We do a run of 250 similar badges for a non-tech convention every year. ~$10 per badge is about right all in. We've also done runs without ICs (just LEDs, a switch, and button cell battery) for about ~$4 some years.
That's awesome! I'm really happy to see non-tech conventions running badges. It's so cool that with today's technology you truly can "just make things".
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.
A good experienced designer who has done esp32 before will have all these modules or similar enough in a library and can just plug them together.
Possible in a day depending on risk tolerance, almost always better imo to sleep on it. There would be no iterations.
But they will not likely do it happily in that timeframe. And you would practically never get them to quote it at one day, especially not without an inflated rate.
Author here! I'm sure an experienced PCB designer could get it done quicker, but we were in it for the learning aspect too. Hack the North is entirely student run!
My best guess is an experienced designer would have made fewer mistakes and been more familiar with the process, so maybe they save two iterations and can get the initial schematic capture and layout done in a few days rather than a week.
What does your badge do? I'd love to see it!
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.
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.
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.
But - how much work is this for an experienced PCB designer?
How long would it take someone skilled to get such a thing designed?
Possible in a day depending on risk tolerance, almost always better imo to sleep on it. There would be no iterations.
But they will not likely do it happily in that timeframe. And you would practically never get them to quote it at one day, especially not without an inflated rate.
My best guess is an experienced designer would have made fewer mistakes and been more familiar with the process, so maybe they save two iterations and can get the initial schematic capture and layout done in a few days rather than a week.