[Lab] PCB Assembly Companies

[Paul & Andrea Mumby]

I've done business with a couple companies that were alright to deal with:
Circuit Center in markham area http://circuits-central.com/
and BrioConcept in Quebec http://brioconcept.com/

Both were excellent to deal with, and were willing to do prototype work
(small volumes 1-10 units). But they did charge significantly more for
prototype work.

Another local Ottawa shop is GS Networks, which is more an assembly/cabling
shop, but they have the ability to sub out manufacturing, and handle later
assembly themselves. They are great to deal with, but not sure they will be
interested in a one-off.

I was dealing with them from a business/manufacturing perspective, so I was
prototyping product which I then went on to manufacture thousands of units
of.

Their shop is full service, so handles PCB fab, parts procurement, and
assembly. You can provide specialty parts yourself, and/or they can source
them.
(In my products I had some custom ASICs we produced, so we provided those
ASICs and they sourced everything else, there was an OLED panel on one
product which was hard to source, but once we made the introduction with
our supplier, they handled sourcing them directly, and just billed us one
final price per unit which was convenient.)

To give you an idea on price:
Custom product, 4 layer board, 14cm x 20cm, with several custom ASICs (BGA
packages) and approx 100 other SMT components, and custom board outline.
approx $300 per board including all parts costs (minus custom ASIC), fab
and assembly, for 16 prototype units.
approx $100 per board in quantities over 1000.

Another custom product on 2 layer board, 12cm x 50cm with a mix of through
hole and SMT components (both sides of board)
Approx $2000 per board, including all parts cost, fab and assembly. for 1
prototype unit.
Approx $1000 per board for 10 prototype units
About $250 per board for quantities over 1000.

Of course this is relative to my parts cost and other factors, so your
mileage may vary (and these are prices based on a longer term business
relationship) but hopefully this helps.

- Paul

On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 12:23 AM, Joseph Michael Sleiman <
jslei033 at uottawa.ca> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I need to have a 10cm x 10cm, 2 layer, board made and assembled.
>
> I would do this by hand, but there are at least 128 SMD/SMT components to
> solder (all on one side). Does anyone have recommendations for a shop that
> can do this? I would do them myself, but I don't have the tools or the
> skills required (they're just 1206 SMD LED).
>
> I was hoping Seeed would do them, but they refused to allow any external
> components during the assembly phase. All the places I'm finding assemble
> in USA/Canada and want >$500+ to assemble this, which is outrageous if
> that's my only option.
>
> Ideally I'd want a place to manufacture and assemble. I'd settle for a
> place I'd send the boards to and have them assemble (isn't this all done
> via machines/robots now?). I'd equally settle on paying someone locally to
> do it, but I can't afford to pay you much (I'm just a student and this
> isn't a for-profit project).
>
> So... Any suggestions? :(
>
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