Manufacturers

The manufacturers is a collection of links to manufacturers listed per category. We’ve decided to list all these (for every ‘topic’) on one tab, otherwise we would have to create quite a large (and annoying) ‘tab system’ if we would have made different tabs for these.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Manufacturers

NOTE: None of the PCB manufacturers listed here (currently) require ‘large orders’ and thus can easily and efficiently be used by ‘home users’ or for smaller prototype batches.
JLCPCB – Our main go-to when we get our PCB’s manufactured, they are cheap, efficiently, quick, of good quality and offer a wide variety of options and services.
Update 2024: Now also our official Channel and Community sponsor 😊!

OSH Park, A little bit more expensive than our favorite JLCPCB, but opposed to JLCPCB which is located in China, OSH Park is located in The United States, and this is also where their actual production takes place. OSH Park is in the communities also known for their ‘signature purple PCB’s’.

Seeed Studio, yet another well known name in the PCB Manufacturing world. Good quality and a good selection of options in regards to your order(s).

PCB Shopper, a great website which can quickly give you a list of PCB Manufacturers and their costs depending on your entered project details, quantity etc.

DirtyPCB’s, great option if you want (or need) to order PCB’s which are panalized (by yourself) which has (lots of) different shaped boards in it. JLCPB (just to name an example) also allowes panalized designs but only if the ‘entire panel’ consits out of the same design and it will cost you a bit extra (currently about $7.50), DirtyPCB works a bit different in this case. DirtyPCB does allow different designs, aslong at the boards are connected with mouse-bites, and will break them off later yourself.

Their website states:
“Please note: only one separate design is allowed in each order. Panelized designs are OK for 2 layer boards only, but the boards must be connected by tabs (mouse bites and slots) that snap apart later! Separate, non-connected boards will be refused by the board house!“

This ‘one separate design’ design does NOT mean that the panel can only be mabe of multiple copies of the same board, but the entire panel itself needs to be ‘provided as one design’.

Small warning about DirtyPCBs.com
Please keep in mind and realize that DirtyPCB’s is not a professional company with customer support and such! As their site states:
“This site was intended for friends and not the public. We’ll process your boards, but because most services are offered at-cost we have very little appetite for demanding or difficult people. We really don’t care if you want to take your business somewhere else, and it’s not worth our time to deal with stupid questions or asshats. Paypal fee reversals, annoying emails and the like will get you banned from the site. It’s like Mitch Altman says, don’t work with people you don’t like.“

So this might be something you want to keep in mind. We have ordered plenty of boards there, with great quality, and will most likely order there again in the future for ‘custom panalized boards’.

(Measurement & Soldering) Equipment Manufactures

This is a list of manufacturers which make (in our opinion) excellent equipment in regards to measurement, soldering and related tech/gear.

Hakko is a well established soldering equipment brand with top quality equipment which is gaining a fast growing market share lately. They have been around since 1952, but have gained a lot of popularity in recent years with their iconic blue-and-yellow soldering equipment line. Their soldering tools are of high quality, stable, up for the task and will never let you down. In recent years we have been replacing all our main soldering irons with Hakko soldering stations. They are a ‘bit’ more expensive than the ‘b-brand’ / no-name-brand “temperature” controlled soldering stations, but you really get what you pay for (and more) with Hakko.

Weller is a soldering tools brand which has been ‘around for ages’ and known by many. They hold up their reputation very well and deliver great quality soldering products. One of my first soldering irons actually was an (non temperature controlled) 15Watt Weller, and it still works as of today. Despite that mine has basically been ‘retired’ due to the fact that the Hakko is now the ‘main iron’ on my desk, I now and then still use the ‘Old Yellow Weller’ for some quick repairs.

