[CLOSED] - Stumptown Miners - Avalon PCB Assembly - West Coast USA

[Orianna]

Yes, it seems extremely pricey! I could rent a small pick and place machine, solder stencil applicator, and reflow oven for a month for less than that. I'm looking at the possibility of doing just that right now...

I'm also in the Northwest (Seattle-Tacoma area) and would like to support your effort.  There is a PCB manufacturer in Vancouver, WA that you more than likely already know of, but I believe you can rent out their space to do this very thing. 

If you haven't yet reached out to the Dorkbot folks in Portland they could probably point you towards the most cost effective direction.  I'm sure they know of more local old school 'make and bake' places that might not even have a web presence.   

I'm about 2.5 hours away from PDX, so just like the other locals count me in for the assist as well. 

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[ryepdx]

Thanks for the cautionary tale! Definitely was considering doing a DIY import, but might just leave it to FedEx overnight shipping after reading that.

Also, I've finally gotten in touch with the Canadian BkkCoins was telling me about. He claims he can deliver finished boards within 24 hours or so of receiving all the parts. He also says he can produce the K16s at a rate of 100 per day. His preliminary quote, based on the current board design, is $75 per board for assembly.

He also has a supplier in Taipei who can fabricate the boards for $9 each with 10-12 day turnaround. Given that I can do the same thing domestically for just a little more and with less turnaround, I may do that, or else go with a Canadian fabrication company as well. I'll be looking into prices on that side of the border now that I seem to have found a viable assembly option.

I'm also in the Northwest (Seattle-Tacoma area) and would like to support your effort.  There is a PCB manufacturer in Vancouver, WA that you more than likely already know of, but I believe you can rent out their space to do this very thing.

Could you PM me a name? I haven't heard anything about being able to rent equipment/space from any of the companies I've contacted so far. Thanks!

If you haven't yet reached out to the Dorkbot folks in Portland they could probably point you towards the most cost effective direction.  I'm sure they know of more local old school 'make and bake' places that might not even have a web presence.  

Good call. I'll get in touch with them.

I'm about 2.5 hours away from PDX, so just like the other locals count me in for the assist as well.

Much appreciated! :-)

[ruddick83]

looks like doors are opening and we can pursue getting this done locally ourselves as opposed to terra doing it.  If you get the name of the place in vancouver let me know im in vancouver.

[ruddick83]

http://www.pcbuniverse.com/
may be worth a shot, east vancouver.

[ruddick83]

Also maybe check this out

http://oshpark.com/

[bitpop]

On the other hand, I WOULD like my chips messed up during assembly.

[BigZee]

There is a manufacturing company in Calgary that my school dealt with for robotics, I've emailed them for a quote.

[jspielberg]

I looked at these guys a week or so back (by following some sparkfun links) and it looked like they charge $10/square inch.  Seemed like it might be a decent price for low volume, but expensive if looking at a large run (but I don't know anything... so take it with a grain of salt).

Also maybe check this out

http://oshpark.com/

[TomKeddie]

I've finally gotten in touch with the Canadian BkkCoins was telling me about.

Is this Colin Fitzgerald you're talking about?   I emailed with him a few weeks back about a small personal run of these boards.  He'll be at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire in early June, seems to know his stuff.

[ryepdx]

Is this Colin Fitzgerald you're talking about?   I emailed with him a few weeks back about a small personal run of these boards.  He'll be at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire in early June, seems to know his stuff.

Yup, that's him! How'd you find him?

[TomKeddie]

Is this Colin Fitzgerald you're talking about?   I emailed with him a few weeks back about a small personal run of these boards.  He'll be at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire in early June, seems to know his stuff.

Yup, that's him! How'd you find him?

"How'd you find him?"

Not sure if you're asking me, how I know him or how did I find his work!

Colin is on the local hackerspace mailing list and has answered various SMT questions from people like me over the last few years.  I got into a thread with BkkCoins about him being from BC and mentioned I had asked Colin about just doing my Avalon asics for me (I was thinking of hand soldering the rest but given they're 0402, seems unlikely).  I guess Bkk forwarded the stuff to you that Colin sent me - I pointed him at Bkk's threads and github.

