Pros: Their product is as advertised, they ship when they say they will, the prices are quite reasonable for small quantities and disclosed up front with no hidden fees, the layout software is dirt simple to use (I use it under Linux with wine), and there is no worrying about whether you have the right file format - just click a few buttons in the program and enter your credit card number, and the boards are on their way.Ĭons: They have cut themselves off from the rest of the ecosystem, in that you can't use their software with another fab or vice-versa, and they are paranoid about people using their files for other stuff, so you can't version control or do your own DRC on their format easily, although there are third party tools available that show that someone must have reverse-engineered the file format. ExpressPCB will sell the Gerbers for a reasonable fee. This makes creating Gerbers from transfered designs not the same as the prototype. Traces, blind and buried vias are not allowed in the internal planes.įlood fills are also limited as these are not assigned to nets. Especially in the 4 layer mode as the internal layers can only contain filled or split planes. Those who are interested in the file internals can find them there. The Java Applet jschem, can read expressPCB as well as fritzing diagrams. This allows me to create designs with Postscript and other tools such as KiCad that support DRC. The internal format has been reverse engineered. Draw the part in the layout tool group it and save it. Internally there is a rich selection of surface mount components. I have 14 years of legacy designs and footprints that work. Send the order out Sunday evening, the boards will arrive Thursday. Even with services like PCB-Pool and Sunstone, I keep transferring my designs to expressPCB. It's their lack of communication, and poor customer service.Įxpress seems like it has been around for donkey's years.
Did not honor my request to cancel the order, waited to contact me until AFTER the boards shipped, and refused to refund or offer any sort of discount or remedy of any kind.Ĭonsidered giving 2 stars because the boards I did get were quality (and useless) However ultimately it's not even that they failed to deliver on time- I understand issues come up. Sent more emails.įINALLY come monday night they get back to me, apologizing that they had some "manufacturing difficulties", but are pleased to say that the boards have shipped, and my saturday delivery refunded.
So, I have to kludge together the circuit using proto-boards. Next day (Friday), sent an email (no phone number) asking for the tracking number. Submitted the board using their software at noon on Thursday, paid the extra for saturday delivery. Had not used PCB Express before, and decided to give it a shot because the pricing for one day turns was preferable to the alternatives. Had a client who asked for a rapid development of a proof of concept prototype to demo in front of a few investors.