Remember the Count in Sesame Street, all decked in purple with a couple of fangs hanging out, helping you figure out just how many instances of a particular object there is? Well, Nathan Pryor of Vancouver, WA, decided that there are many roads that lead to proverbial Rome, and went ahead to construct this Counting Box specially for his 4-year old son. After all, his little one loves all things numbers, so we do have high hopes of him emulating or perhaps even surpass this whiz kid who is just 13.
Nathan built a dedicated Counting Box that will allow you to choose a value from 1 to 10 using the rotary switch located in the middle, where you can then push the big green arcade button in order to add that to the total that is shown on the LED display. If you want to perform a subtraction, just push the red button and you’re good to go.
An ATMega will power this, where the box itself is constructed from laser-cut bamboo and acrylic. There is a viewing window which is located on the back that allows one to check out the wires and circuitry within, similar to how some PC chassis these days come with a clear side for you to see the innards.