So in summary, I think Colin is genuine person who is very helpful and seems to know a lot about SMT.  I've not used his operation for anything.  You can see some of his posts at https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/VancouverHackSpace/colin$20fitzgerald

Unfortunately he is located about 11 hours drive east of here in Kimberley (north of Montana, not north of Washington) so visiting him is not really an option.  I am hoping to meet him in a few weeks at the local Maker Faire.  I suspect his location makes him somewhat competitive (rural areas have lower costs).  I also suspect that since the business is fairly new he might be more available.

One other thought, have a chat to Paul from pjrc.com, he is OR based and seems to have a lot of experience with SMT production houses.  I worked with him years ago on his mp3 player, a smart guy.

[OtaconEmmerich]

Still waiting on news on the K1/Nano miner prices, I can wait till you can figure out who will have the cheaper prices for the K16's but don't wait too long! I'll be getting about 4-10 chips depending on prices. I hope I don't have to wait too long for Batch 3 chips..(should have gotten in on batch 2 but I wasn't sure about ROI/Production yet)

Maybe in a week or so we locals can meet up and chat over drinks? I'd be up for that.

[ryepdx]

http://www.pcbuniverse.com/
may be worth a shot, east vancouver.

Thanks. I'll take a look at both of your links.

There is a manufacturing company in Calgary that my school dealt with for robotics, I've emailed them for a quote.

Excellent. Much appreciated!

Not sure if you're asking me, how I know him or how did I find his work!

Both, basically. He wasn't on my radar until BkkCoins brought him up, and then for you to guess his name right off the bat...



Thanks for giving your endorsement, too. It's good to know I'm working with someone who knows his stuff. :-)

Unfortunately he is located about 11 hours drive east of here in Kimberley (north of Montana, not north of Washington)

Oh man, I didn't realize he was that far away. Will still go with him if I can't find anything nearly as competitive, but dealing with someone so far away is bound to mess with turnaround. :-/

One other thought, have a chat to Paul from pjrc.com, he is OR based and seems to have a lot of experience with SMT production houses.  I worked with him years ago on his mp3 player, a smart guy.

I'll definitely do that. It would be awesome if I could manage working with someone more local than Colin. I'm sure he's a great guy, but I'd really like to do face-to-face pickup to expedite orders getting out, and trying to cross the Canadian border with a trunk full of miners sounds like it could end up being a lot of trouble. :-3

[ryepdx]

Met with the representative from the Corvallis plant today. Nothing new was said. They repeated that they'll get a quote to me at some point. I guess they just wanted to place a face with the name. :-/

[evilscoop]

best price ive got so far for europe version is equiv to 96$/board ~ + vat so call it 100$

looks like our pricings are coming out similar
Though mine include the assembler printing the pcb and getting the parts (but not the asic chips)

[ScaryHash]

I just talked to a local to me assembly guy, and his best price would have been $200 a board, just for assembly.

So, these prices are looking pretty good.

As for other factors, I'm still waiting on my 32 chips from Steamboat, but so is everybody else.

I'd be interested to see what he's doing for his assembly as well.

As for Terrahash...the jury is still out on that one...

[drewh]

> I guess the question now is, how much of a premium are you guys willing to pay for fast turnaround?

I guess that question is best asked right before the orders are placed, when we have a better idea what the difficulty rate is and what the time is worth.

[bigbeninlondon]

I have 20 chips coming from ragingazn, so would like 1xk16 and 4xk1's.  Any word on the k1's?

[ryepdx]

Though mine include the assembler printing the pcb and getting the parts (but not the asic chips)

Ah, that's pretty good then. With me, it's probably going to be about $20-$26 for parts, plus $9 for the bare board (if we use Colin's Taipei supplier), which comes out to $104-$110. A bit more expensive than yours. With the volume increase since he made his quote, I expect the price to drop, though I'm not sure how much. He doesn't want to give any more quotes until we've got the finalized PCB design and parts list.

I have 20 chips coming from ragingazn, so would like 1xk16 and 4xk1's.  Any word on the k1's?

No word on the K1s yet. I've finally got the specs I need to get a quote, though, so I'll contact Colin and see if he's willing to give us just *one* more quote.

> I guess the question now is, how much of a premium are you guys willing to pay for fast turnaround?

I guess that question is best asked right before the orders are placed, when we have a better idea what the difficulty rate is and what the time is worth.

True facts. To that end, I won't be opening escrow until we're closer to Avalon's projected shipping date.

[DPoS]

I can be in for two k16's

any thought on doing his nano 1 usbs?

I have some extra chips for those if you are