Custom Prototype (1 off) PCB's?

Sean Crees

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Jan 1, 2017
352
316
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with any companies online for prototyping PCB's. Kind of like Protocase, but for PCB's instead of sheet metal.
 

1s44c

Caliper Novice
Mar 30, 2019
31
13
You will also have to source your own design, and any smds you need. if you want to make a custom motherboard- $400,000 ish for design plus manufacture plus other things
 

b_force

Average Stuffer
May 28, 2019
72
25
They really only work for smaller pcbs, 4 layer rasberry pi size
That's absolutely not true at all. They can easily do 6 or 12 layers if you want to.
I have been using these companies for years, and a electronics and PCB designer for over a decade, it all depends what you're looking for.

But in general it's not as easy as these metal and aluminum companies to just e-mail them with an idea since it's a lot more complicated.
 

XeaLouS

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 29, 2015
180
123
Are you familiar with eagle/kicad? these are the programs people usually use to design pcbs. This ends up with a gerber file that can be sent directly to manufacturers who can print your PCB. Lots of people in the mechanical keyboard subreddit have done this. If its for a computer motherboard, i hope you have the expertise of a whole team like asus/etc do, because designing a motherboard is not easy.
 

1s44c

Caliper Novice
Mar 30, 2019
31
13
That's absolutely not true at all. They can easily do 6 or 12 layers if you want to.
I have been using these companies for years, and a electronics and PCB designer for over a decade, it all depends what you're looking for.

But in general it's not as easy as these metal and aluminum companies to just e-mail them with an idea since it's a lot more complicated.
that depends on which company you go for. But i think the op is referring to the 3 day cheap pcb companies.
Are you familiar with eagle/kicad? these are the programs people usually use to design pcbs. This ends up with a gerber file that can be sent directly to manufacturers who can print your PCB. Lots of people in the mechanical keyboard subreddit have done this. If its for a computer motherboard, i hope you have the expertise of a whole team like asus/etc do, because designing a motherboard is not easy.
Yeah i have used kicad and i know how pcbs are made. I was saying that if the op wanted a simple pcb, with little hi-speed stuff, they are fine, but if the op wants complex stuff like a mobo, or even a custom pcie riser, they might not be up to it, especially as most of them wont do pick and place and flowing
 

b_force

Average Stuffer
May 28, 2019
72
25
that depends on which company you go for. But i think the op is referring to the 3 day cheap pcb companies.
Yes I know these "cheap" companies, I use them all the time for prototyping boards (mostly Class-D power amplifiers, DSP's , 4-layer boards and such)
Most of them can do multi-layer boards if you just ask them.

I don't really get where the mainboard question is coming from (not from the TS)?
But these are mostly done by pretty big teams that work together, sometimes even that just one person is only working on the CPU socket.
I consider myself as professional designer, but wouldn't even think of just do these boards all by myself.
That would take at least half a year to a year doing that as a fulltime job.

btw, most companies would use Altium or Proteus for these kind of projects.
I guess it could be done in KiCad, but all the best with your patience.......
 
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1s44c

Caliper Novice
Mar 30, 2019
31
13
Yes that is true, but we do not know the scope of the OP's request. The OP just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with PCB manufacturing, and if there were any prototyping focused PCB manufacturers. The direct response would be yes. I also do completely understand that all of the marvelous technologies we all the time such as GPUs and CPUs and motherboards, and even some of the little SMDs require(d) many peoples efforts to bring them to life. I learned this the hard way actually. When I was a freshman in high school I wanted to see if anyone could make me a motherboard with all of the PCIe x16 slots (8 of them to be more precise). I had by then learned that more or less all the motherboard manufacturers were using the same components from the same people (ie: ASMedia, IR, Intersil, Texas Instruments). So I naively thought that making a motherboard was like making a part list in PCPartpicker and then building it, but harder. Quite quickly I figured out that the real work goes into making sure that they all work together, and then laying it out, and all the other steps required. I am no pcb designer, but I have my fair share of experience with Altium. Boy do I hate that when you click on a via close to other things, Altium will second guess you, and ask you what component you want to select. My belief, after reading the OP's question, was that either the desire was a custom motherboard, like a mini-dtx board that actually uses the extra space for more pci slots unlike the new asus x570 impact, or a custom riser/converter -- like maybe a bifurcated riser with a PLX chip, or maybe a custom psu. All of those are very complicated, whether for signal integrity puposes, or just because its a motherboard. If the OP could respond as to what they want... It would make a recommendation much easier. However, because I do not work with PCBs all that much, maybe b_force could recommend something. I do hi-speed logic design, but my work is more academic than practical, so my designs will influence cpus in 10 years maybe, and then only probably in supercomputers (For more clarification, I design "practice" half-adders for instance, but that use a different style of addition that lends itself better to quantum computing. I also work at much lower levels of abstraction, at the transistor level, becuase both of my parents had PhD's in physics, so it rubbed off, and that way we can use the layout of the transitors, and the design of the transistors, and also the node, and the quantum tunneling effect that gives TSMC sleepless nights to create a half adder that can safely operate at a much higher clock ~6 GHz, and use less energy and be much more effective. I also explore process speed gains like speculative execution, but that are much more secure)