Progress and Frustration

I have a half working prototype now. Since its night and indoors the furthest my infinity focus can go is the door. I don't know if this is it or something else, but instead of the 46.5mm distance I was expecting for F-mount I had to use 40mm distance between back of lens to frosted side of ground glass.

There was trouble focusing on the ground glass while zoomed in. The human eye can resolve the detail but the Canon ZR200 and S410 would just record points of light. Maybe I need a macro or an achromatic diopeter. But that will have to wait. I can't even prop the device up right now for lack of ballast and screws.

At wide-angle, you can focus on a subject as close as 1 cm (0.39in.).
- Canon ZR200 manual

I was hoping that I wouldn't need a macro (I also hear the term relay lens -- could this be the generic term) because my lens was less than 43mm.

After carefully drilling the center and pilot holes I set the circle cutter to 2cm. Control was difficult at best when cutting three stacked boards. The result was a poorly controlled cut that was too wide to put the mounting screws. I had enough board left over to make a patch panel but that messess up the even alignment of my screws. DIY is full of challenges.