[paddi91]

Shameless plug: We just launched an affordable PCB prototyping service in Europe with native KiCad support. The PCBs are manufactured in Germany with a manufacturer usually working for the automotive and medical industry. See https://go.aisler.net for details.

[pawadu]

What are the benefits of accepting kicad files instead of gerbers?

I understand people can make errors when generating gerbers but they can also make tons of errors when sending you the kicad files (like not including custom libraries).

[paddi91]

KiCad Pcbnew files contain all required footprints etc., unlike the schematic files you need no libraries or such.

Creating Gerber files is sometimes hard as different fabs require different Gerber files. Starting with the file extension ending with floating point precision.

One argument against uploading KiCad files is copyright as the fab could reverse engineer the PCB. But this does not count for open source projects and is really unlikely to happen.

[Eridrus]

All these PCB manufacturers are super cool, but does anyone know any services which come closer to making complete products for you based on design files?

I'm thinking about flashing microcontrollers, soldering components, inserting PCBs I to cases, putting them into packaging?

Obviously the holy grail would be for them to do everything in small batch runs and handle shipping for you too, but I'm also interested in services which may do only parts of this.

[mmosta]

I've used macrofab.com with great success.

Their end-to-end webapp is phenomenal and a great break when you finish a design for a client and the premium is just worth getting off your back.

[pawadu]

Try Seeed:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/propagate/

[paddi91]

We're going to start assembly with shipment in march. Drop us a line if you're interested in our pilot.