pcb group buy

after the interest in the group buy of circuit boards, i decided to check out prices. the only place that would give me a quote without having to register was [www.pcbexpress.com]

the boards we need are:

4 - universal control boards (we could make < 19"^2)
1 - power / comms board (we could make < 9"^2)

at the best price ratio on their site:

$940 / 100 = $9.40 * 4 = $37.60
$398 / 25 = $15.92

total per person: $53.52
*free shipping*
*no tax - internet!*

that would provide boards for 25 people.

it doesnt seem like a bad deal. you still need to buy components and solder... but that is a much easier task than etching =)

can anyone find a better deal?

i've used mouser's project feature and added all the parts to projects.

i bought the right amount of each project and it came out to be around $20 for all electronics per person.

total with boards is around $75.

final shipping per person would be super cheap in a padded envelope or something.


now... the only question is do we have enough interest?

=)

I think if anything the universal board is already too large.

19"^2 would be vast. Even 9"^2 for that is pretty big.

fantastic... with a manufactured board, everything can be much smaller. if we could get it down to a bunch of 9"^2 boards it would drop the price to $29.40 / board. that is pretty sweet.

total: $50 for electronics to run a reprap machine.

you still need steppers, belts, gears, etc but you're much closer and over the biggest hurdle of the project.

Count me in Zach, it's a really good initiative!
The same package deal for the steppers would be awesome.

cool. we need to get a couple things wrapped up before we start:

1. connecter part #'s on mouser. right now we're just using plain pcb headers which work, but they are not ideal. they dont have keys, and you have to make your own connectors. we need to figure out a better way. once thats out of the way, then we will be good to go.

2. figure out the board supplier. sebastien said he had some good leads, and if anyone else is willing to do research, please do. we'll probably want to make a decision within a week or two since we'll want this soon.

3. re-formatting the board for pcb manufacture. we need to get the size down to the optimum constraints of the manufacturer. for example, on pcbexpress, there are general prices for 1-9 square inches, 10-19, etc. this should be pretty simple, since for automated manufacture we can just position the modules and use kicad's autorouting features with the right parameters. about a 2-3 hour job to get everything right.

4. order a test board and assemble it. we dont want to spend $1500 to get a bunch of boards that dont work. that would really suck.

there may need to be other things before we go ahead with this, but i think we're pretty near. by the time we get this together and the boards are shipping, hopefully the darwin design will be finished and we'll be able to get reprapped parts kits out to everyone also.

okay, i looked up some prices on [www.4pcb.com]

here are their prices:

100 universal boards = $6.20 / ea. = $620
25 powercomms boards = $15.41 / ea. = $385
total = $1005

for a total of $40.21 per person. thats $10 cheaper. also, we would get a much nicer price break if we ordered more powercomms boards. unfortunately that board will probably change to usb for v2.0, so it doesnt make much sense to order it.

on the other hand, that one should be pretty simple to etch if people want to go that route. still, $40 for the boards isnt bad at all.

also, 4pcb.com offers $500 off your first order.... technically its for companies, but if we can do it through the RepRap nonprofit we can probably qualify. I'm in email communications with the guy. if that happens, then we could knock that even further down to $500 total, or $20 / person!!! that would be amazing and i could probably cover the cost of that order myself, then handle shipping / logistics.

wow... just got an email back from the guy. he gave me the promo code for $500 off. that means if we get 25 boards, it will be $20 / person for all the boards they need, $40 total for all the components they need. totally sweet! i'll be ordering some promo boards sometime this week to test, and if that works out and we cant find a cheaper place, lets use them!

I took a quick look at www.pcbnet.com. (They were highly recommended to me.)

It looks like it would cost $14/person, for 4 universals and 1 powercomms, 25 people in on the order, 2 weeks turnaround time. (This is _with_ factoring new customer deals.)

I'll doublecheck my math when I get back from class.

Zach, I sent you the details via email.

