Question about group ordered PCB boards and sensors

[Achinput]

Hello Daniel,
I have several questions about the group ordered PCBs and sensors.
I signed up for the group order, which includes the CMOS sensing PCB, the CMOS sensor, and the DAQ PCB, will the sensor mount to the PCB when we got them? If we order them separately, will that be very hard to mount the sensor to the board? I know that this question sounds a little bit weird, but I'm just a bit too worried since I don't have experience in making boards by myself.
The second question is more related to the ordering. How would the companies charge us, would they send quotes directly to us or through the UCLA group?
Then it would be great if you could tell us an estimate of when the group order would be placed.
I really appreciate your help with these questions.

Best,
Shaohua

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Shaohua,
If you get your PCBs through the group order, Sierra Circuits will handle ordering and mounting the CMOS imaging sensors to the CMOS PCBs. If you wanted to mount the CMOS sensor yourself this is very doable but requires some experience working with SMD components.

When we move forward with a group order I get a price quote from Sierra Circuits while outlines the per part cost. I think send that price quote to all the members of the group order along with exactly how much each member is responsible for. You can then take the price quote and submit your portion of the group order exactly how you submit other orders in your department. Over 100 labs have taken part in group orders already and we have never run into an issue with submitting orders.

Right now we are a bit behind on submitting group orders because a few crucial electrical components have been sold out for the last month or so. These components are scheduled to be back in stock next week and we will begin to get the group orders processed. Right now there are about 70 labs on the group order signup sheet. I usually need about 3 weeks between submitting group orders. It looks like you would be in the third group which means you probably have around 2 months to wait.

Hope this answers your questions.

[Achinput]

Hi Daniel,
We can't order the LED PCB board through Silver Circuits (the recommended vendor) because they refuse to be added in our purchasing system and only accept paypal. I would have to find another company to make the LED PCBs. There are several questions I didn't get the answer from the instruction file.
The thickness and hole sizes are limited to 0.6-0.8mm and 0.2mm, is it okay to use 0.8mm for thickness and 0.2mm for the hole size? I saw some answer about the DAQ PCB, you said it might be fine for those to use min 0.2mm holes, but this LEB PCB seems to be really small, I wonder how much it would affect the board if we cannot bring it down to 0.13mm.
The PCB vendor I found are also asking for min Tracking or spacing, from 4/4mi to 6/6mi, which one would you suggest?

Thank you !
Shaohua

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Shaohua,
Yes, Silver Circuits apparently hates to deal with Universities' purchasing departments and won't accept POs. Anyways, their won't be an issue with any of the PCB thicknesses you listed or min trace/clearance of 6/6mill. It will also likely not be an issue using 0.2mm holes but you can ask the pcb fabricator to double check that this doesn't cause any issues with the PCB. Everything should be fine.

The other option would be for you to pay Silver Circuits out of pocket and then get reimbursed by your department.

[Honi]

We had good experience ordering the LED PCBs from OSH park.  https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/EDETsVyL   They are smaller than OSH park's minimum size, so you will have to cut the extra off with wire cutters or some such.

[Daniel Aharoni]

Thanks Honi. This is a great solution. Do you mind if I share this OSH Park link directly on Miniscope.org?

[Honi]

No, I don't mind. 
Also, Jon Newman in Matt Wilson's lab has a panelized version that he got done at OSH park, you may want to contact him to get the link for that.