Month: December 2014

Pen Durability Cycling Machine

Have you ever wondered how many clicks a simple ball point pen will last for? To solve this question I designed a pen durability machine. What does this machine do? If you have watched the above video you might have a good idea of its function. Essentially all I designed my machine to do is repetitively click a pen, similar to a nervous office colleague who annoys the entire area with their constant pen clicking. This design is a little louder then Steve down the aisle but still accomplishes the same task.

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Calculator Counter

One of my current projects involves cycle counting for durability purpose. My original plan was to build a microcontorller circuit, using the ATMEGA328P, to do the counting and display. I have been building the circuit in my head and was putting together a parts list over the weekend when I realized that I may be putting a lot of time into designing this circuit without first testing my mechanical system. I needed a quick and easy circuit which got me thinking about using a cheap calculator. I’m sure I have seen this method used before, it is probably where I got the idea, but I though I would post something about it anyways. Let me explain how this works.

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