IOT: Build your own boards! FAB fabulously!
Yep, prototypes are fine, you build that flashy pumpkin, modified that shooting toy, built that automatic watering device, and of course home automation. It has all of those wires, maybe you soldered them together so they don’t fall apart, but face it, it’s ugly. Sure your parents, wife or kids think you are pretty cool, but seriously to you it looks incomplete.
One of the student groups that I worked with from the University of London loaned me one of their boards that they generated, it has Bluetooth capabilities and works nicely with the Windows Phone! Very nicely. And there is a difference: It’s a complete board, and by complete I mean they generated the circuit diagram, got the printed circuit built and soldered their component to the board. They also added software and interfaced their Bluetooth to the Windows Phone. Pretty sure one would define that as a complete project. Would have been nice if they had connected it to Azure. They did. Wow.
Fritzing
Ok, how do you get your circuits fabricated or Fab’d? If you use the Arduino design tool from https://Fritzing.org, you can get a single sided PC board built for 29 Euros (11/5/2014). If you are using Fritzing, and you want to fab, go to: https://fab.fritzing.org/fritzing-fab , if you turn your circuit by Tuesday by 10 CET it will ship the following Wednesday. Now you have to add your parts and do the soldering. If you use Surface Mounting then you need a special soldering tool which costs about $80, which can be worth is as you can also fix boards with surface mounted devices on them and make a little money. The work supports the fritzing organization so it does appear to be somewhat more pricey than the commercial firms. Very trustworthy.
Seeeduino
https://www.seeedstudio.com/service/
Offers cutting of patterns, as well as PCB manufacturing for lower cost than the Frtizing.
Circuitco
https://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=PCB_Design_Guide
Elecrow
Full service, PC board, PCB Assembly (as low as $1 per board), even engineering test and board test. They will purchase the parts for a fee.
Check this site when you wonder who designed that POS Arduino shield you just bought, or even the nice one you just bought.
OSHpark
Full service www.oshpark.com
Design Submission Guidelines: https://oshpark.com/guidelines
Specifications: https://oshpark.com/pricing
Shipping and Turnaround: https://support.oshpark.com/support/solutions/articles/123330-shipping-and-turnaround-times
Other sites
You might want to search for other fabricators, these are some that I have had some experience with.
Conclusion
Fritz is the lowest cost if you only want to have a single unit built. Most of the other sites are for larger builds. As usual, outside of software, experience costs money. What I mean is this: If you are going to get into to building short runs of boards for toys, home automation, automotive or science experimentation, then it is going to cost real money and real time. Building boards is not easy, but the final product will look good.