Repair of Vinduino R3

It's probably just me, but I thought 12V was 12V... turns out, putting a battery on the Vinduino R3 isn't really optional...  And 12V from a PS-15kx might be a little too much...

I thought I could run the thing off of just a 12V power supply as it's got a solar panel hookup to charge a battery...  That's when the MCP73831 let out the magic smoke... And I ordered 100 of them off ebay.  Now, a few weeks later I've checked the capacitor closest to it for damage (I don't have a meter good enough to work on capacitors of this size, something I'll have to remedy) and replaced the battery management chip.  Successfully I might add, and now, when work will allow, I'll be able to move forward putting all the other pieces together to get my remote moisture sensors up and running.  Hopefully without letting out any more magic smoke.  I'm sure that stuff isn't healthy to breath in!

Long Time Coming

I suppose a short post is better than no post.

After a long hiatus, I suppose I'll try to get back into this blogging thing in the hope that it will be helpful in the long run.  I'm attempting to recreate the Vinduino project, though documentation has been somewhat lacking.  Oh, and I've never done anything with Arduino, so this is quite the learning process, but I've been enjoying it so far... So much so that my sleep has not been very regular lately!  Between planting season here and waiting for more parts from China I'm not sure how quickly this project will progress, but there may be many additions along the way.