Log 3/15/2011

Today in class I finally finished assembling the first system in my project and it didn't work.  The gear shafts weren't straight enough.  Tonight I took the project home and worked for 3 hours taking it apart for the third time and trying to find yet another solution.  While trying to hammer a nail in I cracked the box.  While trying to move other pieces around the wires on the receiver tore and I had to solder them again.  I had to cut and re-cut, drill and re-drill and the gears were still giving me trouble.  I can't honestly see this project getting done the way I originally planned.
There were some things I could not determine without having the product actually assembled and one of those things was the power of the first motor.  Once I assembled everything I realized that it was not strong enough to turn a second motor, the camera, and more gears.  Because of this and the time limit that is fast approaching I have decided to amend my design so that the camera will only turn 360 degrees and not tilt.  This will not be a devastating blow to the design seeing as the glass bottom of the boat is so small.
All that is left to do is paint my portion of the project and re-attach the support beams as well as glue on the plastic velcro.  Now that I have cut a major part of my work out I should be able to finish on time.