Few years back I've began to experience limitations of AVR microcontrollers. Don't get me wrong - they are great for most of projects hobbyist can think of. At least until at some point you want to include decent TCP/IP stack, file system and graphical display into your project. So I began to look for some alternative. Most obvious choice nowadays would be the STM32 family, but finally I decided to try PIC32s instead.
Instead of buying new dev board, I decided to make one myself. My initial prototype was ugly and bulku, constructed on single sided PCB, with a lot of wires bridging connections. Simply speaking - it was like every other project I made to this point.
It was the moment when I decided to try something new. I was curious if I will be able to design and make smaller, compact version of this board. It was an opportunity to acquire couple of new skills, mainly manufacturing double sided PCBs and soldering MLF/QFN ICs.