It fried my microcontroller.
Upon further inspection, I realized that there was a disclaimer about this charger on the 4th page of the tutorial on how to use it. It states:
Okay, so at least i know why I fried my controller (because it was seeing 6 V from the load-sharing system, and it is only rated up to 5.5V). When it's night-time, the microcontroller will be 'asleep', consuming about 10mA at whatever voltage the battery is at (I'm assuming a max depth of discharge down to 3.5V). I want to have at least 3.3V to my project at all times, and will be powering a GSM modem which spikes during transmission, up to 2A, and which automatically shuts off if the voltage dips down below 3.2 V.The smart load sharing means that the LOAD output can be as high as 6VDC if in direct sun because it will draw current directly from the 6V panel instead of from the battery. If using this with an electronic project, make sure it is OK for up to 6VDC input or use a low-dropout-regulator (LDO) to regulate the voltage down.
Okay, so that means I need an LDO with max dropout voltage of 0.2V, input range of min: 3.5V to max: 6V, and can handle up to 2A of current.
I can't find one!
What LDO would Adafruit technicians suggest to use with this charger???
So, plan B is to simply connect my entire V+ project bus to the battery directly. The tutorial for this charger states:
Does this sound like a good idea, or a bad idea?To do this, you might connect the project directly to the battery output. This means, however, that the charger is both charging a battery and driving your project at the same time. The charger is working extra hard and the battery is being charged and discharged constantly.
EDIT:
I've decided to just go with a 5V 0.25 Watt solar panel, so that the solar panel's output won't fry my microcontroller
EDIT:
Just saw this on the solar charger site:
Looks my 5V solar panel idea isn't going to work? How can it charge off a 5V USB if it can't charge off a 5V solar panel?We've tried 5V panels and they don't work. 5.5V panels sometimes work, 6V is really the best!