A professionally finished prototype circuit board is very nice, but sometimes also inconvenient. For example, when the circuit still needs some more development work and circuit traces need to be cut and/or with the aid of wires need to be re-routed.

To offer a solution for this scenario, the ‘NAKED Proto’ service has recently become available from Eurocircuits. In fact this is a circuit board of the same quality as those of the PCB Proto service, but only the masks and other overlays are missing. This limits the number of layers to two, but you can have your circuit board in your hands in 2(!) days. This means: of you order on Monday before 11:59PM, the circuit board will be manufactured on Tuesday and it will be delivered to you on Wednesday! (Providing the delivery service offers ‘next working day service’ for your location.)

And another advantage is the price: this drops to nearly half, compared to the PCB Proto service. Of course, even with the NAKED Proto service you can still determine the production technology and order a stencil (for applying the solder paste).

In short: an ideal alternative for the Proto service when your project is still at an early stage. By the way, you can make direct contact with a knowledgeable person during normal office hours via the chatbox on the website.

Try it yourself and upload and examine your own design at www.elektorpcbservice.com.