alt Hacker News> JLCPCB
Unfortunate that Canada doesn't have its own (at least) small-time fab for these things.
Looks like Hack The North is located in Waterloo? Their website is very confusing to navigate.
Replies
va3ndf • today at 6:41 PM
Yes, Hack the North is run at the University of Waterloo!
Mostly cost for us. JLCPCB's scale lets them make money on orders that would be too small for most fabs. Quoting, ordering, and part selection are all a battle tested web form. They also stock most of the parts in-house, so a small order costs them almost no engineering time. A local fab probably wouldn't have any of these advantages. JLCPCB really have it down to a science.
There are small-time assembly houses everywhere.
They’re going to be much more expensive than JLCPCB, if they take the job at all.
Some conferences can find small businesses trying to get started who do the jobs at cost or a loss, but that’s rare.