I modified this project http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Capacitive-Liquid-Sensor/
I use two strips of copper (stained glass edge foil) about 3/4 " apart and a ATTiny with Capacitance Sensor library
http://playground.arduino.cc//Main/CapacitiveSensor?from=Main.CapSense, that just sends the raw data over I2C, using the Tiny Wire library.  The main reader program on the Arduino reads the value then constrains it to  a range from the high to the low values that are stored in Eeprom, then maps it to 0-100 and pretty much uses his function to display a bar graph. I have also set it up to display % full for four tanks on a 1602 LCD instead. There is a menu to set the high and low values on each tank, as each one will vary according to how thick, dirty, depth, material of the tank,etc to store them in eeprom.
PM me if you want sample code and a PDF of the sensor board, its very simple, easy to make yourself. My first ones were on strip board, about 5/8" X 1".
TomJ

kculm,
Sorry I made you feel put upon, just was trying to give you a bunch of things to research, and I'm pretty preoccupied right now.
As Werner VonBraun said "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
You are where I was at when I started designing my solar system 2 years ago. Here is a controller kit you can buy that is quite good, I have had one running without a problem for 2 years, for the first year it  and 3 - 85 watt panels supplied all the electric needs for our 5th wheel camper, now it just keeps my utility trailer winch AGM battery charged.
http://www.cirkits.com/scc3/index.html
This is my next solar project when I get time.
http://www.timnolan.com/index.php?page=arduino-ppt-solar-charger
In all actuality, for a non-critical application as small as you are needing, a cheap controller off of E-bay or
from Harbor freight would be cheaper and probably good enough. Of course that is not the reason you like to fiddle with electronics.
Here is a place with cheap panels http://www.sunelec.com/ .
For some fun, here are some easy to build trackers- scroll way down.
http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm
Good luck.
TomJ

jdoll,
Can't find it now, but I saw a site with a guy who made a wood frame CNC using high quality drawer slides.
This design would led itself to that well.
I wonder if just a plunge router mounted above with a simple up and down actuator for cutting wood, routing the copper off PCBs, ect. would work? I really don't like the black edges on laser cut wood parts.
TomJ

kculm,
Well, that depends.
How long each day do you plan on running the lights?
Is the ATTiny drawing current even when the lights are off?
What is your latitude.
What angle is the panel going to be mounted at ?
How many hours a day are you able to get full sun on the panel.
How far is the panel going to be from the charge controller and battery?
How many days do you want to be able to use the lights in case of constant cloudy weather?
How maintenance free do you want the system?
Do you forsee adding more light strings in the future?
What budget are you looking at?
Maybe some one could design a system with those answers, or you could research how to design one yourself.
Lots of books and online info available.
TomJ

Martin,
Try Evilmadscientist.com for lots of options like this http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/75-peggy2.
Big enough? you can add more.
TomJ

I always have to burn the correct speed into new ATTinys by selecting "burn bootloader" under Tools.
Doesn't really burn a bootloader, just sets the correct fuse bits.
TomJ

dritchie,
Whay OS are you using. Wondering if this would help under Squeezy Linux.
TomJ

sdturner,
20 years ago when I lived there Atex by the airport was great, since defunct. You might try http://www.intertexelectronics.com/, haven't been, just heard about in on another forum.
TomJ

Check your link, couldn't find the slave code.

Why not a PCB under the foam with regular tact switches lined up under each hole. Wire them up like a matrix keypad. Shouldn't need as many pins that way. Just spit-balling here.
TomJ

GuiRitter,
I am using Squeezy and Arduino 1.0.1, which last I checked was the latest apt-get repository, on an Raspberry Pi. Works well with a Uno, through USB or or an FTDI  Friend, but I cant get it to upload to ATTiny processors thru a USBTiny ISP. Same sketches work fine under Windows.
I didn't have to set any special permissions to use the USB port.
Did you just download and unpack the 1.0.4, or get the source code and compile it?
TomJ

NickH,
Just use the analog pins as digital inputs, treat them just the same, declared as pins 14 to 19. That is not really necessary, but it helps me keep track of what each pin is used for what.
Analog read returns 0 to 1023, so to check for 4+ volts in your code you needed to check for 768+ on analogRead, but if using digital, just wire the button to ground when closed and use somethin like this:

