What can I say about BatchPCB... I submitted my design 10 Feb 2011, and received the boards on 2 Mar 2011. They were actually available on 1 Mar, but I didn't check my email early enough in the day
Waiting for the boards is part of the fun, I guess. Not a lot of feedback, there are only about 4 points in the process that are notified.
I needed one of each of the bridge and engine room boards. I ordered two copies, and got two copies of each of my copies. Two copies of two copies of two boards equals a total of 8 boards. I was surprised to get two copies of each thing I ordered, as I did not see this mentioned anywhere on the site. Now that I have four of each board, I am happy that I do.
The boards are faithful reproductions of my design. About half of them had really thin, sharp silkscreening, and the other half were quite a bit bolder but a little bit fuzzier. At one place on all four copies of the bridge board, the soldermask is a bit thin, and on one copy, the copper shows through.
All the boards worked as designed with no green wires, thanks both to my accurate design and BatchPCB's accurate reproduction of the design. This doesn't count the design flaws mentioned below, or the ultrasonic rangefinder I am going to wire to the bridge as an altimeter.
If I were to do it again, I would order from Dorkbot PDX. Not that I am dissatisfied, but Dorkbot promises faster turnaround and three copies of each board ordered. The price per square inch is higher, but it is free shipping and no setup cost.
Congrats on the safe and timely arrival of boards! :) I would be sitting on pins and needles if I had to wait for boards to ship from China. :D I thought about it but ended up doing all my own. No solder mask from my fab house, but it is nice to be able to churn out a new board within 2 or 3 hours. Anyway looking forward to reading more here and meeting you and other folks on April 23! :)
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