Over the last few weeks I have been responding to Robbie King's questions about reference design issues (See Patching functions and libraries and USB line termination in mbed LPC11U24). Robbie is turning his mbed NXP LPC11U24 design into a PCB level design, and so wanted to make sure he was building the right thing. It occurred to me that there are probably lots of other mbed users making custom PCBs to take their prototypes to the next level, but we don't often hear about it.

For custom PCB prototypes I have been using Seeedstudio Fusion PCB Service. The one shown here is an LPC11U24 breakout for testing the mass storage boot loader. At 5cm x 5cm, it only cost $9.90 for 10-off, and as I wasn't in a hurry (I have plenty other things to do here at mbed HQ!) the $3 delivery option was fine. The whole thing was $14 delivered.

Seeedstudio recently introduced a gift certificate feature on their site, and have offered some gift certificates for sponsoring some PCBs.

If you'd like to showcase what you've been working on, and maybe win a gift certificate, drop us a line at support@mbed.org, and tell us a little about the design you're working on, why it is cool, and why you should get your PCBs for free! I'll keep entries open until 18th October (you have a week!), after which we'll award the certificates. Once the PCBs are made, you'll have the opportunity to write a guest blog article showcasing your design!