The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!
Robert Burns
The plan was to cut down on soldering by designing and manufacturing our own PCB. So off to the appropriate website, mouse away and click merrily, then hand over a very small fortune (US$13.81 including shipping) and finally sit by the post box and wait (25 days from order to arrival). And they were so pretty, and so horribly designed in the flesh...
Ooops - let's call it a learning curve ball...
The manufacturers had faithfully reproduced the nonsensical design. After 24 hours of thought (and some swearing), a bit of creative "re-wiring", some non-UN approved soldering and then voilà!
So it's lost a bit of functionality - it no longer turns on at night by itself (the LDR is incorrectly wired), but the chip does talk to the LEDs nicely to make a flickering candle effect as per the original idea way back when. The new version is wired correctly (crosses fingers and toes) and should arrive within the month - watch this space...
It was frosty overnight and very crunchy when going downstairs to feed the girls this morning. The pups find the first light and warm up as soon as possible.
Two dogs, one horse
We are finally getting some rain and the tanks are filling up. The rainbows are nice as well - here is Dip Road on the way to work...
A pot of gold?
Mostly we sit by the fire - although Kym has been a demon in the garden and it's looking ripe and ready for the growing season.
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