hackercampshenzhen.com

What It Is

DirtyPCBs.com is a low-cost manufacturing services platform for hardware hackers, makers, and open-source hardware developers. Its core offering is not a traditional software development tool, but rather a “manufacturing and fulfillment tool” within the hardware development workflow: PCB prototyping, PCB Stencil, SLA 3D printing, laser cutting, custom cables, BOM, parts libraries, PCB cloning, routing footprints, mail forwarding, export agency services, fulfillment, and shipping. The platform openly says it started as a weekend script, has an experimental feel, and focuses on Shenzhen manufacturing resources at prices close to local Chinese rates.

Core Capabilities and Ecosystem

The PCB section provides fairly detailed information: it explains 2/4-layer capabilities and lists parameters such as FR-4, copper thickness, trace width/spacing, drill sizes, tolerances, surface finish, V-groove, and Stencil. It also covers Gerber uploads, Eagle DRU/CAM files, order status, and common errors. The platform also offers a custom cable editor, sample packs, Dirty BOM, Parts Library, and a shop mechanism for sharing/selling PCBs. On the API side, the site states that many features are driven by APIs and JSON data sources, and it provides Dirty API Documentation covering Shipping, Parts library, PCBs, 3D Prints, BOMs, Cables, and Sales reports. However, no SDK or self-hosting information was found.

Pricing and Payment

Price is its biggest selling point. Example Protopack pricing: 5cm x 5cm, 2 layers, about 10 boards, 100% e-test, any color for USD 14; 10cm x 10cm for USD 25. Note that “+/-10” does not guarantee exactly 10 boards; if you need exactly 10, you must choose a more expensive option. Payments are supported via PayPal and credit card, with wire transfer available for orders over USD 1000. RMB payments are available via UnionPay, Alipay, and WeChat Pay; RMB pricing includes 17% Chinese VAT, and invoices can be requested.

Pros, Cons, and Who It’s For

Its strengths are low pricing, transparent specifications, editable Gerber files, email status updates, and coverage of multiple stages from hardware development through shipping. The downsides are also clear: the site describes itself as rough and experimental, standard airmail has no tracking and uncertain delivery times, low-cost PCB manufacturing comes with tolerance ranges for both quality and quantity, and the service tone may not suit demanding enterprise procurement. It is well suited to individual makers, open-source hardware creators, and cost-sensitive prototype validation teams; it is not suitable for projects with strict requirements around delivery schedules, SLAs, IP confidentiality, or commercial-grade quality control.

Access from China and Alternatives

The crawled text did not provide information on network accessibility from mainland China, so its China access status is marked as unknown. In terms of payments, it is relatively friendly to Chinese users, supporting RMB, Alipay, WeChat Pay, and invoices. If you need a more mature Chinese interface, more stable delivery, or local customer support, alternatives worth comparing include JLCPCB, PCBWay, and Seeed Fusion.