There are actually pretty good news: Joerg's search for someone to do
the layout of the v2 prototype finally paid off, and we're now working
out the details of how to accomplish the transition.

As expected, this will involve a change of EDA (Electronic Design
Automation) tools: at least the layout will be made with Altium,
instead of Eagle. While Altium is an expensive commercial platform,
this is actually more open than what we had planned before, given
that Eagle would only have been suitable with Nikolaus' private layout
tools (for Eagle). So instead of being compatible with only a single
person, our process will become compatible with a sizeable portion of
the EE (Electrical Engineering) world.

There is also interest in using KiCAD, which would be optimal regarding
openness, but this option is still being researched. In any case, there
is a tool (altium2kicad) for converting design files from Altium to
KiCAD that seems to be quite good.

Knowing what tools will be used for v2 and what inputs will be useful
for the layouter unblocked a lot of other things, since we can now
plan and implement a strategy for migrating the design to these tools.

So we're happily busy cleaning up the schematics and converting things
that used to be Eagle-centric to be Altium-friendly.

- Werner