Our company has successfully switched to KiCAD for all internal PCB development. Now I am wondering if anyone can recommend a PCB manufacturer that meets all of the following criteria:
Capable of both PCB manufacturing and assembly
Either takes KiCAD project files or KiCAD-generated fabrication files (.gbr, .drl, .pos, .gbrjob) without relying on manual data transfer and interpretation on their side. The problem I am having now is that all manufacturers I have dealt with take Gerber files, but then call and ask questions about board stackup parameters because they have never heard of Gerber job files (*.gbrjob) that already has this information, and when I tell them about this file, the best they can do is open it in Notepad and manually copy-paste bits and pieces of information from there. In my books this is a recipe for mistakes when ordering multiple batches in serial production - today they will remember to ask about one parameter and two months later, when it is time to order a new batch, they (or we) might miss something. Nothing in serial production should rely on verbal communications.
Focuses on higher quality rather than lower price
Must be based in a free world country
Did anyone had a chance to deal with a manufacturer like that? Shameless plugs are more than welcome if your particular company meets all of the criteria above.
Are you sure of it?
In my opinion they have precision internal documentation and answers to questions they have to ask you are written there.
Focus on higher quality sometimes means ‘only official delivery channels’ so no use of distributors like Mouser or Digikey with the effect of 3+ months needed time to collect elements.
In my opinion they have precision internal documentation and answers to questions they have to ask you are written there.
They might, sure. But then we have humans on our end too and we can’t rely on them to accurately verbally relay information for every batch, especially when a new batch is based on an updated version of PCB. Much better to rely on single source of machine-parseable project documentation that has undergone verification process (for those of us who work in regulated industries, it is a must) rather than rely on humans.
You haven’t said anything about production volume, which is the most important parameter.
Very small quantities, you might as well stick with local. In higher volumes:
Malaysia has a few, getting more popular as an alternative to the PRC
I also recommend Aisler. They don’t have as many options as many Chinese manufacturers (e. g. in soldermask colours or special options) and they’re not super cheap, but the quality is very solid, they support Kicad very well (and make large donations to them) and they manufacture in Germany.
I second Eurocircuits. They have a good online visualizer for the PCB and assembly (including DRC, panelization, assembly editor and instant price calculation), good stock of components and I use them professionally for prototypes and small series for about 10 years for normal and RF PCBs (with and without assembly) without any issues. And production is in Europe, mainly in Hungary.
One more for Eurocircuits. You just drop your Kicad file and their superb online tool opens it up to alert you of any footprint errors and other issues. The only thing they don’t get 100% right is the BOM, but their online tool makes it quick to fix.
I have 50+ orders with them and use them for all my customers that focus of quality & speed. I can get bare PCB’s on my doorstep in just 3 days (I’m in Norway). With assembly it can take 8-10 days. Their process is quite smooth and they have engineers that’ll alert you to any problems. I’ve done many sorts of boards with them (multilayer, high-speed/controlled impedance, graphite ink, IMS…) and it’s all top notch.
Would the term KiCad friendly include providing prospective customers with a default KiCad file with the tolerances filled in for Net Classes or Constraints?
I’m new to KiCad and started with someone else’s Raspberry Pi Zero uHAT project and ran into what appear to be Net Classes and Constraint issues which may, or may not have, been intended. Rather than learn about all the nuances, I’m wondering if the PCB houses offer pre-configured KiCad files that contain their rules so some venturous soul such as I could design within those rules and constraints and not run afoul of their standards.
What lead me into this was that I could not connect traces to the through-holes on the bard, I ended up creating a derived Net Class with different tolerances. While I finally got my traces to connect, I then began to wonder if in achieving that result, have I run afoul of standards in the industry. I have no evidence that the project’s board has been successfully used, so it’s a big risk and I’m considering just starting from scratch so I’m completely familiar with what’s afoot and meet standards. Such an endeavor to start from scratch would be made easier if a manufacturer offers a preconfigured KiCad file with their tolerances populated.