Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Manufacturing

Curious about how PCBs get manufactured? This chat will demystify the process and discuss ways to save you money!

Hack Chat

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Jonathan Hirschman will be hosting the Hack Chat on August 4th.

Hack Chats are (almost) always on Fridays at noon PDT.

Jonathan is a self-taught hardware guy. Proficient in PCB layout, 3D CAD and manufacturing tech, Jonathan figured out how to ask the right questions of the right people, and then put it into practice.

PCB:NG makes it easy for anyone to get their designs manufactured, and to do it in the most cost-effective manner.

We'll be discussing:

How someone might get started in PCB layout
How best to prototype electronic designs
How to best design for manufacture
How to keep your design cheap to manufacture
Why manufacturing might be an option that you haven't considered (and should).

Please add your questions and project links to the sheet for discussion!

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PCB Manufacturing HackChat Transcript
Shulie Tornel • 08/04/2017 at 19:42 • 0 comments

Lutetium
Welcome everyone! Let's get started

Jonathan Hirschman

Lutetium
@Jonathan Hirschman is our host.

darryln
re east coast weather: TS emily remnants?

Lutetium
Could you introduce yourself please?

Jonathan Hirschman
hi everyone! I'm jonathan from PCB:NG

goebish has joined this room.12:05 PM

Lucas Coelho Cavalheiro
Hi Jonathan.

Jonathan Hirschman PCB:NG is what we always wanted from an electronics manufacturer, but didn't exist. So we made it ourselves.

Paul Stoffregen hiya

ZiggyInKC howdy!

Lutetium There's a sheet for questions: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1flXR8R6X_LdRuYPMMyOYQVae2Da3Z8PPK2gvjjtgx1o/edit#gid=0

Jonathan Hirschman Hi y'all

charliex evenin'

ZiggyInKC which is the proper spelling of "y'all"

Lutetium y'all

darryln that is correct.

goebish hi

billybob hi

Jonathan Hirschman OK, so I guess I should start answering questions....

Lucas Coelho Cavalheiro @Jonathan Hirschman what does the NG stands for?

sheffieldnick ST:NG ? :)

ZiggyInKC <cue music>

Jonathan Hirschman Hah. "Next Generation". We found that there's a big overlap between electronics folks and yes, ST:TNG

Jonathan Hirschman Most of our customers get it.

Lutetium Jonathan has an interesting background- could you tell us about it?

darryln
when i look at it, i see "pcb-ing" (and sitting)

Jonathan Hirschman Sure, happy to talk about myself :)

Jonathan Hirschman I sold my last business in 2010. I swore that I never wanted to write code or do sysadmin stuffs again.

Jonathan Hirschman And I wanted to learn how make things. Tangible stuff.

Kevin John has joined this room.12:10 PM

ross.mohan has joined this room.12:10 PM

Jonathan Hirschman So I taught myself some electronics, and then PCB Layout. I got pretty good at it, and was teaching engineers how to do PCB Layout by 2011.

Jonathan Hirschman They all had the same questions for me - how to I make my design?

Jonathan Hirschman That led me to just how horrible PCBA is (PCB Assembly).

Jonathan Hirschman So I sarted researching, and by 2014, I was ready to launch the company. Started raising money. That's a fun story :)

wes Hi all!

Lutetium hi Wes

Jonathan Hirschman PCB:NG shipped its first order in August 2015. We operated for our first year doing it the dumb way that the rest of the industry does it.

Jonathan Hirschman But we were takin notes and writing software...

Jonathan Hirschman And we launched our beta in July 2016.

Lutetium Let's talk about manufacturing PCBs! There's a few questions that people have on the sheet.

Lutetium sFirst up: How difficult is it to create flexible PCBs for prototyping?

Radomir Dopieralski "we will fix it in software" ;-)

ZiggyInKC "you can't hardware yourself out of a software problem"

Jonathan Hirschman It's very difficult. Anything do to with flexi is difficult and expensive. There are two options...

john701 Maybe you could give an idea of how to start. I've never had a pcb made.

Jonathan Hirschman First is to get something like the BotFactory Squink. So if you have $5k in pocket, that might work for you.

Jonathan Hirschman otherwise, make small PCBs with connectors and string them up with pre-cut FPC.

sako0938 Oh I wish I had that in the bank :)

Jonathan Hirschman Next question?

john701 how to start a first pcb?

0live I'd love to know what you used to teach yourself "some electronics"

darryln could you give an overview of how your assy process works?

James Murphy I'm looking for the Jonathan Hirschman Chat. Is this it?

Lucas Coelho Cavalheiro @Jonathan Hirschman so where is the PCBs manufactured and assembled? (for PCB:NG)

Jonathan Hirschman ok, let me talk about getting started.

Jonathan Hirschman So, best way to make your first PCB is to download some decent, but easy software,...
Read more »

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Discussions

p.shyamasunder wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:23

Hi Everyone. Should we be tuned to https://hackaday.io/event/26092-printed-circuit-board-pcb-manufacturing ? Just wanted to make sure that I have my setup (including audio) ready for the event. This is the first time I am attending a chat session here.

Are you sure? yes | no

Richard Hogben wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:48

Try here https://hackaday.io/messages/project/5373

Are you sure? yes | no

john701 wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:18

Sorry that I missed this chat. Any chance of a repeat?

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:20

you still have 40mins ... then it starts :)

Are you sure? yes | no

john701 wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:22

It says that my application is pending. Can I still get in?

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:31

I'm sure they will add everyone right before the chat starts, if not once in a while before.

Are you sure? yes | no

john701 wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:35

Thanks for the encouragement, davedarko. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Are you sure? yes | no

Richard Hogben wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:49

Invites are still going out, you'll want to be at this link when approved https://hackaday.io/messages/project/5373

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:43

you should be able to chat now :)

Are you sure? yes | no

john701 wrote 08/04/2017 at 18:56

Great and thanks. See you there!

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 07/31/2017 at 23:06

where can I get pink pcbs? Asking for a friend. A female one. I swear.

Are you sure? yes | no

Elecrow wrote 08/01/2017 at 03:04

Pink pcb is Special color, it would be very expensive. If there're no pink ink for pcb manufacturing currently. So we need to mix the ink to produce pink pcb, but it's not stable. And the cost is extremely high.

Are you sure? yes | no

davedarko wrote 08/01/2017 at 07:20

thanks for the info :)

Are you sure? yes | no

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