PCB manufacturer in UK ?

[Banus_radio]

Recommendations on UK based PCB manufactures with quick'ish turnaround at reasonable price ?

I only need the pcbs wihout component populations. Dooble sided with silkscreen would be nice

Looking to get a small batch of pcb's done

Thanks in advance

[jvok]

Any reason it has to be uk? You can get a batch done by chinese places like jlc for <£20 if the boards are small. Youll never get that over here.

Tbh I don't even know if theres any pcb manufacturers left in the uk now. Ive worked with a few uk based assemblers over the years but even they outsource the bare boards to china.

[stretchyman]

I 2nd that.

Why the F would u use a UK manufacturer when JLC can have it back in a week.

Amazing, infact they probably make everyone else's.

So cheap too. I pay about $3 for a PCB about the size of you hand.

UK prices would be X100.

Str.

[Banus_radio]

I wanted fast turn around and presumed UK would be quicker. Ill try JLC, thanks for the recommendation

[jvok]

Jlc do 2-3 day turnaround and you can get delivery in <5 days if you want to pay extra for it. Or about 2 weeks for the cheap delivery

Probably other chinese places do the same but I only really use jlc now

[Albert H]

I discovered the other day that PCB-Train (who used to be in Newbury in Berkshire) now use JLC, but the boards are still badged PCB-T!

Way back, I used a company in Ealing W5, but they seem to have stopped PCB manufacture - simply because they couldn't compete with the Far Eastern companies. It used to be nice to drop the artwork in early in the day, and pick up a batch of etched and drilled boards later on the same day! On one occasion they made a whole batch of "combination" boards - I used to get a link transmitter, a limiter and a link receiver out of one "Eurocard"-sized PCB. They made 120 of them in the same day. They were all populated and shipped within a couple of weeks!

These days, I get boards made at JLC (and a couple of other Far Eastern companies) and at a firm in Hungary (if I want component assembly as well). The boards out of China are brilliant quality and astonishingly cheap!

[stretchyman]

There you go people, sound info. JLC are the biz.

[radionortheast]

Maybe it costs money to import because of brexit for such a small circuit board i'm not that sure, surely a few small boards would come through...

[Albert H]

Nope - the prices at JLC are quite amazing. I got a small heap of boards done recently - they're double-sided, plated-through, silk-screened, drilled, milled out for some slotted heatsinks, and roller tinned, Each board is ~28 X 16 cm, and includes some surface-mount pads (for a Maxim IC that's only available in that format). The boards were designed in "Sprint", and the Gerbers were sent to JLC on a Monday. We paid for ordinary delivery (we didn't need the boards for over a month), and they arrived on the following Saturday morning! Each board cost just under €6, and they were beautiful!

JLC don't care what software you use to create your PCB layout, as long as you send standard Gerber files. Their quality is remarkably good.

[radionortheast]

Maybe its just me who has problems ordering from aboard then, there was defintaly an issue last time I orderd from pcs, they don’t have a price including vat there was extra bill that came afterwards, fedex did not give me a way to pay, pcs didn’t make it clear, it was written in words I didn’t understand, i’d never had anything like it before. I was treated poorly by pcs, when i’ve been customer for so long, i’m still effected by now, I suppose others out there can dissmiss this having no effect, eventually I was able to pay throught an agency, its not something i’d want to go throught again.
It took me ages to buy anything from abroad afterwards, it is possible to get a transmitter throught alli vat is paid by the website, compared to the pcs ones their a bit of come down, no onboard thermal protection, ajustment of power is on the board not by the display. Even throught alli whole vat thing is about as clear mud, I did worry the something of that nature would happen again. Any website you don’t pay vat on, you do run the risk of getting an extra bill something like this happening.

[Albert H]

It is just you - I order "from abroad" all the time.

I also can't understand the issue you had with PCS - Mighty is easy enough to deal with - he's a nice guy, speaks fluent English, and is happy to chat on the 'phone if you need advice. He used to be a software engineer for IBM, so had to speak good English. His gear is generally well designed, and works well.

[jvok]

With jlc you can pick vat+import prepaid in the delivery options

[Albert H]

With jlc you can pick vat+import prepaid in the delivery options

Yes - I always do!