Things are getting close to the end as far as school goes and that excites me.  Did well on the Systems and Controls test yesterday, I might have missed one problem but only in part, so it’s possible that I came out with an A.  That would be really nice. 

Photius is doing well.  We got the servo that will be the turret mounted and talking to the handyboard through C.  Not interactive C, mind you, we tossed out that option a while ago; interactive C is just too slow for our taste.  Loading actual C to a board and having it interpret it at run time just isn’t the best use of a 2MHz processor.  Instead, we’re using an actual C compiler for the HC11, making Motorola S19 files (assembly) and running at a 1KHz program loop.  It’s good stuff.  Photius runs smoother than ever.  I’m about to head up to the school and do so more work; I’ve got the 38KHz oscillator working, transmitting IR, and the receiver working, I just need to work on the control circuitry and then put all of that fun on a perfboard and get it off of the breadboard.  What else?  I have to make the mounts for the IR sensors and the turret horn, and modify the mounting of the IR proximity sensors so that they are lower to the ground.  After that, all the work should be in software, which, so far, has only presented a problem once: getting the servo to talk to the card consistantly.  In that process we managed to run the servo past it’s left stop, but it seems to still be working fine for the moment.

I’m ready to be done with all of this and get a real job where I can learn more.  School, and the resulting feeling of being constantly busy without purpose, has gotten old.  I think that when it comes time for grad school I won’t mind taking it slow and a few classes per semester, but of course at that time I’ll have the choice of what I study, and I won’t be doing constant busy work for courses like art and government.