Can we get some schematics in pcbexpress formats?

All -

It's a great thing that there are so many ardent hardware hackers here doing designs and producing parts. But, it can be hard for those of us without proper tools to get circuit boards built, and many of you who make these boards don't want to become hardware manufacturers.

So, here's a solution. There's a PC board prototyping service called pcbexpress.com (I have no affiliation or relationship with them, I just think it's a good idea). They let you download a circuit design program and then you upload the board layout and masks to them.

Then depending on the service you order you can get printed boards made up by them and delivered. Their "miniboard" service costs $59 including shipping, and gets you three boards in your pattern. Bigger boards or those with more layers can cost more according to their web site.

But, if some of the hardware folks here could post a pcbexpress file for their projects created using the free software, then those of us who want to build the projects can just send pcbexpress the file and get our own boards shipped right to us.

The web site is http://www.expresspcb.com/ - check it out and post here with your opinions of this idea.

Also post if you know of other similar services that are cheaper, especially if they can deal with circuits in PDF files as seem to be posted here.

Thanks,
Erik

A PCBexpress file-sharing thread. I say it's a good idea. I only wish I had something to contribute. The only problem I see is this... I get your file, and have it made. Well it's going to cost me $60 to do it, then I have 3 of them when I (hopefully) only need one.

You get three boards with the mini-board service, so find two friends here. If you order ten four layer boards with pretty silkscreen masks at a time, the price breaks down to about 25 bucks still, so group buys actually work better...

Another option to consider - Eagle CAD (its free for small board sizes) and I can get the boards made anywhere - for that I use http://www.apcircuits.com/ for prototype and http://www.pcbexpress.com/ or http://pcbpro.com/ for production - depending on quantity.

The boards I buy now cost me less than $1.50 each - probably won't get that price with expresspcb.

They are giving away the software, but realize that you can't use their software to get boards made anywhere else, so its fine if all you are ever doing is just a couple of boards. But if you ever want to run a bunch of boards, then you are better off not using them and go with Eagle.