December 2008 - Construction of Hardware Begins

Decided to use design idea 2 as it is more lightweight than design idea 1 and it has addressed the issue of inertia by having a swing mechanism that pivots across the middle axis of the camera.

*Also a major design flaw was addressed. The way in which the central pipe with the gear connects to the centre point of the pan mechanism wouldn't have worked in the design. Have milled out some aluminium which will fix to the metal base and then will screw to the pipe.*

• Nerdkit is programmed to be able to temperature sense near the MCU and send this information to the laptop. This proves that it is communicating with the laptop.
• Nerdkit changed from 9v power being regulated to 5v - direct USB power without the need for a battery and voltage regulator.
• Reset switch added.
• On/Off switch added.