I was inspired by the Play Button awards YouTube sends out for subscriber milestones, and built this circuit to display my realtime subscriber count using an ESP8266 wifi board and seven segment display. I built this one to celebrate surpassing 10k subscribers, so this is an upgrade to my previous counter, which only supports counts up to 9999. Personalize the code to work with your channel! For tracking other social media stats, check out my multi social tracker project.

Before attempting this project, you should be generally familiar with uploading new programs to your Arduino board and installing code libraries, both of which you can learn for free in my Arduino Class, though you really don't have to understand any of the actual Arduino code to get this project running.

For a more in-depth introduction to the ESP8266 board (and its installation and setup), check out my free Internet of Things Class.

For this project, you will need the following materials:

Medium shadow box
Printer and paper
Scissors
Cutting mat or scrap cardboard
Illustration board or more scrap cardboard
Utility/craft knife
Metal ruler (optional)
Tape
Glue stick
NodeMCU ESP-12E board
2x 4-digit 7-segment display with i2c backpack
Solderless breadboard and breadboard wires (optional but recommended for prototyping)
perma-proto board or other perfboard
Micro USB cable (charge + sync, not charge-only)
USB power adapter (optional)

and the following tools:

Soldering iron and solder
Flush diagonal cutters
Desoldering braid or solder sucker (for mistakes)

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Required software libraries:

Unique data required:

Google API key
YouTube channel ID
Wifi network name/password

As an alternative to the NodeMCU board, you can also use your favorite ESP8266 microcontroller board, some of which require a 3V FTDI programmer to upload new programs.

Before you dive into this project, you should first make sure you've got your Arduino software set up properly to program the board you are using, which in my case involves installing the SiLabs USB driver and installing ESP8266 board support (explained in more detail in my Internet of Things Class):

Go to Arduino-> Preferences...
Look for a text field labeled "Additional Boards Manager URLs:" and paste the following URL into the field (separate multiple URLs with commas if applicable):
```
http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json
```
Click OK
Go to Tools->Board-> Boards Manager...
Search for ESP8266 and click the Install button in the box "esp8266 by ESP8266 Community" when it shows up

To ensure you have a proper programming connection with your board, first load up the blink sketch. You can find a sample blink sketch by navigating to File->Examples->ESP8266->Blink, or copy it from here:

void setup() {
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
  delay(500);
}

Plug in your USB cable to the board and configure your settings under the Tools menu as follows:

Board: NodeMCU 1.0
CPU Frequency: 80MHz
Flash Size: 4M (3M SPIFFS)
Upload Speed: 115200
Port: whichever one ends in SLAB_USBtoUART (Mac) or COMx (Windows)

Click the Upload button to send the program to your board. This will take several seconds (longer than you are used to with Arduino Uno). After complete, the onboard LED should start blinking.

While many boards auto-detect when they're being sent a new program, some other ESP8266 boards may require a sequence of button presses to get into bootloader mode.

Do not proceed until you've successfully uploaded a blink test program to your board. Seriously, because how can you expect the project code to upload if the test didn't? =D

Step 1: Prepare Displays & Prototype

Follow the assembly instructions for your seven-segment displays, and also solder headers onto your ESP8266 board if it didn't come with headers pre-soldered.

For your microcontroller to tell the two displays apart, you'll need to change the address on one of them. Do this by applying a blob of solder to bridge the labeled pads on the back of the board. The board as-is has an address of 0x70, and the one with A0 bridged has an address of 0x71. More info on i2c addresses in the official product guide. I put the plain display on the right (lower digits), but you can easily switch it in the code if you accidentally install them differently.

When working with electronics, I always like to create a solderless prototype first.

I'm using a NodeMCU board this time, but any ESP8266 board with the I2C pins exposed will work fine. In my case that's D1 and D2.

Connections:

NodeMCU D1 to displays C (clock)

NodeMCU D2 to displays D (data)

NodeMCU Vin to displays + (power)

NodeMCU GND to displays - (ground)

Step 2: Customize Code & Program Board

Remember, you need ESP8266 board support and the following Arduino libraries to compile and upload the code for this project. Easily search and install each one using the Library Manager by navigating to Sketch->Include Library->Manage Libraries... or download from Github and install the old fashioned way:

Download the code attached to this step and open the file "YouTubeSubscriberCounter_v2.ino" in the Arduino IDE. Customize the variables (shown highlighted in teal in the Arduino screenshot above):

SSID (Network name)
Wifi password
Google API key (kind of a pain to acquire, IMO)
YouTube channel ID

Upload the customized code to your board.

If you prefer, I've also created a version that uses WiFiManager, which adds configurability without the need to reprogram the microcontroller. Download the file "YouTubeSubscriberCounter_v2_wifiManager.ino" attached to this step and open it with your Arduino software, and make sure you also have WiFiManger library installed as well. Use Brian Lough's awesome guide to get it all set up.

Step 3: Solder Final Circuit

I put together the final circuit using a perma-proto, but because my frame is only 5" by 7", a full size one wouldn't fit-- I should have gotten a bigger size. I managed to put everything on the half size board but I wouldn't recommend you follow this layout exactly, since I sorta hacked away some of the pins on the NodeMCU and cut some traces to others on the back of the board.

I made a second display for the rest of my social trackers, and positioned things a bit differently, which I think worked out a little better (last photo).

Step 4: Print Paper Template

Download the paper template attached to this step and print it out (designed for 8.5x11" paper, and my shadow box capacity is 5x7"). Cut along the lines to separate the two pieces. The graphic goes right behind the glass, and the other section helps with display placement/alignment.

Step 5: Put It All Together

Clean the inside of your glass to be sure its free of dust and other contaminates (ahem cat hair). Glass is sharp, so be careful handling it.

Place the graphic template face down against the glass, then stack the shadow box separator inside.

Cut away a notch in the backing board to accommodate for the USB cable, and slot the back in place. Plug in and enjoy! Of if you're like me, disassemble several more times to get the notch just right, the dust out of the glass (again), and install a small folded piece of cardboard inside to to help the seven-segment display press flush against the paper/glass (otherwise the numbers are blurry).