Retrieving objects from JSON URLs
Just a note about your comments, you don't need so many of them. Sometimes the name of functions are clear enough that anyone with a passing knowledge of the language/tools can follow it.

//tell the console what's happening
console.log("object sent to acc_datum is:");

//do the put request
return $http.put(putURL, obj).then(


Those are pretty self explanatory and taking up space, you could remove them.

Also it's better not to split a comment about 2 possiblities like this:

//on success do nothing
function(response){},
//on failure, get the data again
function(response){


They're part of one thought, combine them:

//on success do nothing, on failure get the data again
function(response){},
function(response){


This keeps your comments and code separated more cleanly.