Brian SwetlandPCBs are back from JLCPCB and looking very nice. If I do another batch I think I'll reduce the width of the edge fingers area 1-2mm so it's just a bit less snug in the card slot. Time to do some soldering.
My soldering is not going to win any awards, but it should be good enough to get the job done. Time to see if I can make the firmware go.
I just realized I don't actually own any LCD displays with VGA in (though I do have a cheapo VGA->HDMI adapter around here somewhere). I do happen to own *one* remaining CRT, so I used that to try the test pattern mode. Looks like the VGA out side of the firmware is happy at least!
Studio 8502 
C64tone
Kate Temkin@swetland is it just me, or are the leftmost two passives only soldered on one side?
@ktemkin Doh! It is not just you.
I do Rs and Cs by putting solder on one pad, then sliding the component in with tweezers while reheating that side, then I go back and hit the other side of all of them... but I missed a few here.
@swetland when hand soldering passives, I do similar — I tin all the pads on one side, and then I heat them and push the part into it and let surface tension straighten it; I then hold the part with tweezers to make sure it doesn’t come away with the iron
then I quickly solder all the other sides; and come back for reflux and reflow of all the first sides
that last step makes it hard to miss the other side, since if you did, the part will tombstone or come away with the iron ^^
@swetland How much for an unpopulated PCB?
@mos_8502 For 5 pieces, I paid $4.70/ea for the main PCB and $0.40/ea for the VGA connector board. Shipping was about $17 for the lot.
Components are pretty cheap too -- a Rpi Pico, 4x 74LVC245A, and some Rs and Cs, mostly.
@swetland Yeah, makes sense -- though, I was asking how much I'd have to give you to have you mail me one of the PCBs.