^ thanks! already addressed all these issues you mention but really appreciate the reminder (although, less an issue than just adding a couple 40 cent ICs).
(@nitro2k01, you may recall me working on this years back, when i absolutely misread bit and bytes and designed a whole cart around this mistake... i still feel really stupid about doing that but hey, i check every single time i do research now for making the same mistake again, i really appreciate all the help and thoughts you're willing to pour out to people in their struggles to learn and better educate themselves in this sort of endeavor)
and, thanks to everybody else for the thoughts on this! i think there is some confusion, so again, i'm not planning on putting out the PCB files ready to print and whatever. the PCB design itself is the sole element you'll need to tackle (just like how the project exists now). as an individual, or as a group, or whatever. i want to make it as explained as possible in the schematic and whatnot however, including little things like LEDs which (really) should be self-explanatory in a project of this technical scale. so, a person with literally no electronics knowledge, but can read a schematic, could have a chance at using the info (verbatim) and it end up working. which means i've got to really spell it all out, including basic LED hookups. and label all resistor values, etc.
everything else, up to that point, i am releasing. in the spirit in which it was given
@thebitman... #7, just to make sure i'm reading you right... you mean having a thru hole right next to the solder pads of SMT parts? or, would having extra long solder pads work since you can solder fly wires to them easier like that? i'm a touch confused, i think i'm seeing something in my head you don't mean... in short (just from an ease-of-PCB-design perspective) adding two rows of thru-holes/vias unnecessarily is a lot of mess you'll curse throughout the routing. keeping them on one side (with longer solder pads perhaps, or some variant of this) would be much easier.
and, your #6. it'd need to be a breakout PCB with the SMT fram on it, with swiss pins or something acting like a socketable IC. its possible... someone else mentioned switchable fram up above... sort of echoes something jazzmarazz was wanting (i think, not looking). multi-sav support is what it sounds like this boils down too, right? or, do you literally want to be able to physically swap the fram? and, why? (just for curiosity's sake)
