Macrofab: an interesting find and we'll see where it takes us; - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2015, 03:51:44 am
content: I ran into an interesting company called Macrofab (https://macrofab.com/) last week, when i was chatting to someone on the #eevblog irc channel. They do a full turn pcb+assembly service, and are based out of Houston, Texas.I was a bit "yeah-right" on this, when they claimed they would be competively priced with china/asia pricing for their work.. but they have developed some very smart online tools for you to upload your gerbers / boms and placment data, and it seems they have been able to otpimise their build process extremely well. THings like a MY-500 solder paste printer blah blah..The Online tools took a bit of learning, theres a few things that are not 100% inuative, and they dont' have native support for Altium, so i had to do some maniiplation of my files to get them into a useable state.. Once you get your files in, there is a placement checker so you can check your parts are all aligned up and roated correclty.. ( i guess they get you to do that so they dont' ahve to ). I've had them pretty much supply all the parts for the board ( apart from one hard to get part which i'll ship in to them ) . They buy from all the same places we do ( mouser/dk etc et c). Just specify the manufacturers part number and they seem to find it.The only downside is their engine today only accepts 2 layer PCB's, but they do 4 layers, you just have to get them to manually process them. ( via email ).When i saw the pricing i was very pleasantly suprised, its going to work out a bit cheaper than i coudl buy the parts, pcbs, stencils ex asia and assemble it myself. And it will arrive finished, and ready to work on.The proof will be in the delivery of course, but i'll let you know how it goes.Disclaimer: I have no interest in Macrofab and are not receiving any payment in cash or kind. I am just a customer who thinks this looks good.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2015, 03:52:06 am
content: Empty so i can write some notes at the top here over time.

author: Royce
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2015, 04:37:52 pm
content: I bought a Neutrino (http://rabidprototypes.com/product/neutrino/), which was made at MacroFab and it seems like a fine board. I believe the designer reported having a good experience. I'll be interested to read about your experience.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2015, 01:21:39 am
content: I used them once to build a single ARM PRO MINI. The process is quite impressive and you can play with the order configuration online and see how it affects the price. Also, I was able to find all the part in their database.On the down side:* Price per part is seems arbitrary, even for very similar parts. If you want to work for them, design the BOM in advance based on pricing in their catalog (both part and placement prices).* My board has two microswitches. I specified one part number but they install another part number (different color and different force to press)* The micro USB SMD connector had two pads shorted. Easily visible in visual inspection.* Pay attention to delivery time. It was longer that it takes me when I order PCBs and assemble myself.Overall the PCB and build quality was good and I fixed the board myself rather sending it back to them.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2015, 01:40:50 am
content: Quote from: zapta on December 08, 2015, 01:21:39 amSo far, so good. They have been extremely responsive in answering a lot of questions i've had. ANd i'm asking for stuff that is not standard. The delivery time frame is a challenge, but part of that, i'm sure is due to the fact that they are consolidated orders between customers.. that will push the windows out.The short is not a good start!

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2015, 01:03:23 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on December 08, 2015, 01:40:50 amTo clarify, it was a solder bridge.