Arduino Mega

Source

PCBway has an Arduino Mega file online in Eagle - [1]. Eagle to KiCad Conversion appears to be doable. An order of 100 boards appears to be $83 - so under a dollar per board.

Cost

At $10 or $11 - the Mega chip is expensive, reportedly 50% more than the comparable pic24f. Why? Good old capitalism. [2]

At such cost, the case for DIY production of Mega boards is minimal. However, if the chip can be reused and recycled, there is a strong case for Design-for-Disassembly. With such a chip, however, the reuse part is difficult.

Conclusion

There is a case for open source design so that the cost of an Atmega2560 equivalent drops down. Note that GHz processors are $40 - [3]. There is no reason for a MHz processor like the Atmega2560 to be about 50x more expensive for the computing power they provide.

Power Draw

• About 1/2W with no peripherals - [4]