Dear Diary,

It has indeed become apparent that the old RP5 chassis is not suitable for this project. In addition to my previous gripe about noise, it's also too narrow, and just generally too crowded. It is a neat chassis, and I look forward to using it someday, just not for Ruprecht (maybe for that K9 that I've been wanting to do).

To be clear, I am not abandoning this project. Instead I will build a custom chassis that's wide enough to handle the picture in my head of the pair of arms, head, and all the hardware (about 9 to 10 inches wide, or twice that of the RP5, and probably 12 or so inches in length). Still a small enough size to be apartment friendly, and wife approved(!). In the spirit of keeping this as low-cost as possible I will again build the decks/plates out of 1/8" fiberboard with aluminum angle and/or pine strip bracing, and I'll start off with those el-cheapo yellow gear motors, wheels, and magnetic encoders, and an imported L298 motor driver (basically a $25 drivetrain). All of these parts should be easily upgrade-able as time, desire, and budget allow.