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The Skycam was a microcosm of a number of IT projects that I’ve participated in. This project had cool technology, strong personalities, significant implementation barriers, and the promise of fabulous wealth. It also had its share of pressure-filled moments.

The project team had reached and passed the basic components integration stage. We had demonstrated on the bench the basic system connections: Joystick connected to computer, computer running operational loop, computer talking to winch controller, winch controller controlling winch stepper motor, winch motor turning winch drum, drum letting cable out and in. It was time to hang the whole system up, and see if you could control a payload in three-dimensional space.

Rigging the Skycam, that is hanging the high pulleys, and running the load, power, and communications cables, is a story in itself. Sometimes you are 75 feet up a light stand at The Meadowlands in NJ; sometimes on the roof of Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. On this day we were in an indoor basketball arena, because the weather was bad.

After four or five hours hard labor by all hands, the system was ready for its maiden flight. The four pulleys were hung from the rafters. The four winches were powered and in place. The four cables were threaded thru the pulleys and down to a padded ten pound dumbbell suspended at the center of the basketball court.

The control panel was in Garrett’s hands. The developer (me) was seated at the keyboard of the Osborne 2 suitcase computer, hands poised above the keyboard. If I were the sweating type, I would have been dripping. As it was, I was shaking as I keyed in the command line sequence to start the control loop.