The case off the Open wind turbine controller (Battery Charger) - a reel need

I you have ever considered to go all-green and self-sustainable, producing your own food and energy, then somewhere down that line you will stumble upon lead acid batteries. Then you will pounder over the heavy price tag of the batteries and how short lived they are and how they need to be nurtured like babies - fully charged at all time or face the sulfation death in no time. Then you want to combine wind and solar power - thats doable - with the possibility to expand the system if needed - now you are in trouble.. And maybe charge from the grid If.. Try finding that product (without getting a heart-attack when you see the price-tag and realizing its not a scalable solution). You decide to build it yourself because you think you are pretty smart and have a solder iron (somewhere), can read a manual, have a computer at home and at work and in the cellar - how hard can it be? It turns out to be very hard if unless you realize you had forgotten you had a degree in electrical engineering. Its a whole new world with a new language and you surf the Internet for the most trivial questions. The first time I soldered something and IT WORKED - I was very pleased with myself (though it was very trivial).
My first "product" was a wind turbine controller (as seen in the picture - mine was just not as clean looking). It took me 6 months to finish it WITH help. I ordered components from UK, USA and Sweden - all because it couldn't "speak" the language of electronics. I had no idea specific parts could be change to another part i could be locally. I followed the recipe like a blind - stumbling along. Then came the day when every thing came together and it worked and I had no idea how this miracle had happened.
I learned A LOT from this project - but somehow it was humiliating experience. I am surrounded by electronics - My life is based on electronics - I am very interested in computers and gadgets, and still I could only barely build a very simple charge controller. It was a slap in the face. Today, 3 years later, it would be easier, but nothing I do in my sleep. Since then I have been surfing the net for every kind of DIY (Do It yourself) projects. There is a lot of help out there, but the entry-level is high and its a jungle. When it comes to DIY power production there is several sites worth mentioning:

• The Otherpower and their huge forum Fieldlines.
  The main focus is DIY windpower and building stuff (metalwork, wingprofiles..).
• TheBackshed - An AU site with lots of good info, written in a straight forward language with graphics even I "get".
  The main focus is DIY windpower, electronics, CNC
• Windstuffnow - Mr. Ed Lenz who will go down in history as the Guru of DIY windpower. His Lenz2 turbine is going to be known for eternity.

And speaking of the DIY charger from TheBackshed - It works. It even has a serial out with production values - thats nice - but its a crude charger - ON/OFF. A modern lead acid charger is more than this. Its base level charging and trickle charging and support charging. If there is a wind turbine in the other end of the charger controller then there is several design choices there has to be made (because the common wind-turbine has to be connected/controlled at all time - otherwise it risk running amok self-destructing in mid air throwing splinter hundreds of meters).
Here is an area for much improvement, for a much better, much smarter wind-turbine controller.
I can find a DIY LEGO robot that sets up dominoes, Remote control pellet gun – with scope and Office prank: death from above in 2 min. on the the splendid site Hack a Day - but try to find a DIY small scale wind turbine controller for lead acid batteries (other than the one I linked to). Good luck and I will not rant about what is most needed world wide.
If YOU have found a better solution please comment!