Simple screw counter

https://mitxela.com/projects/screwcounter

43•jk_tech•2d ago

Comments

abstractspoon•1d ago

Insane!

chrsstrm•1h ago

  >> I have wasted a significant chunk of my life counting out small numbers of parts into bags and posting them to people.

So, small parts like this are always counted by weight, and I'm wondering why you would spend so much time on a counting solution when "buy a scale" is right there.

kamaal•1h ago

Until counting machines got ubiquitous, banks in India would count notes/bills by weight as well.

It wasn't very precise but you could move a lot of money in ball park with this method. Atleast internally across branches.

ghshephard•1h ago

Up to roughly 100 bills it's pretty much bang on - even with a cheap $10 scale (American Weigh Scales Digital Pocket Scale has a bunch of different options). Each bill weights roughly 1 gram. So - accurate to within 1% - and presumably the banks have better scales.

eru•36m ago

I suspect at scale (moving either a lot of batches or large batches), you also need to take variance into account more. Some bills might be dirty or have stuff stuck to them, some bills might be damaged and have bits missing? And other things that occur in practice that I can't think of from the comfort of my armchair in 30s.

jstanley•1h ago

He's counting out like 6 at a time. He needs a fast way to pick small quantities precisely, not a fast way to check large quantities. Once they're picked they're easily verified by eye.

earleybird•22m ago

In a similar vein: https://www.youtube.com/@christopherhelmke

blorenz•19m ago

Awesome solve!!! Lasers and 3d printing is my side hobby business and is what keeps my sanity intact. I love seeing the practical creations that are realized by them! One of my core tenets is being self-sufficient and achieving efficiencies. This post is exactly that. Well done.

kennywinker•4m ago

I love this so much. Such simple machines, for human-scale problems. I often get pulled down rabbit holes of machines and automation - this is a nice reminder that you can solve a lot of problems without reaching for an arduino or a servo.

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Simple screw counter

Comments

Meta’s AI smart glasses and data privacy concerns

British Columbia is permanently adopting daylight time

Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

Simple screw counter

Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

Intent-Based Commits

Guilty Displeasures

Seed of Might Color Correction Process (2023) [pdf]

New iPad Air, powered by M4

First in-utero stem cell therapy for fetal spina bifida repair is safe: study

Physicists developing a quantum computer that’s entirely open source

Against Query Based Compilers

Launch HN: OctaPulse (YC W26) – Robotics and computer vision for fish farming

Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

Show HN: Govbase – Follow a bill from source text to news bias to social posts

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The Cathode Ray Tube site

iPhone 17e

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The 185-Microsecond Type Hint

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Programmable Cryptography (2024)

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2026)

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