-Sebastien

You've got 25 people buying or are you building a parts inventory for when Darwin takes off?

wow, thats a really good rate. gotta love the open nature of reprap... many eyes make prices cheap =)

i'm going to investigate their process and i think we should go ahead with it soonish.

a little bit of both. we have interest from a decent amount of people in the forums and the blogs, and i'm personally interested in a couple sets of boards. it shouldnt be too hard to find homes for 25 sets of boards at a price under $50.

Zach
let me know i am in for a set of boards.

Bruce Watttendorf

Email me back so i can make arrangments.

thanks.

I just wanted to mention - when you have this near finalized it would be a good idea to send an e-mail the users@reprap.org list to let everyone who might have registered there and not followed the boards know about it.

good idea, i'll do that. i'm going to be doing a prototype board buy to test the manufactured boards. it may take up to a month to get those boards back, and then up to another month to get the final boards back.

its looking like 1-2 months at the earliest before we can have the final, production boards available. if anyone would like to get in on the prototype boards (aka boards that may or may not work...) please let me know. the design has been breadboarded and tested, but getting them manufactured has not. we (i) will guarantee the final boards, however. also, the prototype boards will be a bit pricey due to the limited quantities. :-/

Perhaps you should just etch them yourself. It's not very expensive or complicated to use photo etching, and you'll get the levels of detail you need to test the real designs without paying the price.

Status Update:

We've finished the layouts on the Universal and PowerComms boards. I'm waiting until Sunday for last minute suggestions / mods and then i'll be submitting an order to [www.batchpcb.com] a nice place that does group prototype pcb runs. I'm doing this to test the manufacturing process before I go and spend $1500 on a big buy. Apparently it takes 10-20 days max to get your boards back, so unfortunately it will be a little bit before I can get them assembled and fully tested.

If anyone else wants in on this buy, feel free to PM / email me. Keep in mind that theres a very small chance these boards wont work. Also, since they are one-off boards they are about 10x as expensive as the final boards will be. Its looking to be $25 + s/h for a Universal board and probably around $15 for a power/comms.

If all goes well, we'll be rolling in boards in early May.

Please count me in for the PCB buy if it's not too late. PM me with the price and whatever else you need

I'd be interested in two sets if the whole thing works out. Also would appreciate any help in getting as close as possible to a kit. The reason being I am in Australia and some stuff is just hard to source here. Can anyone help out on that?

Thanks

great! i'm ordering the boards this weekend, so they should be here in a few weeks. as far as electronics kits go, it boils down to a matter of money (and time). if i can swing it financially, i would be willing to buy the electronics in bulk and then shipping you the boards + required electronic components.

since the electronics ship faster than boards, i'll be able to save up and purchase some. stay tuned and hopefully i'll be able to assemble a decent reprap kit setup by the time the boards arrive.

Hi Zach,

Please count me in for the PCB buy if it's not too late. I'll be interested in buying 2 kits.
PM me with the price and whatever else you need.

Alex ;-)

Hi

if it's not too late I would join for kit too

I'd be interested in 2 sets as well.

Hi again,

actually I'd be interested in 2 sets as well. PLs send me PM with price and other requirements

nope its definitely not too late. even if i run out on the first batch of orders, this is only the beginning. there will definitely be a round 2, and a round 3.... and a round N.

Well, since this thread has become the de facto signup list for the PCB board group buy and by my count there have only been approx. 14 orders so far, put me in for a set.

EDIT my email is kylecorbitt AT gmail DOT com, I think I set my privacy so that that doesn't show up automatically.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2007 07:49PM by Kyle Corbitt.

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-Kyle

I am also interested in a set,
I just cought wind of this project and am very interested.
Please e-mail me with the cost and payment method.

Thanks

-Paul

I'm in for a set as well.

Sebastien

I am definitely interested in a set.

-Scott

I think I can budget this. If it's still not too late, where do I send the check? Or do you/they take PayPal?