Max V Hardware Implementation

Thanks a lot for the insight, guys.

FvM, I tend to be a bit clumsy and pull jumpers all the time. And I feel the main advantage of a PCB is that it can be completely jumper free. Jumpers will just make the entire thing more fragile.

I REALLY would prefer a continous ground plane but it can get quite hard with so many traces. I am going to investigate if its worthwhile getting the final PCB manufactured from abroad (this is just a prototype). If so, I'll go with a 4 layer board and then have continuos ground and power planes.

Do you, however, feel that the current layout will give me trouble? Please note, this is just a prototype and my only requirement is that it lets me hit the ground running - allows me to write the firmware for the CPU and get the CPLDs to talk to the MCU.

Also, could you elaborate what you meant by the term ground escape traces?

Looking at the layout, I think I can take the thick blue trace that passes near R2 and bring it over to the top layer. In that case, I'll need to route the signal around the J3 connector.