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New PCBs and Yellow Soldermask (May 22, 2008)
A panel with 5 fresh new products just arrived from Gold Phoenix.
Firstly a comment on the yellow solder mask: Black, Blue, and Green are my staple solder mask colours, but it's nice to branch out sometimes and I went with a yellow mask for this order. My initial impression is that it looks OK on the copper portions of the board, but the masked bare laminate is unimpressive. While it adds variety to the lineup, it definitely looks cheap compared to even the green mask (which is cheaper) and very cheap compared to a blue or black mask. I'm left with a single-sided paper-laminate feeling.
The new projects are, clockwise from the top left:
- A thermistor based high/low temperate tracker for the -5°c to 30°c range.
- A 555 based high-voltage (48V to 250V) switch-mode boost supply.
- An NCP1400 based 5V step-up controller. I'm not sure if I'll push this design for kitting.
- The 3.3V version of the popular FT232 USB to TTL converter.
- A constant current controller. When hooked between a load and ground, this allows you to set a particular maximum current level regardless of supply voltage or load variances. This is ideal for loading SMPS, LEDs, Laser diodes, etc.
Gold Phoenix (1) kit (8) PCB (6) SolderMask (1)
Posted by spiffed at May 22, 2008 12:58 PM
Comments
Very nice set of kits and projects. I'm a big fan of the Arduino but also use the PICAXE.
I'm thinking of using Gold Phoenix to have some boards made. Boards for the PICAXE only , you've pretty much covered the Adruino.
Have you had any problems with Gold Phoenix? Is there anythng I should lookout for? What were the shipping costs and times?
Your comments could be appreciated.
Myc
Posted by: Mycroft2152 at August 5, 2008 11:04 AM
For the money, I've found GP to be an excellent house. They've always been on-time or ahead of time, and have rarely balked at requests to change the Gerbers even after they've been submitted.
For runs under about 200sq-in, I haven't found a comparable company for price, quality, and turn-time.
For larger runs (or more than 4-layer) I strongly recommend either Advanced Circuits or Sunstone.
Posted by: spiffed 
at August 5, 2008 12:34 PM
GP also do white soldermask on request. It's another extra $20 (so extra $40 total), so is very expensive. However, it looks very very good, especially if you opt for immersion gold plating. White+gold is unbeatable for PCB bling?
Posted by: jazzist at November 26, 2008 8:12 AM