When All Goes Wrong

May 10, 2025

If you cannot cry to your diary, then to whom? Lend me your shoulder, dear diary.

Do not let the blue smoke out, said the Electrical Engineer.

This smoke? I replied, gesturing at the plume snaking upward from my third attempt at today&rsquo0;s clever circuit.

Of course, there was no engineer present. It was my self-reproach speaking, alone with me as together we laid further ruined components upon a growing pile.

My goal had been to connect an Arduino to a soil moisture sensor and to one of those four-digit displays like you find on microwave ovens. The Arduino would evaluate the signal from the sensor and display it. The project needed only a few wires and a dozen lines of code. Simple.

The day went by quickly. I destroyed four Arduinos and three each of the sensors and the displays. Everything went wrong, even when I checked carefully.

Such days take one's confidence away. I usually bounce back. Not so sure this time. I feel really disgusted toward the gizmos.