Code:

button1=14;
setup()
{
  pinMode(button1, INPUT_PULLUP);
} 
  void loop()
  {
    int  val1 = digitalRead(switchPin);      // read input value and store it in val1
  delay(3);                                 //very simple debounce use your favorite             
    if (val1 == LOW)
    {
      Do what you need here
    }
  }

TomJ

OK, I've wasted enough time on this, time to ask for help.
I purchased a ITB02 shield from Electrodragon and liked it because I could hack the SD pins so I could use I2C. Ordered another sheild/LCD set and it has changed to ITD01. The LCD works fine but the touch is flipped. The x coordinates are fine, just the y is upside down, not rotated.
I have looked a the .cpp and .h files in the UTouch library, but it is beyond my experience how to change it. They have a demo on the ElectroDragon site that works fine, but it doesn't use a library and I am not good enough programmer to code every pixel.
I have checked the pinouts used in my Utouch constructor against their demo and I think they are the same. There is a mention of CS being tied to ground now, but that doesn't seem to be the problem, to me anyway.
I have tried to find another source for the old ITB02 boards and not had much luck, they all seem to use the four shift registers to run everything.
I have searched here and Google for hours looking for a simple answer.
I tried to run the calibration test, but it jumps past the instruction screen, thenshifts back and forth from the Hold to the Press screens to fast for the eye to see. Like something is pressing on the screen.
Here are all the (I hope) relevant links and my constructor code from example Touch_button_test.
LCD http://www.electrodragon.com/?product=itdb02-2-4-tft-lcd
Sheild http://www.electrodragon.com/?product=itdb02-2-4-tft-lcd-arduino-adapter-shield
schematic of shield http://elecfreaks.com/store/download/datasheet/shield/schematic-2.4-v2.pdf
demo code http://elecfreaks.com/store/download/datasheet/shield/TFT2.4-Shield-v2.zip
Utouch Lib http://henningkarlsen.com/electronics/library.php?id=55
UTFT lib http://henningkarlsen.com/electronics/library.php?id=51
Relevant code from the demo in UTouch

Code:

// UTouch_ButtonTest (C)2010-2012 Henning Karlsen
// web: http://www.henningkarlsen.com/electronics
//
// This program is a quick demo of how create and use buttons.
//
// This program requires the UTFT library.
//
// It is assumed that the display module is connected to an
// appropriate shield or that you know how to change the pin
// numbers in the setup.
//

#include <UTFT.h>
#include <UTouch.h>

// Declare which fonts we will be using
extern uint8_t BigFont[];

// Uncomment the next two lines for the Arduino 2009/UNO
UTFT        myGLCD(ITDB24E_8,19,18,17,16);   // Remember to change the model parameter to suit your display module!
UTouch      myTouch(15,8,14,9,8);
          //tclk,tcs,din,dout,irq   these are the pinout orders

ElectroDragon chat room says they will work on it, but it should be working.

/////////////////////////////////EDIT///////////////

So simple no wonder nobody answered.
Just subtracted Mytouch.getY function output from 240, which reversed y value.
Now to try it in my own sketches.
 Code I changed from example.

Code:

void loop()
{
  while (true)
  {
    if (myTouch.dataAvailable())
    {
      myTouch.read();
      x=myTouch.getX();
      y=240 -(myTouch.getY());
     
      if ((y>=10) && (y<=60))  // Upper row
      {
        if ((x>=10) && (x<=60))  // Button: 1
        {
          waitForIt(10, 10, 60, 60);
          updateStr('1');
        }

Paul,
If you haven't been using resistors with the LEDs , or tried to connect the motor directly to the Arduino pin, then yes you probably have messed up something.
There are lots of tutorials on the web for doing these kind of projects and the reasons behind the resistors and transistors used to drive things from seperate power supplies. Mostly it boils down to not drawing over the specified 40mA from any one pin, or 200mA combined from all.
There are ways to bypass the voltage regulator to test the AT328, but you run the risk of letting ALL the magic smoke out if you don't know what your doing, and I'm not about to be your accomplice in that.
This part of the forum will answer lots of questions about running high power stuff.
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/board,9.0.html
TomJ

Quote
13.5 cm ==>  1.8" if my math is not failing
Given that the inch is defined as 2.54mm (a huge improvement over the original length of three barleycorns), I think your arithmetic is failing, quite badly. 

Actually, I just measured a barleycorn, and it was 8.467mm, so I think you missed your decimal point by one.lol
TomJ