a hole density of 20.5 holes/sq-in. Standard 0.062" FR-4 laminate with 0.5 oz copper.

House#1: PCB Express (http://www.pcbexpress.com/) has been around since 1972 and are located in Portland, OR. They have an "express" service which takes common CAD output files (Gerber and Excellon drill files) and produces boards. With the express (read-no frills) service, My6502 would cost $166 for two boards. For a version of the board with legends and masks and a conformal coating, the price is $322. This is 3-day service and *no* verification or testing. Data is transferred in ZIP files by FTP. Max board size is 9x12.

House#2: AP Circuits (http://www.apcircuits.com/). Opened in 1988. Cost for the same board is $109 for the "Proto 1" service. The drill upcharge is $9 per drill over standard sizes. The "Proto 2" service includes masks and conformal coatings and has a 15-day lead time. Pricing is too hard for me to figure out without doing serious math. Max board size is 11x13.

House#3: Smth Circuits (http://www.smthcircuits.bc.ca/). For full service (5-day lead time), a 6"x8" board with legend and conformal coating is $110 for two boards. Prices go up for faster service. There are no drill size restrictions, only on number of tool changes. Max board size is 11x13.

House#4: Bay Area Circuits (http://www.bacircuits.com/). Been around since 1975. Who knows, maybe Apple used them . Anyway, their proto price is $295 + $20 S/H. Same day service. No drill restrictions. Max board size is 11x13.

Hope this research helps. If anyone has any other board shop recommendations, lets hear them.

> Rich Cini/WUGNET> ClubWin!/CW1> MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking> Collector of "classic" computers> http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/

_________________
Rich Cini
Build Master and maintainer of the Altair32 Emulation project
http://cini.classiccmp.org
http://altair32.classiccmp.org

Rich,

Thanks for this info! I will investigate them further when the time comes, hopefully we will be getting the boards made very soon in the coming months.

_________________
- Mike Naberezny (mike@naberezny.com) http://6502.org

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?