I’m working on a beaglebone cape that will interconnect an APM2 Mega (or Mini). The idea is to keep it simple and maximize existing off the shelf components. The APM2 is the sensors for the beaglebone. The APM2 runs a special custom firmware that does all the sensor interfacing, reads the RC receiver, and drives the servos. The beaglebone is then freed up of all the hard-real-time responsibilities of sensor IO and it can focus on running an advanced EKF and all the other higher level autopilot, navigation, mission, and task code. I have a flying prototype so now I guess it’s time to make some hardware.
One other fabrication choice I’ve always had good luck with is the pcb service at http://seeedstudio.com
I heard from a couple people that they used Express PCB quite a bit and thought it was one of the simpler tools, so I am giving that a try.
@John_Anderson Thanks, I’ll have to look into seeedstudio … seems like an interesting site!