Telescopic Arm and grabber design help

[M. Hicken]

Since i have been told that arms with 2+ joints to them usually fail, we are looking into making a telescoping arm. All of our attempts in the past have failed miserably. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a telescoping arm ~10' tall. I am also trying to aviod using a lot of cables and pulleys to extend it.

Also, im thinging of using a cabinet clip. You know, the little metal nipple with the 2 rollers attached by a spring to keep the cabinet door closed, as the mech to hold the tetra, with some base to hold them lateraly still

and Yes i did a search and the other 2 arm threads do not address this

Thanks