Ordering Hillside 48 or 56
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You can order the Hillside 48 or 56 PCBs from many factories. Common choices for small orders are JLCPCB, AllPCB and PCBWay. These and other options can be found at PCBShopper.
Below are details for JLCPCB. The PCB cost is around $11 plus $13 to $27 shipping using a simple solder mask and finish, for five PCBs or two and a half keyboards. (As of July 2022)
You need to configure the PCB into the shopping cart.
Get the Gerber zip from the Hillside releases page.
Go to JLCPCB's quote page.
Upload the Gerber zip. If their server is not busy, it will create pictures and populate the dimensions. If it is busy, such as on the weekend, it may never.
Set the options. The default options are surrounded by ():
- (Base: FR-4, Layers: 2)
- PCB Quantity: 5
- Dimensions: 99 x 137 mm for the 48, 100 x 138 mm for the 56.
- Qty: 5
- (Type: Consumer, Designs: 1, Format: Single, Thickness: 1.6mm)
- Color and Finish: your choice, though it affects price and timing.
- (Copper: 1oz, Fingers: no)
- (Confirm production file: no, though you could).
- (Flying Probe: fully, Castellated holes: no)
- Remove order number: Specify. As it is on the PCB under the MCU.
One thing that the fab might ask about is within the encoder footprint along the bottom of the board. That footprint handles either a choc switch or an encoder. Yet the choc switch's right stabilizer hole is right next to the ground pin hole for the encoder. If the stabilizer hole was the normal non-plated through-hole, they likely would complain that the two were too close. So the stabilizer hole is described as a plated though-hole and there is a note in the readme within the gerber folder describing that it is fine if it joins with the adjacent plated through-hole ground pin for the encoder. But they may not read that note and may ask about it.