The Nursery - Internals
Following various requests to see the internal workings of the Nursery, here are some photos.

Nursery interior form the front

Interior, front view. LED spots and circuit boards are visible below the shelf.

Nursery interior from the top

Top view, showing LED spots.

Internal mechanism, upside down

The whole internal mechanism is a self-contained unit that slots into the outer case. Here, it's upside down. The rectangular cutout with the ribbon cable connector is the back of the control panel. The white card thingy is the back reflector for the submarine door porthole light. The leather strap is for pulling the internal assembly out of the main frame. It's awkward to grasp when insterted. The middle circuit board, just above the strap, is the power supply board, which smooths the incoming 12V and produces 5V for the servos.

Overview of the mechanism.

Overview of the mechanism, showing the simple pan-lift servo units. Because the assembly is inverted, the heads and their pan servos are all in the raised position (thanks to gravity), but the arms on the lift servos are in the 'down' position.

Main circuit board closeup

Closeup of the main circuit board. The blue board is an Arduino Mega. The green board is a custom connector/driver board which distributes power and control signals to the various components. The small square board is an mp3 player, which supplies the audio. The left-hand ribbon cable goes to the control panel. The right-hand ribbon cable goes to everything else.

Ceiling with house lights

Ceiling, with house lights.

shim