Light sensitive tracking device.  This was a really fun college project.
Here is a video clip that clearly demostrates the functionality of the device.

This is an excerpt from my project log book.  

Download pdf of project log book.

I put the circuitry on 2 seperate boards with a connecting data ribbon.  1 board was the computer processor and the other was the I/O board.  That way, I could re-use the processor board for future projects.

The potentiometer adjusts the photosensor sensitivity.

The project was based on the 8085 microprocessor.

I used a stepper motor to control rotation of the parabolic reflector.  The reflector was actually a solar cigarette lighter from radio shack.  I attached 2 photosensors side by side on the reflector focal point.

More wire-wrapping technique, same as the digital oscilloscope project.

The electric motor is a 1.8 degree/step 12v stepper motor.

I entered this project into the 1987 DeVry Career Expo (Irving, TX) and won second place.  I didn’t sleep the last 48 hours before the competition and finally got it working just 10 minutes before the expo opened.

On september 16 of 2007, I took a ride on my 1982 yamaha seca 400 … I had just synced the carbs and the bike was runnin good… so good.. it caught me by surprise.  As I went through an s turn, the bike accelerated better than expected.  It was dark and my headlight was angled too low, which gave me little time to see the back side of the s-curve.  I hit the brakes and skidded into the curb which dumped me into the grassy median.  I would guess I was going 35 mph when I hit.  As I fell, my left hand instinctively tried to catch my fall.  Bad idea, because I heard my forearm shatter like a tree branch snapping, then I rolled 1 time onto my right shoulder (fracturing it).  I’ve been riding since 82 and this is my first accident.

This is the result of a CT Scan done on my arm in preparation for surgery to improve movement of my tendons that are being held by excess scar tissue.

The CT Scan video didn’t visualize the data very well, so I vectorized each image and extrapolated a 3d model of my bones.  Now I can see exactly how my break is healing.