This week, we should think about our plans for our final project. I chose to build an active three axis gimbal for the raspberry pi zero, as described in my proposal and my final project documentation. For that, I have to think about a suitable, balanced frame design holding the pi and three motors; I have to design and control circuits that move the motors; and I have to integrate an orientation sensor in order to stabilize the pi's orientation. I found an open hardware 3-axis gimbal controller, which seems to work extremely well (at least there is a somewhat large fan community); however, the firmware is not open source. Also, this project uses a modular design, which I think might be a little over engineered for my purposes. Thus, I will design my own hardware and control software. Of course, there are also designs for 3D printed gimbal frames online (for example this one), but since I have a custom controller, motors, and camera, I will make my own as well. Building a well-working gimbal is by no means an easy project, but I think it will be manageable in the remaining time of the Fab Academy.

You can find a regularly updated schedule, bill of materials, and documentation on my final project site.

In particular, I have moved the motivation and bill of materials over to the final project site, because I think it is better integrated there and not unnecessarily repeated here.