I have no doubt Duane's boards look great and work as intended, and I have never heard anything to the contrary.
Hunting for the sun is good. Hunting for the sun to the east is not quite necessary.
"don't lump all tinkerers into one box".
Good point.
My thinking related to kits contains 3 boxes; knows more than me, knows enough, or not sure what a resistor looks like. It is directly related to "Don't underestimate the time involved".
I would not exactly call you a tinkerer.
If a tinkerer's project is not working, he will try again next week. Or next month.
No rush for a tinkerer.
I can see it being worth your money to next-day-ship a 25 cent item to get your system up and running.
When I was seriously considering a parts kit, I thought I had a line on some dirt cheap mini-PVs, which fell through, taking any thoughts of a parts kit with it.
I learned my lesson ("I bet 100 packs would last a really Really Long Time, like years").
"IF it works!" meant I have not got the complete unit prototype built or tested, but it is too simple to Not work,
at least 'I think' it is too simple to Not work (reinforced by someone in the 'knows more than me' box).
Multiple individual prototype subsections seem to be functioning exactly as expected (much less frightening than it sounds).
Probably needs some tweaking somewhere. Or at least some charts related to mini-PVs?
In my opinion, it is sort of a simplified hybrid of a few different trackers.
Nothing new or ground breaking, just simpler circuit for a tinkerer to build and understand.
'Understand' being a key word because it reduces the time involved for everyone.
Anyway, There are many easier ways to make one.
G-