DorkbotPDX people doing strange things with electricity

An extra (small) fee really doesn't matter much, be it per design file, per set of 3, or whatever. However, it is nice to keep the billing simple. The only thing that would really suck is if extra fees were calculated in some non-obvious way and turned out to be a surprise after boards were already made. Well, it'd also suck if small fees added up in a way to make tiny boards cost prohibitive (as they sort-of do at BatchPCB.... but the main problem there is the incredibly long wait time).

I've ordered LOTS of boards on Laen's group order, ranging from very tiny (those 15 single LEDs in the light table), many about 0.5 to 3 sq inch, and a few moderately size at 7-8 sq inch. On the order with those boards for the light table, I believe I had a total of 5 different designs. All my boards have been sized based only on their technical requirements.

It's certainly not my intention to "sink" the group order. Quite the opposite!

In fact, I'm making "free kits", where I pay for a set of 15 to 24 (fairly tiny) boards + parts, and give them out for free to anyone willing to build within a month. My main motivation is to avoid placing a burden on Laen to bill and ship to a dozen tiny orders, while sharing these designs with everyone in the group. Likewise with the regular parts order, since splitting up dozens of cheap SMT parts which come on strips has been a huge burden when lots of people want to build the same board, which is why it's a kit with the PCB plus all misc parts. I'm paying for ALL the costs for everyone.... but since these group orders make tiny boards and small quantities of parts affordable, it doesn't work out too badly, and if even a few people end up buying me a beer maybe it'll kind of work out about even?

I really do hope this thing can continue. Maybe imposing a $10 minimum order would help on those very small single-board orders? I'm sure if someone's designed a tiny 0.5 sq inch board, it's not a huge leap to just bump up the quantity up 12 pieces to meet the minimum? Maybe that'll help fill the panel?

But really, some free "advertising" is what's needed. Maybe sites like Hackaday could help?

Are Are there any plans to place a 4 layer (2 layers plus ground/power planes) order in the near future?

A google brought me to a link of PCB fab places, which brought me here. I need some help in getting pricing together and checking my designs to make sure they will pass the DRC. I'm using FreePCB to make the layout so the Eagle DRC isn't of much help. What I can tell you is that I used 6mil traces, 6mil spacing, 0.020 drill vias with 32mil diameter around them. Something like 0.042 drills for most other holes (AP Circuits standard drill sizes). 2 layers, need solder mask both sides and maybe silk screen both sides. There are two rectangular square corner boards that are each 2.5x1.75 inches (top board and bottom board) that I need to have made. There may be a third board for a USB to TTL serial adapter that I can probably squeeze out by the next deadline (August 2). So basically can someone get back to me to get me up to speed? I looked for an email and couldn't find one. Files will be gerber .gbr for all layers unless instructed to rename them like Batch PCB requires. As far as number of boards desired, some of that will be up to the price, looking for something a little cheaper than AP Circuits. The boards are just about ready to generate gerbers, I just need to check them and make sure everything routed correctly and toss together the third design for the USB. Is Paypal and accepted payment method?

Sorry for all the questions. Greg

Thanks, he got back to me and my designs are now sent, hopefully they help turn the tide toward breaking even.