DirtyPCB v. OshPark

For my most recent PCB order, I decided to have a race between DirtyPCB and OshPark to see which PCB delivery was fastest.

The two PCBs are now delivered and OshPark took 11 days while DirtyPCB took 9 days.

But it's not an entirely apples-to-apples comparison. DirtyPCB cost me $41 for 30 (the minimum number at the lowest price point) and was 2 days quicker. OshPark's minimum was 3, was slightly slower, but at $18 was $23 cheaper!

So, which service to use depends on what you want, but I think OshPark might be cheaper for my next lot of prototyping where I only need a few test boards and a couple of days doesn't really matter.

Discussions

AVR wrote 05/04/2018 at 14:08

OSHPark has a high end fab and super high resolution for the silkscreen, I go with them for the quality mostly.

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Frank Buss wrote 05/04/2018 at 08:59

I use https://pcbshopper.com to find the lowest price with shipping. If you have a 10 cm x 10 cm board, OSHPark is too expensive. 5 boards (minimum number of boards) of this size with ENIG costs $25.84 at Elecrow, with cheapest shipping option (3-4 weeks). At OSHPark it costs 3 times as much, and you get only 3 boards. And if you need 30 boards, shipping cost doesn't matter, so other services are less expensive as well. But OSHPark is perfect for smaller boards, if you need only 3, because of the free shipping option.

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davedarko wrote 05/04/2018 at 08:06

"$41 for 30" - is that a typo or did you really get 30 pcbs from dirtypcbs? does that mean 1,36 usd per board vs. 6usd per board?

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ActualDragon wrote 05/04/2018 at 12:02

wouldn't doubt it, dirtypcbs are dirt cheap XD

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davedarko wrote 05/04/2018 at 12:52

but then there's no argument about dp being cheaper than osh. unless you look orderwise...

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Tim Wilkinson wrote 05/04/2018 at 15:51

Yes, that's how many I got for $41. But I don't need that many for this prototype run, so mostly they'll go unused.

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deʃhipu wrote 05/04/2018 at 18:06

Here's a thought: next time you order boards that will mostly go unused, add solder pads in the corners — this way you can solder boxes out of them later.

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ActualDragon wrote 05/04/2018 at 18:09

@ðeshipu, that's a pretty sweet idea, i'll have to try that out

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deʃhipu wrote 05/04/2018 at 07:43

Also, the DirtyPCB one is HASL and default green, while OSHPark is ENIG in pretty purple. Based on your photo, OSHPark also seems to have a higher resolution silkscreen and better holes alignment (you can see that on the socket in the lower right).

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Jan wrote 05/04/2018 at 11:50

True. I had trouble with the HASL finish from DirtyPCB, it's annoying to solder these sometimes (even using good, expensive flux paste and good solder).
OSHPark enig finish is amazing quality and very easy to solder.

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Ted Yapo wrote 05/04/2018 at 12:03

This gets worse as the HASL boards sit around for a while. ENIG ages much more slowly.

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Tim Wilkinson wrote 05/04/2018 at 15:53

They charge an extra $15 for ENIG but I'm willing to do without for test boards.

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RoBonnet v0.4 - boards received

RoBonnet v0.4 - Power test

Discussions

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