Next batch of Mimeo boards are now on order. I should be able to pick them up in about 3 weeks. Sorry for the delay, to those that I promised boards in September, but a lot has been going on here at Mimeo headquarters.

This order was delayed, because a couple of weeks ago, I decided to investigate the possibility of using a different supplier, that would be able to work with me a little bit more. Though Advanced Circuits does fantastic work, they are set up to produce boards in a standard way. Whenever I have asked for them to do something a little different, I really haven’t received much help, or have been asked to pay for custom service, which is often more than I can afford.

An example is the Datanetics keyboard PCBs that I had made a couple of years ago. Even though those boards have no solder mask or silkscreen layer, I had to pay standard price. Other “online” PCB fab places have similar policies.

Yesterday, I visited a local place that I placed the order with. They took about an hour to talk to me. They even took me on a complete tour of their facility. I was pretty impressed at the complexity of the process. Anyone familiar with etching PCBs at home, would hardly recognize what is going on in a real production facility. I know I hardly did.

Pricing was competitive. I’m taking a slight hit on a one time set up charge, but I think the personal service will be worth this one time cost.

Stay tuned for an update as we proceed through these uncharted waters.