Setback

Today we were able to mount spotlights onto stepper motors. So now, we have two flashlights on top of their respective stepper motors (total of 4 stepper motors and 2 flashlights, as is our system requirements). We finished connecting all our components together, and soldered all the necessary connections together. But during the testing phase, we had accidentally wired a voltage source incorrectly, and forced too much voltage onto our stepper motor driver. It was given a 15V voltage, when its maximum allowed is between 5V and 7.5V. Meaning, this chip was fried. We did a few tests to ensure that this was indeed the problem. Luckily for us, we had bought one extra precautionary chip to replace this one, but now we are out of chances to mess up chips (this would be our third stepper motor driver that has been rendered unusable). Also, because we no longer have any more space on which to put our stepper motor drivers, we will need to buy another circuit board. And those things weren't cheap in the first place.

We are continuing to explore various possibilities in improving the delay of our system, but testing on these methods will have to wait until our current problems are fixed. An update will be posted most likely in the next 24 hours.