If you haven't worked out any schematics you plan to use, at least for the short term, I would recommend buying a really large breadboard and a small spool of 22 g. wire. Take your 5V off the computer in front of you. Remember to fuse it. Yes, it's messy, but it works great 'til you figure out what you really want. A small wirewrap assy in conjunction with the breadboard works wonders.

I started laying out my own PCB and immediately realized my greatest problem is with input/output and future growth. I have no way of knowing what I'll use or experiment with in the future, so I must design it to be extrememly flexible knowing it will never be 'just right'. This extra flexibility almost makes it not worth the hassle. I've added 2 shift registers w/support circuitry to expand the ports, 20x4 LCD, 2 ADC's, buffered LED bar display to help troubleshoot code, 2 op amps, a prescaler/divider, clock source or crystal option, the ISP support circuitry, and even a 7805 5V regulator. There are a few other things I'll add but I can't remember them right now. Worst part is, I'll put all these things on the board and use jumpers, extra pads, and tristate buffers to do this. Plus, I must watch my fan out, therefore more jumpers. To end it all, I still must mount it on my original Pine board with its' terminal blocks just to connect with the real world. I already have a wire wrapped version sitting right there, but it doesn't have all the junk mounted on it.

But what if I decide to use a serial LCD instead? More changes, and they will be external to the board.

Dan