Its' been a long day. A long day after a couple of long months. But we're nearly there. Today we fitted all the electronics into the post, the icons to the outside, gave it a dust and tidy. Paul came round in the evening to resolder a couple of the jack sockets as some of the connections were a bit loose. He also PAT tested everything just to make sure my wiring and connections were all in order. Will also popped over to have a look at the final build and was very happy with it...just as we are. So, we're off to bed and have our alarms set for early.

Below are some photos of the cabling inside the post, icons stuck to the outside and the PAT testing device.

We've had another hectic few days, starting with obtaining our turf on Friday morning. Gary from Tuff Turf was working in our area and kindly came over to show us the offcuts he had available and check the size we needed, culminating in rolling out and cutting our turf on the roadside, giving us an inkling of what it looked like here when it was all fields...we now have the turf in the front room ready to add to the base next week. Our Thanks to Gary for his time and generosity.

Stuart also picked up the vinyl icons from the Sign Factory; these come in two parts, the coloured circle base and the white icon shape which goes on top, so we've been sticking these together carefully and have enough ready to use, with spares available in case of problems (such as air bubbles). As a spin off, it means the icon shapes are slightly raised on the surface, which gives them a slightly tactile quality, although possibly not enough to make them more accessible. Since we also heard from a contact at Disability Essex who is running a stall close by to Signpost at Village Green, we're hoping some of her visitors will help us find out! The information plate is being made by Signright, round the corner from us on West Road, so we've been pretty effective in using local firms, which saves on transport costs and also makes it easier to talk to someone about what you want, particularly important on a pilot project, where we're both learning as we go along. For example, the Signpost needs PAT testing as it is technically an 'electrical appliance', but we're able to call on Paul Malone's skills again for this. It's an important learning aspect for us in terms of our hopes to scale the project up, as any more permanent version will need rigorous testing to ensure it fulfills health and safety requirements. Right now though, our brains feel pretty full; less than a week to go and plenty to do.

Today my Work Pace app has a rather angry red face as it's trying to tell me that I've gone over the amount of hours worked today, in fact it's done that most days that we've been working on this project that has involved computing. Nothing that remarkable there though. I thought about reprogramming Work Pace to be more lenient but that won't help as I really need to keep an eye on my computer usage and try and keep arm and hand pains down to a minimum.

Anyhow, today we've been working on the poster and flyer. We need to have them printed by the 18th so that we can piggyback on the Village Green promotions. At the moment the only difference between the poster and the front of the flyer is the funders and supporters logos, which will appear on the back of the flyer. We've tried to keep it simple and friendly, and to use shapes that people might be familiar with. Also keeping the Signpost white keeps a little bit of intrigue as to the what the actualy Signpost will be like. It also helps as the actual object isn't built yet and don't have any images to use.

At the moment the back needs more work as there is too much text and it's not very readable so needs to be in a larger font. But more work on that tomorrow. Below are images of the Flyer front, flyer back, and poster.

Today I also rang Neil at Carters Joinery, who will be making the post and he said that he has received the plans from William, and will start on our drawing in the morning. I also got a message from Paul Malone to say that the headphone electronics will be ready Monday, so that should be just in time for constructing the post...exciting.

So now we have most of the parts I've been testing them to make sure everything works and that the quality is going to be good enough. Going back to what I was saying the other day in that getting everything to work together is problematic was still ringing true as I was still a cable short of connecting the second screen to the splitter cable coming from the first screen. I rang David Valentine (usually the first port of call in a video/hardware related problem and he said he had a cable that would do the job. So I cycled over there to pick it up. I also went to South Essex Fasteners to try and get some screw to fix the Jack Plates which I had got yesterday, but without any luck.
So, when I plugged in the cable I found it only worked when not fully inserted into the socket...so we nearly have the right cable, but it seems the polarity is incorrect...something Paul said he would be able to fix with some small surgery. Paul also took away the Plates and Jack sockets to drill and assemble them, which he said wouldn't take very long, so hopefully we'll have them back next week.
William also came round again to measure up all the electronics, and discuss the access point, and the Finger of the sign, and he left with all the information he needs to finish off the CAD drawing that will be sent to the fabricators. He said we should also have the sample part of the post as well next week, so we can test the NXT speakers and check the colour of the icons against wood for clarity.

The saga of the undelivered parcel is still continuing...as first thing this morning at 7:10, the DHL website stated that there was a 'Delay on Courier Route'. I phoned them up and they couldn't shed any light on the subject. They did however explain what 'Undelivered Civil Authority' means...apparently some kind of blockade, civil disturbance or police road block...none of which was reported by local press (that I could see). She forwarded my case onto the local depot and gave me a number and told me that they would give me a ring to let me know what was happening...it's now 22:30 and we're still waiting. So, I hunted around and found one model was left in the local Argos store, which I promptly went and bought. At least we could get on with some testing and that we did, for most of the morning. It took quite a few different arrangements of render (an art form in itself) before we finally found one that sounded and looked good, and worked well on our new equipment...hurrah for progress!

This evening i popped round to see Paul Malone, and good friend who fixes electronics at a hospital...what better person to ask to assemble some electronics and do some soldering. So we ordered some parts online for the headphone socket set up, and I have to head off early in the morning to get the other parts from Screwfix, (their website said they were in stock) which is across town a bit...might actually get a bit of exercise at the same time then.