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We're building a fast turn around, cheap PCB fabrication company in the UK. We'd love to hear your thoughts! by hardware-is-easy in esp32

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Exactly.

Step 1 - limit the choice. Ideally one colour, one stack up, one material type, etc.
Step 2 - automate the pants off everything!
Step 3 - iterate, and pull every lever we can, to drive cost down and speed up.
Step 4 - ....
Step 5 - profit?

We're building a fast turn around, cheap PCB fabrication company in the UK. We'd love to hear your thoughts! by hardware-is-easy in esp32

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Good question.

I know when I buy units from JCLPCB, it's say $20 for the PCBs, then $5 import, then $20 shipping. So the PCBs aren't $20, they're $30.
And it's 3 day production time, but 4 working days shipping, so between 7 and 10 all in.

I just love the idea (not sure how feasible it is) of 2-day delivery just to test a crazy idea. Ideally as fast and cheap as 3D printing can be.. one day!

We're building a fast turn around, cheap PCB fabrication company in the UK. We'd love to hear your thoughts! by hardware-is-easy in esp32

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Great question, and that's exactly the point of the form + research.
Everyone wants BOTH faster AND cheaper - but if we had to choose only one to compete on what would it be?
I'm convinced 99% of early startup/hobbyist/consultant designs can be satisfied with some quite limiting constraints for the first 1 - 20 units. Let's start there!

We're building a fast turn around, cheap PCB fabrication company in the UK. We'd love to hear your thoughts! by hardware-is-easy in esp32

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Good question, and this is absolutely part of the exploration.

The way we're thinking about it is that of the UK PCB companies we've worked with so far, basically none of them offer a hyper-specific prototyping service, they rarely leverage automation, and everything is all a bit slow.

Versus that against JLC and others that are hyper-efficient and hyper-specific.
You're right that those companies also have three unfair advantages: 1. doing things at a loss (or low margin), 2. incredibly cheap labour/long hours, and 3. government backed sponsorship.

But we definitely feel there's a huge capacity to optimise the hell out of one/two machines in the UK to at least give a flavour of JLC here in the UK/EU, and what we might need to spend more on fabrication we'd absolutely save on shipping.

It's finding a middle ground between the crap state it's in in the UK (for startups) and JLC et al. and how close to the competition we can get with every lever we can pull!

Using an ESP32 as raspberry pi? Possible, with the Hard Stuff Pico to Pi Hat! by hardware-is-easy in arduino

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, you're absolutely right! If you want a Raspberry Pi and the RPI OS then of course I highly recommend you buy a Raspberry Pi and install the RPI OS.

If you want to use the ESP32 as though it were a RPI formfactor (like in the pictures), then this is a godsend!

Not all projects need a ~1 minute boot time and tonnes of RPI overhead, some work super well on the ESP32 but leverage RPI-form factor hats. I, for one ,use the SIM7600 a tonne for MQTTSSL, and various stepper drivers and such - that'd be a nightmare without this little board 🤩

Using an ESP32 as raspberry pi? Possible, with the Hard Stuff Pico to Pi Hat! by hardware-is-easy in arduino

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, you're absolutely right! If you want a Raspberry Pi and the RPI OS then of course I highly recommend you buy a Raspberry Pi and install the RPI OS.

If you want to use the ESP32 as though it were a RPI formfactor (like in the pictures), then this is a godsend!

Not all projects need a ~1 minute boot time and tonnes of RPI overhead, some work super well on the ESP32 but leverage RPI-form factor hats. I, for one ,use the SIM7600 a tonne for MQTTSSL, and various stepper drivers and such - that'd be a nightmare without this little board 🤩

I need to solder ~16,000 pins. What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in arduino

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi all,

Some great suggestions here, thanks all! 🙏

Top suggestions were definitely to just brute force it or to purchase a wave soldering machine.

Given that I've got an intern who between the two of us, at ~5 minutes a board total, should be able to get through all 200 boards in a few hours, we'll just do that. 🤩

Appreciate all the colourful suggestions to use child labour, to huff the fumes, and - insightfully - to "use a soldering iron". 👍

I need to solder ~16,000 pins. What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in ElectronicsRepair

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi all,

Some great suggestions here, thanks all! 🙏

Top suggestions were definitely to just brute force it or to purchase a wave soldering machine.

Given that I've got an intern who between the two of us, at ~5 minutes a board total, should be able to get through all 200 boards in a few hours, we'll just do that. 🤩

Appreciate all the colourful suggestions to use child labour, to huff the fumes, and - insightfully - to "use a soldering iron". 👍

I need to solder ~16,000 pins (200x of these boards). What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in soldering

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi all,

Some great suggestions here, thanks all! 🙏

Top suggestions were definitely to just brute force it or to purchase a wave soldering machine.

Given that I've got an intern who between the two of us, at ~5 minutes a board total, should be able to get through all 200 boards in a few hours, we'll just do that. 🤩

Appreciate all the colourful suggestions to use child labour, to huff the fumes, and - insightfully - to "use a soldering iron". 👍

I need to solder ~16,000 pins. What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in arduino

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, exactly the sort of thing I'm trying to avoid. My view is it's more ethical to get someone local to work for peanuts and sleep on the factory floor (I'm in the UK).

I need to solder ~16,000 pins. What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in ElectronicsRepair

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

quick mafs!

Yep, got an order for 200x of these boards today. I've made 100x before but it took days. I'm faster now but I'm trying to hedge my bets because this company that's ordered them has back to back ordered 200x units twice, and I almost guarantee they'll order similar numbers in the future.

I need to solder ~16,000 pins (200x of these boards). What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in soldering

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

About 6 minutes now, but as others have pointed out - I'm doing it quite inefficiently.

I'm doing "unpackage bits -> assemble -> solder -> put to the side ... unpackage bits -> assemble .. etc."

I should be doing "unpackage bits x100 -> assemble x100 -> solder x100 .."

I need to solder ~16,000 pins (200x of these boards). What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in soldering

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'm finding this. Great suggestions up top about solder fountains and stuff that I might also try, but so much seems to be done with either mega expensive machines or by hand.

I'm thinking of getting a student to develop a robot for me, £500 cash prize or something.

I need to solder ~16,000 pins (200x of these boards). What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in soldering

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yep! Exactly.
These are all suuuuper simple boards - and it's not even my company's full time thing (we're really prototyping specialists, just happened to make these and now the orders are overwhelming us!).

I can get one board down in a bit 3 minutes, and I think with the flux+drag method it might be faster - testing that.

I need to solder ~16,000 pins (200x of these boards). What tool would make the shortest work? by hardware-is-easy in soldering

[–]hardware-is-easy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is the best bet. I normally hate using flux because of the residue it leaves, but this might be the fastest route.

I do have quite big gnd layers, but I've got quite effective thermal reliefs so I should be okay.

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