What was wrong with the GPS sensor? (Pulling too much power so that the rest of the circuit doesn't run, or is it draining the battery too quickly, not allowing the battery to charge quick enough?)
How much did the past box cost? (Both the base box and the final box)
Run the breakout box idea by him.
Irradiance Sensor Resistor - should we have the signal wire of the irradiance sensor directly connected to the Arduino. Or should we have the signal wire directly connected to the arduino. Or should we have a resistor for reasons such as the pull-up resistor to an LED?
Is there any drawbacks to having detachable parts?
What was the reasoning for having some parts directly soldered on and other parts detachable?
Found a box for us to look at. (Breakout Junction Box)
The benefits of having the XBee use headers was that in case the parts like the XBee malfunctioned, you would be able to just pop right off and be easily replaced.
The charging circuit could have been soldered directly onto the board.
The XBee and Arduino wasn't soldered on directly because those two parts needed to be taken off of the board in order to program.
The rate that the battery was charging wasn't fast enough to keep up with the current draw of the GPS sensors.
With the GPS enabled, on cloudy days the battery would deplete faster than the charger could charge the battery.
The Solar Irradiance sensor can be directly connected to the Arduino. No need for a pull-up/down resistor.