So, somehow all of this electro-mechanical jumble needs to get hooked together in a way that won’t tangle or tether. As it stands, there is no good place on the chassis to directly mount the microcontroller’s board, so we’ll need to concoct some sort of platform…

… that can rest on top of a section of aluminum tubing that elevates it adequately…

The key thing in the assembly of this apparatus was appreciating the value in a component that did not so much add structural function to the final product but rather served to make assembly far easier, specifically the lock nut that went directly beneath the platform. This nut both reduced the freedom of a sub-assembly to wobble during final assembly as well as provided a handy surface with which to execute the final assembly. The alternatives, which included trying to screw down the board as the last step or trying to run the platform-mounting screw upward instead of downward, were going to be hopelessly fiddly, a seemingly impossible task for a mere two hands.

In hindsight, I wish I had cut the sheet of aluminum that serves as the platform floor to be the length of the chassis so as to create more real estate to mount the rest of the components, namely a breadboard (of a miniature nature that I need to acquire) to plug everything together and a couple of battery packs to power everything. I’m debating whether I ought re-cut this piece larger and mount it at both ends of the chassis or just cut another smaller piece and tell my OCD that everything will be just fine.