![]() It’s possible to source such a switch, but it was telling that, in my prototypes, I was simple gluing spacers onto the underside of the top PCB. And speaking of the buttons, the height between the PCBs now called for a tactile switch with an unusually tall plunger. ![]() It was quite thin in several places, and the end with the buttons was fragile enough to break if the unit was dropped or handled roughly. ![]() The second set of prints were mechanically identical to the first but printed in black resin, which fixed the display contrast but still represented the minimum viable design. Light from adjacent segments would bleed through the resin and wash out the numerals. The first print was a good proof-of-concept, but the choice of white resin made the display contrast pretty poor. By combining the top-most PCBs, I could get down to a simple sandwich design: two PCBs with a resin chassis in the middle. I whipped up a quick sketch in Fusion 360 to explore replacing the inner layers of PCB on BeanCounter with one big resin print. So I laid out the first BeanCounter, constructed entirely from PCBs. It’s punched paper tape and the hole size isn’t much smaller than that on music-box tape. Making the leap to SMT carrier tape wasn’t hard. But before I tried to read 15 rows of punched holes, I figured I should try reading just one. The system lets you know exactly when, and what you need to do. BeanCounter is an essential tool for new franchisees/owners, and experienced operators. are already embedded into a system that’s been tested on the street. Subtotals, discounts, sales taxes, givebacks, etc. The more I considered it, the more tricks I realized an electronic music box could do, such as acting as a USB punched-tape reader for data. BeanCounter’s automated reporting does all of the calculations for you. After playing with a Kikkerland 15-note music box, I started to think about how nice it would be to trigger MIDI sounds with the same punched tape or to change the scale or transpose it without punching a new tape. BeanCounter started life as a proof-of-concept for an entirely different project: An electronic paper-strip music box. I didn’t set out to make a tape-and-reel counter, at least not a commercially viable one. There is a lot that I could say about design-for-manufacture and how I’m planning to do the final assembly once the panels come in from PCBWay-and I will talk more about that in a future update-but I want to take this opportunity early in the campaign to reflect on how the BeanCounter design has evolved up to this point. In the meantime, I’m shepherding the first panels of production prototypes through assembly. Thanks to everyone who joined us in the past week, we’re now well over 200% funded! I’m already blown away, but there are still several weeks left before the first batch of BeanCounters starts its journey through manufacturing. Another week has passed and the campaign is cruising right along.
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