Reasons Why You Should Use PCBWay for Your Next PCB Project

The rise of IoT, Industry 4.0 and the smart revolution has triggered a butterfly effect on the electronics/hardware industry. This trend has led to electronics manufacturers having to innovate or be eaten by the competition. It has also led to an influx of new blood interested in taking over the electronics space and PCBWay is one of them.

Although everyone upsells their PCBs as the best in the business, the pudding is still in the eating. This is why in order to confirm what PCBWay PCBs have to offer, we took upon the task of creating a simple home controller using a PCB. And before discussing the details of how PCBWay stands out, here is an outline of the project I undertook.

Designing the Simple Home Control System

Scope of Project: As stated earlier, the goal was to create an interconnected home system tasked with accomplishing simple exercises. The project consisted of 6 push buttons and 6 LED paired with the push buttons. The push buttons were designed with the aim of controlling common devices that can be found in a home. Their functions include; controlling window opening mechanisms, controlling a fan, or switching a light bulb on and off.

Executing the Project— the first step, as always, was determining the functionalities of the circuit. Here, we drafted the circuit for the home control system on a white board and enlisted the help of KiCAD to design the PCB. The final schematic designs were generated in Gerber files and we proceeded to send the designs to PCBWay.

PCBWay –This is where PCBWay comes into the picture. First and foremost, it is important to state that PCBWay sent the physical PCB to us in a timely fashion. And when the PCB arrived, we soldered the components on the board and tested the design without encountering any hurdles. We then programmed a microcontroller chip to the behavioural patterns assigned to each buttons. The testing process was seamless and the home control system worked perfectly.

Our Verdict—the response from PCBWay was timely and professional. We actually made a mistake by sending the incomplete Gerber files in and received feedback about this immediately. On providing the complete files, we received the final PCB within 2 weeks.

Reasons Why We Recommend PCBWay

With the scope of the simple project executed out of the way, now is the time to examine the pros of using PCBWay. Here, we have outlined the six most important reasons why PCBWay stands out from its competitors.

High Quality Raw Materials

As we all know, the quality of raw materials used in developing a board plays a huge role in its effectiveness as a conduit. From our little project, it was easy to detect that PCBWay makes use of quality raw materials in developing PCBs. Their ability to do this is due to the use of PTH technology on their boards. PCBWay’s use of quality raw material on a regular basis is also made possible by integrate quality control checks.

PCBWay’s boards are routinely inspected by the relevant professional bodies to ensure the highest quality is adhered to. Some of the parameters quality control professionals inspect are: the copper thickness, signal reaction, and anomaly detection ability of components. In conclusion, the PCBWay board we used for the test project passed our checks with flying colours. The board was responsive and better produced than the majority of PCBs we have previously used.

Ability to Track the Progression of Your PCB Production in Real-Time

As stated earlier, our experiences with PCBWay’s customer unit was great. One important reason why this was so, is the real-time tracking service PCBWay has to offer. What does real-time tracking mean, you may ask? The real-time tracking feature allows you to track two aspects of your PCB design phase. These aspects are the status of the project been developed, and even the progression of your shipment! This is a service other PCB manufacturers do not offer!

Using the PCBWay backend, we were able to easily track the production stages for our PCB and knew when to expect it to be completed. We were also provided with a shipment express number. This allowed us track our PCB shipment and expect its delivery when it came.

A Vibrant PCBWay Online Community

when designing new PCBs, everyone knows that collaboration has a role to play. By collaboration, we mean some inputs, assistance, or correction from more-experienced heads. The PCBWay community provides you abundance assistance when needed. You can easily share your PCB designs in the PCBWay community and receive feedback from other electronics enthusiast.

As an aside, the PCBWay community provides you with an avenue to earn real cash. On posting your PCB design to the PCBWay Community; your designs could be purchased by interested third-parties. 10% of every purchase or order attached to your PCB design is given back to you! Lastly, PCBWay regularly conducts hackathons were great PCB designs are showcased to the public. After voting has been concluded, the winner is awarded a cash price to encourage him or her to do more.

The Most-affordable Prototyping Cost Available to You

The reason why you outsource your PCB prototyping projects is probably due to quality control. PCBWay gives electronics enthusiast another reason to outsource prototyping. And this reason is low prototyping cost. A PCBWay prototyping task costs approximately $5 or $10 depending on the scope of work. This is currently the cheapest prototyping cost in today’s PCB market.

Students, new registrants, and anyone strapped for cash can also take advantage of the PCBWay special coupon offer. Using the special coupon could mean that you end up paying not a single dime to get your prototyping done.

PCBWay Sponsorship for Non-profit Project

PCBWay continues to play an important role in helping students get their electronic projects off the ground. An example of this was their support of the Makerfaire SHA 2017 event. The dedicated sponsorship programme is open to students, beginners and NGO’s looking to develop something creative in the field of robotics and IoT devices.

Great After-Sale Services

With PCBWay, your complaints, changes, and needs are truly catered to. As explained earlier, our Gerber folder was missing a few files. PCBWay contacted us and after providing the files, we received feedback concerning our project within a day.

Now, the PCBWay after-sales team takes responsiveness to greater heights. And every complaint you have to make is answered within 24 hours. You can also take advantage of the PCBWay background system to lay your complaints on any issues you have. You will receive a response in 24 hours and according to international standards, a response ticket will be created for you immediately.

Our Conclusion

Working with PCBWay was an experience we intend to continue enjoying. This is because of the low prototyping prices on offer and the quick-response times we experienced. Therefore, PCBWay gets more than a pass mark from us, as we also endorse them as our PCB prototyping service of choice. You can also take advantage of the many benefits they offer by scheduling a PCB prototyping project with them today.