Thread

Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

135 points · 94 comments · willcarkner

ac29 · 1786033928 · focus · HN ↗
Any idea what pricing will be like? The fact that you call out Drone and Defense industries on your page suggests to me this is extremely expensive.
I recently priced out getting a PCB done in China and its insanely cheap. My design isnt complicated, a few ICs, a few connectors, an a dozen or so passives. PCB manufacturing, parts, and soldering/assembly is on the order of $10-20 total per board and that is with zero volume discounts. The parts alone would cost that much in the US, and I suspect the sort of companies that you contract out to also aren't really interested in tiny orders so they would probably quote huge setup fees (looks like your average order so far is ~$7000).
1. walrus01 · 1786034423 · focus · HN ↗
  Think of this service basically for the same purpose as why Crye pants and stuff are manufactured domestically in the USA. But applied to circuit boards.
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Amendment" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Amendment
  More specifically there are a number of new wide-spanning bans on import of mainland china made drone components such as flight controller boards, ESCs, power distribution boards, motors.
  The definition of "Blue UAS" pre-dates recent more aggressive changes made by the current US executive branch of the government, but is still relevant:
  <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=blue+UAS+definition" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=blue+UAS+...
  1. willcarkner · 1786035338 · focus · HN ↗
    This is exactly our initial market. We realized you can't beat China for a long time, so what do you do in that time? Service demand where you have a structural advantage.
    walrus01 · 1786037466 · focus · HN ↗
    Can I ask if you are working with any established US defense-oriented electronics firms that go further up the supply chain in auditing/documenting sources and chain of custody of components and the whole BOM? Having US made circuit boards is great but if a certain model of microcontroller only comes from one or two sources and they're in mainland CN, that's a known caveat that has to be documented somewhere... Or if the same product is available at a higher price from a different location. That sort of thing.
    One example I could offer is APD, the ESC manufacturer in Australia. They sell ESCs used both in the commercial cinema/filming industry (big quads and coaxial octos carrying RED Komodo size cameras), but also for defense...
    willcarkner · 1786037712 · focus · HN ↗
    Haven't yet worked with them, but that is one of our goals. We produce documentation to trace all components up the supply chain. In cases where the part is truly only available in CN, we clearly state this.

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