Today I received 2 test PCB’s for my “dedicated RLP processor” 
I need to do some real-time stuff that I can attach to a FEZ Panda or Cobra. For that reason I developed a board that takes an AT32UC3B0256 microcontroller, holds a voltage regulator and crystal. Plus it makes those 0.5mm pitched pins more accessible.
It is also my first TQFP I have soldered and it was easier then expected!
Looks nice!
That looks like the FEZ Ant everyone was talking about
Wouter, where did you have the pcb made? Care to share a price indication for the pcb?
I ordered 2 pieces on eurocircuits.com and I got 3 pieces for 60 eur. Btw they have a price calculator on their site.
for small runs, dorkbot pdx has a good deal - $5 per square inch of space your board consumes, and you get 3 copies. Never personally used them but I hear lots of good stories. Intl shipping can play havok of course, but worth considering
I ordered myself a new soldering station (done with the firestarter ;D) and I’m going to be ordering my board from DorkbotPDX here and doing some SMD of my own
+1 for DorkbotPDX
I had a temperature controlled station but I’ve sold it. I do the SMD soldering with an ordinairy 35watt weller soldering iron with 1mm tip. Works like a charm!
I also used a flux pen.
For cases I need to desolder components, I use a heating gun with a home bended piece of aluminium. So you really don’t need special SMD tools.
The best iron I’ve ever owned is my $10 RS special. I’m now upgrading to the $30 Chinese Hakko knock-off
What are the long rectangular pads up above the MCU?
The CPU has it’s own voltage regulator that converts the 3.3V to a Vcore of ~1.75V. Atmel recommends to place two 0.1µF caps in parallel on input and output of the regulator.
I admit, the pads are a little too big for 0.1µF caps
Hardware guys at my company sometimes order prototypes from a polish manufacturer. Could you please compare is there any difference in price between what you paid and what this calculator tells you:
http://zwod.technoservice.com.pl/en/offered-technologies/order-prototype-special-offer-fr4-tska/
I’m curious if we should consider global companies or stick to local ones 
I tried it and it seems like there is a huge price difference…
I was forces to choose ‘panel’ type, and I see they took the board dimensions as the panel size. Maybe I should have multiplied the width by 2. It was not very clear.
Also, the order quantity, do they mean number of panels? Not very clear
Can you post a close-up picture of a board that was made by that company?
Sure, I will ask the guyes for one and post a photo here. If its acceptable i will be more than happy to help you with the logistics in case you want to order anything.
Sory for the quality as this was taken with my cell phone
Another device
The first one is a device that was made by a company called SIMS (http://sims.pl) that outsources PCB making to the technoservice (company i mentioned earlier). The other one is a prototype made directly for us by technoservice. Do you want to see a high resolution photo?
Thank you for those picture. The PCBs look very professional, so I might consider technoservice in future.
Many thanks for the tip!