Keysight, one of our (if not the) favorite brands for Multi-meters. Their equipment is very reliable, often contains many useful features, is very well calibrated and also quite durable. Despite that their equipment is definitely not the “cheapest around”, it is worth every penny and will last you a long time. And compared to several other brands (of the same class) you often get ‘more bang-for-buck’ with the equipment from Keysight. Keysight produces a very wide spectrum of measurement equipment which for example also includes oscilloscopes, power supplies, function generators and much much more.

Rigol, a Chinese manufacturer of Oscilloscopes, but “China Crap” is definitely not something which comes to mind when we’re talking about Rigol. They have great affordable entry level oscilloscopes which will definitely advance your hobby (or even profession) in electronics. Oscilloscopes are (of course) never cheap, but if you want something good, don’t want (or can’t) ‘pay the jackpot’, then you should definitely look into the 2channel 50Mhz or 100Mhz oscilloscopes of Rigol.
NOTE: Please do yourself and everyone else a favor and stay away from those ‘DIY $15 Kits’ 😉 Those are ‘fun to play with’, but definitely not reliable enough to do serious measurements and debugging with.

Siglent, A great manufacturer of oscilloscopes and other measurement and testing equipment based in China, ranging from affordable entry level equipment to professional lab grade gear going for thousands of dollars.

OWON, Another Chinese based manufacturer of measurement equipment. Our personal opinion is that (the ‘entry level’ range at least) isn’t ‘as-good’ as brands like Rigol, however they do have very affordable (and still very good) multi meters and oscilloscopes for beginners. We personally would recommend beginners to go for Rigol when it comes to oscilloscopes, but the multi-meters of OWON are quite good and very affordable for beginners. Despite the (much) lower price of their multi-meters, they still include a lot of features which you usually only find in the more expensive ones. They for example have fairly cheap models which even include Bluetooth logging etc. Do keep in mind that the overall quality of multi-meters from brands like Keysight and Fluke are no match for a brand like OWON. However we do also have a few OWON’s in our ‘inventory’ due to their affordable price and their great functionality in their price range.

Brymen, an well known brand in the industry for multi-meters. Their quality is even trustworthy enough for Dave Jones of the EEVBlog to have his own EEVBlog Branded Brymen Multimeters!

Tektronix, another well known brand and industry standard for many. They manufacturer Oscilloscopes, Digital Multi-meters, Power Supplies, Signal Generators and more.

Fluke, Well I guess almost anyone (in electronics and beyond) knows the brand Fluke and recognizes their well known ‘yellow jacket multi-meters’ when seeing one ‘in the field’. There is almost no electronics engineer, repair mechanic or electronics student whom hasn’t had or used an Fluke multi-meter.

Semiconductors (Chips/IC’s, transistors, micro controllers etc)

This lists consists of (a small portion of the industry) semiconductor manufacturers. These manufacturers ‘make the stuff’ which makes your electronics projects and products ‘tick’. These include micro controllers, processors and other integrated circuits (IC’s) like transistors and more of the alike. Of course there are many more, but these are the ones that you will most like encounter most during your electronics hobby.

Microchip, is a leading micro processor and integrated circuit developer and manufacturer, many Arduino (and also our boards) use Atmel (which is now owned by Microchip) micro-controllers (MCU’s).

Texas Instruments, one of the ‘bigger players’ in manufacturing and development of integrated circuits. Many products and even hobbyist use IC’s from Texas Instruments, from ‘simple’ 555 Timers to shift registers, I/O Ex-panders and even micro controllers.
Fun Fact: One of the first ‘home development boards’ I’ve touched wasn’t an Arduino (like it is for many), but it was actually an Texas Instruments MSP430 Launchpad 🙂

Espressif Systems is not a name which in itself ‘rings a bell’ for everyone instantly. But if we tell you that their one of (if not the) market leaders in wireless IC’s and boards in regards to WiFi and Bluetooth for the ‘maker community’. And that they are basically ‘responsible’ for the ESP series boards and IC’s, then you will most likely know whom they are. The ESP WiFi IC’s and boards are one of the mostly used IC’s and boards in the maker community. Currently the most famous one is the ESP8266.

