This and that

It was my intention to update this blog on a daily basis but I now realise that due to work, life and the internet connection that will have to be cut back to a few times a week. But never mind I will still be here. During my exile to the home while I do battle with the rear breaking system on the Alfa Romeo, I have had plenty of time to indulge my hobbies. But as my job is also my hobby there is always a crossover at some point. So I found myself thinking like this, what if I combined one of my old radio control cars with a video cam, that way I could theoretically send it into dark out of the way places where the human body cant reach, and get a different perspective of locations that may have been buried since about 1779! This is very much along the lines of BOB the hover cam that I was working on so I could get a look in the cells of the Navel Prison at Bodmin, Bob is currently grounded at the practice in Tintagel until I can source a new battery but I am sure he will be back. So on to this latest project, I have a Tyco Twister, its 13 inches long and 7 inches high so a nice workable platform for a project. I have removed the top panel to reduce the hight, the good or interesting thing about this vehicle is its method of locomotion, it uses Archimedes Screws to travel on, this gives it very good traction. I am in the process of fitting a head unit combining the camera and lighting system, also because I have loads of bits lying around I am going to fit this head on a swivel platform attached to a servo to give pan & tilt to the camera.

I am back to work tonight as I have a private booking at the Jail to watch over until 4am, it should be an interesting night as I have not worked with this company before, so it will be interesting to see how they operate. Tomorrow is the last commercial night of the year at Bodmin, its been an interesting year and seems to have gone very quickly. I will do a round up after I recover on Sunday, and give you some of the highlights and some of the very quirky sayings that I have been told to me over the year. Last friday Paul from the group took this interesting photograph on level 2 at the Jail,

Enjoy