Atasi hummed as she worked. Something about the delicate and the intricate was very soothing for her. The stepper motors only had 0.6 cm of clearance in the hosing she was working with. That would be fine, but fitting once in place was not the same as getting into that location.
She’d need a way to rotate them in to location instead of sliding, she’d need the leads to be preattached, and she’d need to do solder work several inches down the telescoping tube assembly.
A vent fan could keep solder fumes away from her face and an eye look gave her the magnification to see but solder was weak and she was too well versed in the issues of cold joint to try to milt it onto the iron and then reach that blob down. No... you melt the solder on the part, not on the iron.
Beyond of course the small amount needed to tin it for conduction.
She had a trick for this and worked her fingers in a rhythmic pattern similar to braiding her sister’s hair, if said hair was three rosin core little wires of meltable material. Solder could be floppy, but a braided tripped would hold firm even at some length so she could reach. Then it was just a matter of using her custom long reach needle nose to slide the belt on, on end. Stretching to the motor on the other as she gently rotated it into position.
A few screws later and it was mounted in place. She clipped its leads to a function generator next to test operation. Some extra lubrication was required on the silicone shaft interface but soon it could move. Telescoping to the full distance she had spec’d in.
Now for the power delivery circuits and the controller board. Luckily both of those were relatively easy. An Arduino could handle the control and was easily programmable. The power circuit required more OOMF in that it had to by physically larger to function safely. Luckily the base component could be larger than the main body so a small 12V supply fit in under the rubbery waterproofed padding nicely. Wires coiled into well contained balls of cord also tucked inside with space to spare for the Arduino and its relay.
One needed a relay of course, as putting voltage through the controller board was a recipe for unpleasantness. And a solid-state variable one at that. More a tunable potentiometer than anything at that point, but whatever the manufacturer wanted to call it, it meant that voltage could be on, or off, or somewhere in the middle, controlled by the capacitor smoothed PWM signal from the Arduino.
A test was next. Power to wall, usb to computer, and she could code up some routines on to the board. A simple slider for power, a more complicated one with randomized settings for the three motors. The off balance spinner was just speed, the telescoping rails needed distance control as well through the linear encoder inside the shaft so she could control exact extension, and a clever little angel dear system to apply force at angles giving a few different axes of freedom for position. The mechanism could lift, and turn and even rotate to a point while extending in and out according to defined routines.
Satisfied with its operation she had to fuse the soft outer housing. Waterproofing was essential after all, and that meant she needed to ensure any seam was sealed with silpoxy rubber, sewn into place to hold it while it cured, and then a second layer overtop smoothed to avoid rough spots and for ease of insertion into its intended home.
It was a project of a few weeks on and off planning an testing and building, but eventually she was done, and her majestic construction was standing at mast on her workbench, glistening lightly with the shiny surface of fresh cured adhesives. It could extend from 3 to 12 inches as desired, actuate to most any angle, and send precision-controlled vibrations over which one could almost play music if they were so inclined to.
Now all that was left was a real-world test.
Atasi stood up with a grin on her face and began to unzip her pants.
