[fstokesman]

Indeed - I know I could have also popped out the DIP micro on the board and used it directly, but I choose not to for two reasons:

1. Its so much bulkier, and I wanted something that was the same form factor as my old unit 2. It seemed way more fun to do things this way, and I was pretty sure I could do the whole operation in less than an hour

[osamagirl69]

Clearly you should have compromised and hacksaw'ed out the usb jack + ftdi region of the board, thus satisfying both your desire to have something jankey and compact. You would even get free activity LEDs!