First of all: terribly disappointed that my project didn't make it to the next round of the Hackaday Prize.  I tried really hard this time, checked all the check boxes they demanded... except I didn't make a hokey video in which I explain how great my stuff is I guess.  Congrats to the projects that went through, most very deservedly, others, less so... I don't think rotary encoders are a particularly hard problem to solve for instance, but let's leave it at that.

This project will continue with or without the funding from Hackaday of course.  Maybe a little slower since my focus needs to be on things that let me eat instead, but it will happen.

As for progress to report, I received PCBs and a stencil from Elecrow:

They came out nice, the logo printed well in silkscreen and really "pops".  The white on black is looking good.  As I said before, I would likely target yellow on black for production boards, any opinions on that?

Still waiting on the PoE Ethernet jacks from China, they will likely only arrive during my vacation, which is going to push any built-up prototypes well into the second part of June.  Let's hope they'll work right away! :)