On: Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?

[3np]

I've been building from a couple of kits and realizing the next step is to make my own design - what I'm looking for is just not on the market.

The one thing I find daunting is find and decide on a shop to handle PCB printing (non-US/EU). Especially since I assume my first couple of designs might need a few tweaks, I'd prefer something with short lead-times and able to handle low volume at reasonable price...

[houtanb → 3np]

When I was looking into that I remember having read (or watched a youtube video, I was deep in a rabbit hole) something good about these companies [1][2]. Take it for what it's worth.

[1] https://www.pcbway.com/

[2] https://jlcpcb.com/

[wrigby → 3np]

I use JLC PCB for small projects at work, when we‘re doing prototype runs or just making a few units and don’t want to spin up our main PCB supplier.

The process is quick and mostly painless. They even have screenshots and a guide to exporting fab files from KiCad.

[themoonisachees → 3np]

Seconding the other comment, i previously got boards for my Plaid/tht for relatively cheap and fast from jlcpcb.

Of course, if you want fastest you could cook your own pcbs, it's a bit involved but it gets you 3d-print times on pcbs.