If you were hoping for tips on where to actually get a cheap PCB made check out OSH Park https://oshpark.com/ They are really good for a high quality 2 or 4 layer small run PCB. SparkFun.com used to run their own service batchpcb.com but they sold to OSH Park recently. Also if you are in Europe Fritzing Fab http://fab.fritzing.org/fritzing-fab is supposed to be pretty good.
I love OSH Park. Their boards are very high quality and their design rules allow for some small traces, spaces, annular rings, and drills. Small relative to other batch-based and small-volume services, anyway... the limits are still a little too big for properly escaping common BGA packages, which is the hurdle I'm trying to overcome right now.
BGA packages are definitely a pain in the ass. Especially highly dense BGAs, which probably require more than 4 layers.
Assuming you have the PCB manufactured, would you assemble the components yourself? I recall being quoted higher for BGA components at a PCB assembly service because they needed to X-ray each BGA for inspection.
Yes, probably better to assemble the components yourself. It's much more expensive to get it done for you. I have no issues hand soldering 0805 or 0603 surface mount parts (for non-production), and an oven is equally as easy after a few tries. Even getting an SMT placement machine to do the work would be cheaper than dealing with BGA.
Yeah, I'd do the assembly myself. A reflow oven is not difficult to build, it can be done with standard industrial automation/process control components. I wouldn't have the quality assurance that a real shop has, but the process and resultant boards ought to be reliable enough to make it worthwhile for a hobbyist.
As a (very recent, after a loong delay) Open Pandora owner, I appreciate the skill and almost manic relentlessness that these people (especially EvilDragon) have, and that clearly goes into this project too. Good luck!
On a more technical note, it's ... fascinating with a scent of just plain scary that they're using a MIPI display. I have some experience in that field, and MIPI seems to mix with open hardware right about as well as lithium mixes with water. Have fun. :/
It's a closed standard and nearly impossible to debug on the physical level unless you have patience and serious equipment. While many fast buses are notoriously difficult to debug, most are pretty common and have ubiquitous tools. Not so with MIPI.
Also, the specific MIPI transceiver implementations I worked with were premature crap.
That is really cool. I just went through an example. At first, I thought you gathered all the parts together and sent them to the users, but I guess you actually end up providing links with the orders at various sites. I don't have logins at those sites, but I'm assuming it shows up populated with the list of parts. So (assuming this is to make money), do you use referral (affiliate) codes to make money from the site?
Glad you liked it! Right now we're only spending money - no revenue whatsoever. Some of the component distributors listed offered to advertise with us, but we passed (to keep Sandsquid clean and impartial).
At my university, we do something similar with having a core CPU board, and then another main board with all the actual components, like dials, an LCD screen, temp sensors, a speaker and so on.
This also reminds me of the whole phone blocks thing, with pluggable components.
