So. Progress is being made. Painfully slowly, but progress nonetheless. The internally sprung finger prototype is up and running, as you can see in the video. I'll make a whole hand next...
The reason for the slow progress is quite serious unfortunately. Recently the progression of my motor neuron disease has taken a turn for the worse. I can no longer swallow with my head upright. This means i'm having regular choking episodes, to avoid which, I need my head lowering down on to my chest. This process sucks the energy out of me. I'm only managing an hour or two's work each day, before becoming utterly exhausted. This raises the possibility that I won't finish this project before I die. I'm fighting hard, but MND/ALS is a relentless and unstoppable disease. Things are not looking rosy at the moment.