DorkbotPDX people doing strange things with electricity

Dropping the per square inch price won't be fair to him for larger boards.

Adding $1 or $2 "setup" charge for all orders would only increase a 2 sq in board from $10 to $12 - still a great bargain. This seems like it would be an appropriate pricing model, as Laen has some more-or-less fixed costs (effort and postage) regardless of the size of the board.

But he seems to want to keep the pricing as is.

I think the best thing we can do is keep creating new projects and fill up his PCB panels with orders.

The problem isn't actually small boards, or even the fixed costs associated with the orders.

The real problem, as siliconfarmer mentioned, is that I'm not selling enough space. After a TON of struggle, I now have a US board house that's happy to do these panels of small designs at a reasonable cost, but to break even, I need to sell upwards of 200 square inches a month. That's only happened once in the history of the order, and I don't think this next order is going to be any different, unfortunately.

Paul's orders have actually been _great_. There's a mix of tiny boards and large boards, and he buys plenty of space each month. Now I just panel his together in a block and send them to him still all tabbed together. I also really appreciate that he handles the distribution of them to people interested in them. That takes a HUGE burden off of me, since the fixed costs _do_ start being a problem when one person orders under half an inch in area.

Over the entire history of the order, only 15 people have come in under the "fixed" costs. The average participant orders about 6 square inches. As far as I'm concerned, those 15 are acceptable losses. I'm willing to lose money on an individual, as long as I don't lose money on the order as a whole, especially since that means I get to keep the pricing scheme simple: A flat $5 / square inch, with shipping.

The goal here is for this to be a useful and inexpensive service to hardware hackers, artists, and casual hobbyists. I want a simple cost structure, and to get people their boards as fast as humanly possible. I think it's a doable goal.

The main thing keeping me from being able to continue providing the service is the lack of interest. Part of it is that I haven't done a great job of advertising it. I think if word got around, it would take off like a rocket. I don't feel comfortable spreading it around on message boards, since this could --in theory-- be for profit, and Google Adwords search terms related to PCBs are expensive.

Unfortunately, these last few orders have been HEAVY losses. Hundreds of dollars losses. If it doesn't turn around in a pretty big way, I'm worried that this next order may be the last one for a while.

First time on here, and so glad to have found an excellent resource like this. I'm technically challenged, so trying to make Eagle work for me was a laugh!! A friend of mine let me in on this deal. Hopefully he can help me set up my board for the next deadline. Just writing to thank you Laen for this great opportunity, and hopefully I'll be able to swing some decent sized orders to help fill up some space. I'm doing small boards, but the quantity hopefully will make up for it. I really do appreciate what you're doing, and hope this can continue for a long time. I've been trying to hand etch boards with an etching tool on a dremel for months now, and they're just too small to get them right!! Hope I can make the deadline!!! Joe

A google brought me to a link of PCB fab places, which brought me here. I need some help in getting pricing together and checking my designs to make sure they will pass the DRC. I'm using FreePCB to make the layout so the Eagle DRC isn't of much help. What I can tell you is that I used 6mil traces, 6mil spacing, 0.020 drill vias with 32mil diameter around them. Something like 0.042 drills for most other holes (AP Circuits standard drill sizes). 2 layers, need solder mask both sides and maybe silk screen both sides. There are two rectangular square corner boards that are each 2.5x1.75 inches (top board and bottom board) that I need to have made. There may be a third board for a USB to TTL serial adapter that I can probably squeeze out by the next deadline (August 2). So basically can someone get back to me to get me up to speed? I looked for an email and couldn't find one. Files will be gerber .gbr for all layers unless instructed to rename them like Batch PCB requires. As far as number of boards desired, some of that will be up to the price, looking for something a little cheaper than AP Circuits. The boards are just about ready to generate gerbers, I just need to check them and make sure everything routed correctly and toss together the third design for the USB. Is Paypal and accepted payment method?

Sorry for all the questions. Greg

Thanks, he got back to me and my designs are now sent, hopefully they help turn the tide toward breaking even.

There are many PCB manufacturers who are almost as cheap. I am not sure where he gets his boards but there is a really cheap PCB manufacturer - pcbfabexpress.com. We have used them at UCSD for a few years and have not had any problems. I really like what you're doing Laen. We used to wait for a few weeks till enough engineers had jobs to make it worth the money. Try them out too it might be cheaper.

Just got my first order and I'm pretty pleased with the results, hopefully I did not make any mistakes in the design. I used FreePCB to do the design and there were no problems with the Gerber files that it produced. All the rookie mistakes made with 90 degree corners on 6 mill traces came out perfectly with no erosion in the corners. I haven't found a single bridge on any of the fine pitch chips or connectors.

And the Blue color is cool.