Take a traditional counter top bell and fit it with tech that can play custom sound clips/audio files. This creates a more fun and interesting bell for customers and staff to enjoy.
In order to make this project accessible to everyone there are some requirements set in place.
As this was a personal project to start with there were initially no plans to make this a workshop. As the project developed it was decided to trial it via the TryIt workshops.
The counter bell is a great way for small business/shop owners to create a custom experience for their customers and give the classic counter/service bell a unique twist that reflects the soul of the business.
Trough basic soldering and electronics participants can engage in the making the tool for their own shop or a gift for someone else.
There are plenty of changes in this version. After a lot of research and a little luck I have managed to get the price of the components down by more than half. We can easily remove the amp and the expensive soundboard and replace it with a mini mp3 player by DFRobot which takes micro SD cards and can power speakers less than 3W. Its size is about half the size of the soundboard and relinquishes the need for a separate amp. As luck would have it, this circuit can be bought at a fraction of the price from oversees.
I have managed to find a desk bell for $2.80 locally which is a big difference to the retail version I've used in the past.
So hopefully this version will be smaller, use less wires, cost a lot less and be more energy efficient (as a result of less components). Also hoping to find a solution for a button that feels good and also a way to mount the components inside the bell.
This picture is incorrect, wires need to be soldered from the opposite side of the board!
Laser cutting files