Craft Day yesterday was a great success – the weather was just right for spending the afternoon outside painting, constructing, drawing and woodworking.

This morning, I came across this chip that seems to be exactly what I need to get the robot arm up and running again. I knew such a IC must have existed, but the only things I could find to control motors and keep track of the encoder positions were complete add-on boards that were hundreds of dollars apiece.

It’s gonna be a busy fall, project-wise – I want to finally finish the piano bench, and I’m also putting together a portfolio for an application to graduate school. The robot arm may just have to wait…