14 Mar
2005
14 Mar
'05
9:48 p.m.
Ohh bad news, David :(
(I would say the exact value of the caps really isn't that crucial, IME it can be in the same ballpark and you'll just get some lack of smoothing on the generated levels. In all cases I'd trust Maxim's datasheets over Maplin's catalogue though!)
Yes reverse polarity might be a killer (though open-circuit across Gnd/Vcc isn't really an indication of this).
Re USB, it may well be that the 5V for USB is always present (they're regulating 5V somewhere to provide the 5V out of the EXP port, after all) - I shall try to check this out when I have it in a suitably unbooted state.
Better luck next time :/
-Matt