STMicroelectronics also kown as STM or ST, is a manufacturer of various semiconductor components. Lots of electronics enthusiasts know them from their licensed ARM micro controllers like the STM32 for example. These little microprocessors really ‘pack a punch’ compared to the commonly used 8-bit micro-controllers used on most other Arduino based boards. They are often much faster, have more flash memory and RAM and run at 32-bit.

Vishay, A well known manufacturer of semiconductors which includes Diodes, MOSFETS and optoelectronics. Vishay also manufacturers passive components like resistors, inductors and capacitors. Vishay is one of our (personal preference) favorites when it comes to power MOSFETS.

Maxim Integrated is a manufacturer with a very large ‘production portfolio’. They manufacturer all kinds of semiconductors like LED Drivers, Real-Time Clock IC’s (RTC), Temperature Sensors, Power and battery management IC’s, Motor Drivers and much more. For us, the first thing which comes to mind when mentioning Maxim Integrated is the MAX232 IC’s, which we still use a lot. Maxim Integrated is a subsidiary of Analog Devices.

Analog Devices, is a manufacturer of mixed-signal and digital signal processing (DSP) IC’s. Their products are used to convert ‘real-world-things’ like light, sound, temperature, pressure and motion into electrical signals.

3D Printers & 3D Printer Components

This list consists of 3D Printer manufacturers and manufacturers whom create ‘after market’ components and upgrades for your 3D Printer(s).

Our (small) selection of 3D Printer brands
Creality, is Chinese brand and name which has be become ‘famous’ within the 3D Printer community quite fast. Their most popular printer is the Creality Ender 3, which is also the basis for our custom XNL 3D Pro printers. Their printers are very affordable and a very good entry level printer with high quality printing results. By upgrading their printers you can even get printing results beyond your expectations for the price you’ve paid for them. The Creality printers are definitely without an doubt our favorite.

Prusa, is a well known and very poplar brand for 3D Printers in the community. Their printers are often easily recognizable by their signature orange color/parts.

Ultimaker, is an well established 3D Printer manufacturer and brand based in The Netherlands. Their printers are vastly more expensive than the Creality and Prusa printers for example. The Ultimaker printers however, are ‘ready-out-of-the-box’ with a very different construction and housing compared to many (or any) DIY Kit printer(s). If you’re in need of a 3D Printer which almost instantly works when you unbox it, with consistent printing quality every-time, then the Ultimaker printers might be just what you need. Many of the DIY Kit Printers might ‘require’ quite a bit of tweaking and/or upgrades to get the ‘top-notch-results’ you desire. Ultimaker printers don’t require this tweaking, and they are often quite a bit faster with the same printing results as (fully tuned/tweaked) DIY Kit printers.

Note: There are (obviously) many more 3D Printer brands and types, but for us (personally) these are the ones that matter for the moment. There are also kit’s and parts available around the internet to even fully build/design your own printer, so it’s all up to you want you want and/or need.

Our (small) selection of 3D Printer Component manufacturers
Micro Swiss, in our opinion one of the best all metal hot-end manufacturers. All our FDM 3D Printers are equipped with Micro Swiss all-metal hot-ends and we absolutely love them. All-metal hot-ends allow you to print at (much) higher temperatures safely and without risking toxic fumes and breakdown of your PTFE tube. They also produce excellent quality nozzles.

E3D, a manufacturer of great quality hot-ends, nozzles and other 3D Printer parts. We often use their high durability stainless steel V6 nozzles for our 3D FDM Printers. If you’re into 3D Printing and want to upgrade your printer, it’s definitely worth it to check out E3D.

Duet3D designs high quality and top performance (circuit) boards for 3D Printers and CNC Machines. If you’re looking for a ‘motherboard’ upgrade for your printer but don’t want to tinker with it yourself, build one yourself or just want a good ‘ready to use’ reliable (new) board ‘out of the box’, then you should definitely check out Duet3D