After my initial PCB success with Maker Studio, I uploaded the design files to three more board houses. I had planned to try four or five more, but I started to get the impression that many of the China-based sources used the same fab house, so I stopped at three.
Elecrow‘s basic board fab service supplies 5 or 10 PCBs for $11.90, with a basic international shipping cost of around $7 for 5 boards. Although I haven’t been paying close attention to delivery time for these reviews (too many variables), I will say that Elecrow was significantly slower than the other three sources.
Several board thicknesses and surface finishes are available, but only green soldermask. Maximum board size is 10cm × 10cm. 6/6 rules are supported, though they “recommend” 8/8 (trace width in mils/space width in mils).
(Note: Most of the following pictures are larger than their default display size, so you can zoom in with your browser, or open pictures in their own tabs, to view at higher resolution.)
The smaller 32mil silkscreen text is perfectly clear. Alignment is a few mils off, and behold the jaggies in the SSOP outline. Unlike Maker Studio, Elecrow has managed to squeeze some soldermask between the SSOP20 pads.
Soldermask alignment is reasonable, but SS silkscreen is pretty far off on all boards.
Drill registration is good.
No problems with trace/flood interaction.
Traces look good. No leakage measured on 6/6 pattern. Again, note soldermask between all pads.
I’ll be back soon with more reviews.
Also see:
- Quick-Turn PCB shop review project: Master collection
- Quick-Turn PCB shop review project: Step 1, the PCB
- Finding a quick-turn PCB shop
For more detail: Quick-Turn PCB shop review project: Elecrow
