Score Counter II
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Score Counter II 〰️
Winter 2022
The purpose of this version of the Score Counter is to serve as a Christmas present for my friends and family.
Because it will be given as a gift and never seen again, this version must be maximally durable. To that end, it was soldered. I went to great lengths to keep the soldering clean and not off-putting.
Design
This version of the score counter will be an exercise in reducing the system to the barebones functionality to optimize for cost. This version will be optimized for cost because it will be given out as Christmas presents in 2022. Because the system will be optimized for cost, the fourth version of the score counter will be run on an Arduino Nano.
The functionality of this version will be reduced to a single game, four player score counter. The hardware components used will only include eight push buttons (two of each color), a potentiometer, and a 16x2 LCD screen.
The following table consists of a list of all the components used to construct the fourth version of the score counter, along with the unit cost, the total cost per type of component, and the supplier used to get the component.
Bill of Materials
This table consists of a list of all the components used to construct the fourth version of the score counter, along with the unit cost, the total cost per type of component, and the supplier used to get the component.
The total cost of this of the score counter came out to be just over $27. This is a feasible price for the project to be given as Christmas presents.
Construction
Once the prototype circuit was constructed, energized, and tested, the final product was soldered onto an electrocookie solderable breadboard. This was done to ensure that the product would be able to endure regular handling over years.
Overall, I constructed a dozen iterations of this model. After making so many, I got pretty good at dialing in the manufacturing process to streamline things.
Results
The present in its final form is pictured in these images.
The score counter present is plug & play, meaning as soon as the device is plugged in, it immediately pulls up the scores on the display and is ready to start incrementing. The figures display exactly what the project looks like immediately after energizing the circuit.
Overall, the counter was a tremendous success!
