100% Work at Home

I have now switched to working 100% at home, to do my bit to help reduce the infection rate of the COVID-19 virus. The cold that I had last week seems mostly better now, and never developed into a fever or cough, so that's good at least. It's hard to say how long this thing is going to last; if the experience in China is anything to go by, it looks like we will be in for a rough couple of months at least.

On the AMOS front, last week I was able to get some 1/8" thick aluminum plates cut out and drilled by Marcus at Mason & Sons Metal Fabrication and Welding in Rusagonis, NB. Altogether the plates add a bit of weight (~ 6.8 lbs) but they are definitely quite sturdy and hold the pontoons together quite nicely. I also added some 1/4" diameter threaded rods to 6 locations around the perimeter for securing the solar panel with wingnuts. The threaded rods were held in place at first with a bit of construction adhesive, but they still felt a bit loose, so I added some Gorilla epoxy. They seem secure now, but I'll want to test them out a bit, as I suspect they might work their way loose over time. I'm thinking some long slots that the solar panel slides into might work better than threaded mounting posts.

Here is a picture of Kirsten holding the Cat version of AMOS with the aluminum plates:

For now I'll just use the same electronics boxes that the surfboard AMOS had on the front and back metal plates. Later on I might try out smaller boxes recessed into the pontoons themselves. Having the boxes recessed would significantly cut down on wind resistance.

The software user interface for defining where and how to take pictures was completed just today. Here is a demo video that I made of laying out a route that leaves from Liberty State Park and circles around the Statue of Liberty, stopping to take 5 pictures of the statue at each of 4 different locations around Ellis Island. I won't actually attempt a field test of this route; it's just fun to imagine taking AMOS to exciting destinations while I'm stuck inside the house. :-)