Update 23rd of October
Aisler now offers free shipping!
Please keep in mind that I was able to participate in some test runs and beta tests, some anecdotes are hidden in this write up. They're definitely safe to try out :)
I've met @Felix Plitzko at the MakerFaire Hannover this year and we've talked about boards that AISLER has already made for the company I work for. Felix told me he likes the #LAMEBOY and offered me a free round of boards and a metal stencil to compare. Here is an overview of their service compared to OSH Park. They don't make it a secret that OSH Park is definitely an inspiration.
OSH Park | AISLER | |
Prices for shipping to and buying in Germany | 20.24€ * | 22.17€
|
Boards | 3 | 3 |
Layer parameters | 2 (0.8mm, 1.6mm) 4 (1.6mm) | 2 (1.6mm) 4 layers in beta |
Design Rules | 6mil trace clearance 6mil trace width 10mil drill size 5mil annular ring | 4mil trace clearance 4mil trace width 8mil drill size 10+drill size mil min pad |
color of PCBs | purple | olive green (sadly not orange) |
Finish | ENIG | ENIG |
Design file support | eagle, KiCad, gerber | eagle, KiCad, fritzing, gerber |
production time | 12 calendar days + shipping | 12 days + shipping |
*no tolls bc below import tax minimum and with free shipping
The first picture shows a round of the first version of Lameboy, some parts are replaced now or moved or deleted (kind of sad about the steel stencil). I swear I replaced the OSH Park logo on the AISLER boards with an AISLER appropriate text, but I must have mixed files up. You can see a yellow "x- out" sticker, where I currently have no idea what it means, but the board's pads look pretty pierced, may be from electrical testing? The typical "byte marks" on the OSH Park boards (7 here) are sometimes slightly in the board, AISLER gives you a clean bulge.
In the second round of the OSH Park boards (as seen on the right of the following image) there are no errors in the silkscreen though.
The stencil of AISLER is looking pretty good, position it right and you can see only gold.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the quality of the boards since day one, but I also had some bad luck with orders. On my very first run of boards for the company I work for, I had the ground plane peeking out next to every pin, never happened with any other board manufacturer but was my fault and I could have seen it in the high resolution renders on the page. Since then they did a lot of magic to process the boards before they go in production. They seem to constantly update and upgrade their services and product, which is great if you think about it, but it might happen that you get a wild outline or your order of a "non public test run of steel stencils" (!) gets lost in an excel file :D (they don't use excel for that, now that it's public!!) But as with OSH Park the staff is communicative and interested in how they can improve and make it easier for you to make things. They're also in the process of adding PCB assembly to their services.
Their page gives you version management and the option to change board designs up until manufacturing begins, something that one person or another might miss in OSH Park (although production at OSH Park starts way sooner due to higher demand and a nice mail to support@oshpark.com might fix file problems). If they manage to nail the "order 3 complete prototypes" then AISLER would win the hearts by a lot of people, IMHO.
Discussions
Become a Hackaday.io Member
Create an account to leave a comment. Already have an account? Log In.
thanks for the review!
For all readers of this review, I'm Felix from AISLER, so feel free to ask me anything.
Are you sure? yes | no
Sure! I feel a bit bad because it took me a while, but am relieved that I finally did it :)
Are you sure? yes | no
Don't be! It's done ;-) No reason to feel bad!
Are you sure? yes | no