Hackvana specializes in "Maker Specs." These are design parameters that are incredibly forgiving for beginners yet robust enough for advanced applications. Standard offerings usually include FR-4 fiberglass substrates, standard 1.6mm thickness, and solder masks in various colors (green being the classic, but purple, black, and blue adding a touch of personal flair). By standardizing these specs, the manufacturing process is streamlined, keeping costs down to a pittance—often mere dollars for a batch of ten boards.
Automated fabs hate through-hole components. They require wave soldering, selective soldering, or hand-stuffing. Most services charge exorbitant fees for this. Hackvana treated through-hole with a shrug. "Yes, we can hand-solder those 40-pin headers. No, we won't charge you a mortgage payment for it." hackvana
Hackvana matters because it represents the best of the maker movement: Hackvana specializes in "Maker Specs
The story of is a legend in the DIY electronics community, centered on a charismatic Australian man named Automated fabs hate through-hole components
The service is dead. The spirit is undead.
If you search "Hackvana" on GitHub, you will find that Mitch open-sourced many of the internal scripts and BOM checkers used to run the service. Furthermore, the remains active. It is now a support group for hardware designers who formerly used the service. Inside, you can find freelance assemblers who worked with Hackvana, offering similar "human-centric" assembly under their own brands.
: Much of the business and community interaction happened on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) , specifically in the #hackvana channel on the Freenode network. Why Makers Loved Hackvana