Over the past two weekends or so, I’ve been cranking out Sir Box-a-Lot handhelds for family and friends. There is no way to make a project like this profitable, but the game is more fun than it might appear — and it’s cool to watch recipients’ faces light up after receiving a homemade gift.

lcamtuf, a popular ECE blogger, has reviewed a number of USA and Chinese hobby-level PCB-manufacturers.

Pretty much everyone on the list supports 4-layer boards by the way. Even 6-layers is available from the USA-based OSHPark. I’d estimate this to be good enough for most hobbyists, though maybe someone out there is laying out 500+ pin BGAs and needs blind vias as a hobby… and needs something better. But even 200 to 300-pin BGAs is probably doable on 6-layers and standard vias.

The particular design lcamtuf made here is the AVR128DB48/32/28, multiple different designs as he iterated over different boards with different PCB manufacturers. I can recommend the AVR DB series, its an excellent and easy to use chip, suitable for beginners even.