Arduino XMAS hitcounter

Arduino XMAS hitcounter
Christmas is coming closer, so here is my contribution to put you in the right mood. It is a blog hitcounter, that rings a bell. Literally. It puts a smile on your face, every time someone hits your blog.

It consists of an Arduino board, a bell, a servo and a couple of lines of code in c, python and php. Most parts are fairly common and should be easy to get.


 
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Step 1Tools and Materials

Tools and Materials
So what is needed?

  • Arduino Board. I got an Arduino Diecimila from Adafruits. In the meantime there are really cheap and handy clones out there, e.g. the really bare bone board from Modern Devices, especially if you want to use them on a breadboard.
  • A servo motor. Any servo will do. I took an old one that was used in my former hobby.
  • A bell. Preferably one that is small enough to shake it with the servo.
  • Two paperclips. A large one to hold the bell and a small one to build the actuator to ring the bell.
  • Wires to connect the servo with the Arduino.
  • A website. In fact it has not to be a website or a blog. Actually everything that can be counted, will work.
  • A PC or a Mac to connect the Arduino board with the blog or website.
You may need an soldering iron, if the wires can not be connected directly to the Arduino.
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42 comments
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Dec 29, 2011. 9:38 AMklaurens says:
If I wanted to connect a Normal DC Motor to the Arduino which only has two connector pins, how would i do it??
Dec 30, 2011. 5:05 AMklaurens says:
If I wanted to use a Piezo and an LED would the coding be much different??
Dec 30, 2011. 5:14 AMklaurens says:
Would the coding for the HIT counter still be the same?
Apr 8, 2010. 3:25 PMcdousley says:
where could i get a servo?
Dec 30, 2011. 5:13 AMklaurens says:
Any place that sells Remote controlled Helicopters, cars, etc. Radio Shack will have them too...
Dec 29, 2011. 9:29 AMklaurens says:
If I wanted to connect a Normal DC Motor to the Arduino which only has two connector pins, how would i do it??
Dec 17, 2011. 1:01 PMalphaCog says:
This is such a great idea, and inspired my own interpretation, which is standalone - no computer required. Have a look here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-standalone-web-enabled-bell/
Nov 26, 2011. 7:05 PMPaulCote says:
Ring the bell every time someone tweets "Merry Christmas"? Not sure how, though.
Dec 4, 2010. 12:44 PMBuzzsushi says:
Will it work with twitter?
Mar 2, 2011. 9:42 AMliamviney says:
Did you manage to implement this with twitter? and if so would you be willing to share the code?

Thank you
Oct 28, 2010. 9:39 PMaeboi80 says:
I was looking for the bell and found a bunch of places at google shop - http://bit.ly/aCeJtS
Oct 14, 2010. 2:19 PMmoogbeatz99 says:
how would i set up this hit counter thing with a google site? would it work at all? im not planning on actually doing this instructable, i might when i get spare time and money, but i would like to actually know if it would work.....
Nov 11, 2009. 4:08 PMpsychofish25 says:
 i'd like to implement this with blogger (http://ilictronix.com), but blogger doesn't support php :(  is there a way I could write to a file with javascript?

hearing this every 15 seconds might get annoying :P
Jul 7, 2009. 5:04 PMReCreate says:
So what does the python script do when it sees someone visited your site?
Jul 8, 2009. 9:46 AMReCreate says:
XD Yes i know that part how does it trigger the bell?
Jul 8, 2009. 1:55 PMReCreate says:
What signal(you are not being descriptive...)
Jul 8, 2009. 2:32 PMReCreate says:
Ah that makes more sense now.
Jun 26, 2009. 12:31 PMMaker Shed says:
Wow nice Project!
Feb 9, 2009. 3:57 PMakatsuki666 says:
and that thing with the loop (thats a reoccuring problem in alot of skeches)
Feb 8, 2009. 2:43 PMakatsuki666 says:
my arduino barly takes any codes wthout saying error -.- and this one seems to say that... in function ' void loop () ' : error: ' refresh ' is not a member of ' servo '
Feb 8, 2009. 2:43 PMakatsuki666 says:
help?
Dec 27, 2008. 7:52 PMluke says:
hahah i love it , 5* and faved!

i have to ask , i didnt see it in your description. but what is your your macbook playing ?? it sounds like you have got the termnal to sing! useing the saay command???
Dec 8, 2008. 8:38 AMaccobra86 says:
www.youtube.comGood work. my son (says proud father) made similar use of the RC servos in a Golf Robot RC. Can be found on youtube.com under this name... http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=golfrobot+sigtuna&search_type=&aq=f
Nov 22, 2008. 12:08 AMKryptonite says:
Is it possible to hook it up to anything else? say... when some body talks to u on msn and ur in the next room, cud u hook that up? or instructables comments? Just idea, but this wud be soooo neat to try out for them.
Nov 22, 2008. 2:45 AMKryptonite says:
Sweet. thanks for the quick reply. I'm seriously thinking about making this now, cuz I play this game, and I can't tell if somebody want to talk to me I don't know. Then an hour later I go see, and the person has logged off. thanks, Kryptonite.
Apr 6, 2008. 1:15 PMiman says:
wow this is sweet I saw this a while back but I ignored it because I didn't have an arduino but now that I got one this will be my first project :) Thanks!
Feb 10, 2008. 10:53 AMcr0ybot says:
Added to Arduino Group! ;D
Dec 16, 2007. 6:46 PMLinuxH4x0r says:
Nice job! Looks like it would get annoying after a while...
Dec 16, 2007. 4:21 PMPocketSized says:
This is such a cool project using the Arduino. I'm going to have to order one of these after christmas. Can't wait, and great Instructable.
Dec 16, 2007. 4:06 PMToulouse says:
awesome idea! it's kinda like the digg counter, but if you had this in your house, you could know when people visit your blog.
Dec 16, 2007. 1:11 PMGorillazMiko says:
looks difficult. great instructable!
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Author:alex_weber