[Spiffed]

OK,
Sorry I dropped the ball on monitoring this thread. I'll deal with the quick issues regarding ordering first:

• Yes, the shipping calculator's been on the fritz lately, it now falls back to default rates if Canada Post doesn't provide one. Base shipping rates are:
  • Canada: $1.40
  • USofA: $2.27
  • International: $4.19
• Yeah, any form of First Class Mail can take a while to cross the border. First class mail is inspected by both Canadian and International customs (and whatever air-carrier is involved for overseas). Based on manifest tracking, i can tell it takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 15 business-days to clear cross-border customs. Expedited US is really your cheapest rate for guaranteed shipping times.

Now, with regard to kits:

It looks promising, but I think a ftdi chip (USB) might enjoy a larger audience. My feeling is that I initially underestimated the footprint of legacy free machines out there when this project started.

Having found a source for less expensive FT232 chips, I think I'll go with a USB interface.

Or possibly just a kit with the software already loaded

I'll include whatever the latest software revision is when I package the kits. The ATmegas need to be burnt anyway, and it's just one less step.

It is a PITA to translate that to a simple PCB though, I wind up making them a bit like making jewelery ( see this post ) but I have a couple things I still want to try in that department.

buttons beside the LCD gave the lowest profile I could actually have manufactured. I'll see about making that section "break-away" so it could be mounted on top, if desired.

The consensus is that the blue ones suck. The green ones are much better especially if you crank up the contrast.

The blue ones are also nearly 2x as much wholesale, I'll either use g/y newhaven units or equivalent spec knock-offs.

FYI, I haven't had any trouble with nothing connected to the reset pin for the chipswap versions

Reset is pulled high internally with about 100-400K. To use the Arduino IDE's auto-magic reset, you need around 5-20K of resistance (or a ridiculously small cap).

The pinout to the buttons and the LCD is the same, correct

Yup, thankfully these things are standardized.

Iwould like to recommend to place approx 18 pF capacitors instead of 0.1 uF for C7 and C8.

Of course, it looks like an oops in the schematic. They'll be somewhere between 16 and 28pF depending on the crystal's cut.

Now that I'm done launching the StickDuino Freeduino, I'd like to have this ready for early September. I received a few requests for pre-orders and the like: If you're interested, PM me and I'll add you to a list to be notified when I have some pre-release ones to play with. (Actually, just PM me if you'd like to be a beta tester ... I only have the one car to test on.)
When I get back into work tomorrow I'll add the new board/render images.