[iambujo]

On FRC 2729 we have built a few custom boards using ExpressPCB.com. While not a portable format, their board prices are very fair and layout software is free. We have done everything dual sided, through hole for ease in hand assembly.

We have built custom sensor boards (hall effect, IR break/reflective beam) as well as a more advanced PIC uController PWM generator board we used constantly for prototyping and testing. For the sensor boards they are typically smaller than a stick of gum and provide the 3 pin PWM header and required components. We have sold the assembled Hall Effect sensor board to a fair amount of teams. We did a motor current sensor board as well.

We also built a simple board for connecting the 4 wire quadrature encoder wires to the standard PWM headers.

Hope this gives you some ideas and if you would like more details on the designs PM me.