PCBWay: Excellent value for money, High Quality PCB manufacturer
As an electronics enthusiast, Maker, and professional designer of PBCs for customers, I design, produce, and handle quite a lot of PCBs produced worldwide. Some of them are very good, and some are just plain terrible. Over the last year and a half (give or take a few months), I have been using PCBWay as my go-to PCB Manufacturer and Supplier. My detailed review will follow below: Disclosure: I do receive sponsorships from PCBWay. PCBWay and I, t/a MakerIOT2020, have a current working relationship relating to the sponsorship of certain of my projects and designs. This review is NOT paid for, and it is not BIASED by our relationship at all. I perform this review in an effort to educate and inform. So, let us begin: In my view, PCBWAY is providing an excellent service for Makers, electronics enthusiasts, as well as professional electronics designers. Why: 1) Price: PCB manufacturing can be quite expensive, and PCBWay has managed to get the relationship between cost and quality down perfectly. $5USD for 5 to 10 prototype sized dual layer PCBs is a VERY VERY attractive price. 2) Quality: All of the PCBs that I have ordered at PCBWay has been at least TG150 FR-4 material... (Some other manufacturers only offer TG135 or lower) I have never had issues with delamination, warping or boards that were difficult to solder. Attention to detail, precision etc is always of the greatest standard. 3) Speed of manufacturing PCBWAY has the capability to get your boards out of the factory extremely quickly, in some cases within 24 hours. My average is 3 days to do 3 different PCBs, with stencils ( delay mostly due to my choice of solder mask colour) [ Green seems to dry the fastest ] 4) Transparency and ease of access to support Every customer has access to dedicated support, via real-time chat, as well as a dedicated customer service representative for email support. This is a very important point, most people will overlook... but it can not be overstated how important this is. Things go wrong sometimes, for example, I ordered the wrong item or doubled up on something... Support takes care of it immediately, and the issue just goes away... 5) Accuracy and repeatability The factory is capable of manufacturing PCBs to quite a high tolerance value. This gives me the capability to really push my designs to their limits, squeezing every last bit of space from a layout, without worrying that my design will not be manufacturable... and then, in the unlikely event that I do design something impossible, the engineers will quickly let me know exactly what is wrong, as well as offer advice on how to fix it. Summary: Having a PCB made can be a very very stressful experience, especially if it is a high-value item, or if it is your very first design. People are not aware that the factory WILL NOT REPAIR YOUR MISTAKES. That is not being funny, that is not their job. period. You designed it, they will manufacture it true to your design. That out of the way, you can smile and relax. You can definitely trust PCBWay to do their utmost best to give you high quality, perfectly manufactured PCBs that will be EXACTLY AS YOU DESIGNED THEM..