Thanks Spelljammer and tag16c. Those are both great ideas for getting the thread to the front face of the mirror and both simple and cheap. I like them! tag16c, thanks for the suggestion on the circuit. I'll keep it in mind. Right now we don't need to worry about that; we are nowhere needing those high of speeds. The circuit Scott is working on now is a simple capacitor-and-diode edge detector fby JamesCooper - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
These are very good points, both of which we were aware of. Rylan's early prototypes used a second surface mirror (he once used old CDs), but I believe he is using first surface mirror for the recent prototypes and will definitely be using that in the final version. As for the pivot point, it gets a bit tricky. To make this simple to build as a kit, we are currently using a tensioned thread as thby JamesCooper - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms