Makerbot GEN4 PCBs

I have been looking to get PCBs for the makerbot GEN4 electronics made or for purchase and didn't have any luck finding anything until this week. Looks like the guy behind cubely has a kickstarter up for a batch order: [www.kickstarter.com] . $49 seems a little steep but it is a lot of separate boards. Is anyone aware of any other sources for the PCBs only? The pricing on having them made was worse than $49 from seed studio, advanced or batchpcb based on instant quoting.

Thanks.

PCBs in small quantities are expensive period. 49 is as good as you are gonna do for complete set of Makerbot "Gen4" boards most likely, unless there was ~20 people who wanted sets of them. The fab house I use can get the "3.3 Stepper driver" down to $5.45 each if I was to order 20, but it would be ~30 bucks each for 3... as in almost the same total cost in that area... the problem with the Makerbot electronics is that PCB traces are TIGHT clearances, so many fab houses that cater to "prototype" quantities won't run them. All of the electronics since Gen3 are difficult in that fashion. The RAMPS board is easier than many to fab, but the silkscreen in the eagle files overruns some of the holes, causing it to not pass many fab house's "Design Rule Check"(DRC) scripts, although the RAMPS board could reasonably be fabbed using the toner transfer method, etc.

Do you have research and development goals with the Gen4 or are you just looking to get a machine running, or upgrading an existing machine? I am an electronics guy, not yet a Reprap electronics guy , but the advice that I have heard is that all development on the RepRap side of the house is going to Gen6/RAMPS.

This all being said, I have a couple of designs(not related to RepRap) that are going into production in a month or two, and I could add some to a panel that is to be fabbed, or if enough interest, run a panel of this stuff... Gen3/4 stepper drivers are ~6 square inches for example, and I would have to hit ~150 square inches total to make it economical. Unless there was interest in a complete panel, I would have space for 1-2 sets of the big stuff for gen4(Shield/Stepper Drivers/Extruder Controller) on a panel that would order around March 15 and would be received by me around April 1 in the Southeastern US. You would pay actual cost(I would know that order day but approx $1.00-$1.50 per square inch) and actual shipping from my house to you.

PCB Fab houses to note:

List of a variety of fabs:
[www.massmind.org]

BatchPCB:
[batchpcb.com]

Laen/DorkbotPDX:
[pcb.laen.org]
Laen coordinates a group buy of PCBs about every two weeks. They use a fab house that is very quick, I believe in the US(RARE!), and does EXCELLENT quality work. Expect some variation in board COLOR(He has been looking for a custom blend, now supposed to be finalized on purple), and some variation in finishing(Most of the time HASL, got some from him the other day that were immersion gold instead). He charges $5 per square inch but gives you THREE copies of the board. I use this service for all small prototypes and can't say enough good things. Completely replaced BatchPCB in my book.

Gold Phoenix:
[www.goldphoenixpcb.biz]
Gold Phoenix is the fab behind the BatchPCB service. Linked is their 150 square inch prototype deal, about as good as it gets for what we would consider medium volume.

Just my $.02

J

Thanks for all that info. I decided to go with the kickstarter. I currently have the GEN3 electronics on a hybrid machine and there are some much nicer features on the GEN4. I agree that $49 is the best pricing there is going to be for that, I quoted the full set at some of those you mentioned and several others and they all came back much higher.

Thanks.