I haven't had much free time recently, so things have been going slowly. I did recently put together the frame for the second axis, but I haven't mounted it properly to the first yet.

Second Axis

I had some free time this afternoon, so I built a box to act as the base for the BoaArm. Despite all the time I spent marking and measuring, some of the legs are still slightly warped. I guess my carpentry skills need some work, so apparently does my work with a scroll-saw.

Hard to believe it has been almost a week since I last posted anything, but it has been. My BoaArm is moving forward, I was getting read to implement a PID controller for the motors (I still might), when it occurred the me that I might actually be able to brake the motors.

Well, I finally got around to testing my code for the BoaArm, and I almost immediately ran into trouble. Firstly, the motor sensors are powered separately from the rest of the circuitry. After locating the pin used to enable the sensor power, and connecting it up to the new cpu, I ran into another issue, jitter.

I spent most of my free time today putting together this kit that I ordered. Its a satellite receiver, it picks up APT transmissions from weather satellites. Although the receiver is assembled, It will still be a while before I'm receiving images of the earth. The receiver needs to be calibrated first, which requires a frequency generator capable of at least 150mhz, as well as a frequency counter capable of at least 150mhz. I'll also need an antenna, but I can build one of those.