Some interesting discussions in this thread.
First let me point out that there are literally tens of thousands of 'PCB-A' factories in Shenzhen/Dongguan/Gongming/Huizhou and surrounds - in fact, probably HUNDREDS of thousands of them!
There are two very distinct types of PCB factory. The first is the most common, 'PCB-A' and they manufacture blank printed circuit boards only. The second, 'PCB-B' who make the blank boards and also populate them. They have all the pick and place equipment and the additional staff and skills to take PCB files and turn out fully finished PCB's ready to use.
I would NEVER deal with a PCB-B factory as they will almost certainly steal your ideas and IP and sell it to anyone who wants to pay. It looks like Heighway did this so it might be possible to track the factory down but unless someone gives up a company name your chances of finding that factory are next to nil.
Homepin has used the same two PCB-A factories for many years now and they only have access to the actual PCB layout files, nothing more. We receive the blank boards and assemble/test them ourselves in house. This keeps our secrets safe.
Interestingly they have both recently moved away from Shenzhen as the local Government is actively shutting down factories that "make stuff". Assembling is perfectly OK but actually cutting things and making blank PCBs etc is pretty much out these days.
On that Heighway board I am at a complete loss to understand how anyone could even design such a mess in the first place - just amazing to me. We work on the KISS principle here at Homepin and that board just doesn't meet the KISS criteria IMO. Yes, different designers have different ideas about how things should be made but, for a start, that board would be VERY expensive to make, even in China due to it's ridiculous shape. It also looks like a nightmare to actually pack and ship to anyone as a spare part as well as a serious headache to actually fit to a machine. Just NO.....IMO, this simply wasn't thought through very well on so many levels.
Our designs are all SIMPLE and based on using the easiest electronics possible. We use through hole almost exclusively (except where the part simply is no longer made in through hole). I'm not saying our designs are the best or that they are better or worse than any other designs out there but one thing is certain - our boards are EASY to fault find and repair with common parts in most cases.
Anyway, it certainly would be possible to have these Heighway boards made, expensive but possible.
I will post a few new pics in the TAG thread of some under playfield shots that show the simplicity or our boards (in the main).
If they are already out there....
