Progress has been slow on my UxV Control Station project recently due to other obligations. However, I have decided to create an Arduino shield for that project to make it easier for interested people to recreate the UxV-CS. I'm not very experienced in hardware design, so things are going slow but steady.
I will not be selling any hardware but I will publish the design files under a CC license when ready.
Why a shield instead of a full custom PCB? That's pretty easy to answer - it's more flexible. The user can use a MEGA1280 or MEGA2560 or any pin-compatible clone. It's also more future-safe. My current design is just planned for 5V but with very little changes it could be made compatible e.g. with an Arduino DUE which has considerably more processing power.
Comments
Thx for the advice! I use Fritzing on Linux and it does pretty much everything automatically. I don't really know how to change those configurations. All I do is draw straight lines between the holes and Fritzing does all the routing :).
But... I'm not ready yet, so thing should improve :).
Some PCB layout tracing tips:
-Avoid 90º angles, configure your PCB design software to make 45º corners.
-Check the pad to track. Connect always the same way. Don´t do strange angle connects.
-Put some order in your drawing, keep some clearance between tracks and pads if possible.
-Consider the use of ground planes (no track without a matching ground plane!!!).
If you need some layout design advice write me private.
Saludos!!