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I feel you man, finding an affordable PCBA shop to produce a small batch of Arduino boards can be tricky. Based on very positive personal experience, I'd recommend checking out PCBasic's prototype pcb assembly I used them last summer to build out a little fleet of custom environmental monitoring boards that integrated Arduino, some sensors, and a Nano cellular https://www.pcbasic.com/pcba-x/prototype_pcb_assembly.html"n though it was only something like boards total, their dedicated prototyping line was able to turn them around in just2 days from my order submission. I really needed them ASAP to take to an upcoming conference so their fast build speed was clutch. And because it met their low volume threshold, the assembly price per board wound up being dirt cheap - like way less than I expected.
I wanna prototype a little Arduino board but don't know where to get good pcba production done on the cheap. Help a guy out with some manufacturer ideas would ya?
PCB manufacturing includes a number of steps before the board is ready for assembly of components.
first of all the Schematics are created using the information provided by the customer. through the Schematics, a bill of materials (BOM) is generted whcih provides all the detials and quantiy of the componets that will be required in the PCB.
Schematic is then loaded into a PCB layout software. the layout itself includes a numerous steps thta can be discused in seprate question.
after the PCB layout is prepared; the gerbers are generated through PCB layout sofware. Gerber files are just a translator that translate the PCB layout into CAM readable format. these gerber files are sent to the FAB house. again the fabrication is a very detalied and lengthy process which includes numerous steps like etching (it self many processes), lamination, drilling, solder masking, paste applying, plating,silkscreen printing.
after all these fabrication steps the PCB is ready for assembling of components.
