computer hater seeks assistance...

Hello, am seeking any ideas, as am a complete beginner, on how to make a device that will show me the cost and time of a meeting.....twelve guys billing by the hour...no outcome at end of meeting, just a large bill, then i can press a button on an old clock display type thing and theres the cost of the meeting along with the time....sounds so good,sounds so simple.....except i dont know much about this type of thing....any ideas gratefully accepted.... :idea:

blueboytaz said:

Hello, am seeking any ideas, as am a complete beginner, on how to make a device that will show me the cost and time of a meeting.....twelve guys billing by the hour...no outcome at end of meeting, just a large bill, then i can press a button on an old clock display type thing and theres the cost of the meeting along with the time....sounds so good,sounds so simple.....except i dont know much about this type of thing....any ideas gratefully accepted.... :idea:

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From the subject line, I'm assuming a spreadsheet in a PC is out of the question (why!?).. anyways, next best thing, cheap programmable calcluator that allows you to write simple script. PDA out of question as well?
If you really want to build something like this, use micro controller and 7 seg displays (one for time, one for cost)

thanks for the idea of the micro controller etc....pda and spreadsheet not out of the question, just would like to get to build this ......I work in an office environment ...satisfaction of building ...you know ..paperclip free...LOL

Maybe I'm missing the point of your question. I mean the problem can be solved for under $10 without requiring a computer sitting on your desk, or requiring you to build anything. Go to Wal-Mart and get a $5 wristwatch, and a $5 calculator with a chain and keyring to slip in your pocket with your keys. If the meeting lasts two hours, and there's 12 guys, and they charge $50 per hour, punch in 12*50*2 and hit = and you get $1200. It's all self contained, in premade durable "boxes", easily transportable with minimum worry about breakage. Someone else mentioned just typing the numbers into Excel. If it's in an office environment, you've probably already got a PC with Excel or an equivalent spreadsheet. No need to buy anything else, nor carry anything around.

I guess the point I'm trying to get at is: if you are overlooking these two obvious ideas for simple time charging, is your entire goal to produce your own device specifically for the thrill of learning how to make your own device :?: If this is a first project and you've never done electronics before, it would be extremely difficult to a) make a clock and b) make a calculator and c) link them. There are many beginner projects to try, such as just making a single LED blink, which is required learning before trying to make lots of LEDs on a numeric display light up in any coherent order.

Can we have a meeting on this? My billable rate is $160.00 /h.

I think the reason he wants it, is if you just hit a button and get a display, it's dramatic and shows your point. This is more of a presentation item than anything. If you sit down with a calculator and a wristwatch, you just look like a bean counting anal dink.

I would thing the only way to do it is with a microcontroller and 7 segment displays. A char LCD would work, but the display isn't as visible or dramatic.

You can just enter in the number of participants and hit start, a billing amount. If you have to start entering in specific billing amounts for each person, it gets too complecated and you might as well just get the calculator.

Unfortunately, this isn't a simple...simple project. It would take a little bit of ramp up time to get familiar with a microcontroller, build the circuit and program it for what you want.

Ahh. I get it. So a party has been arguing for 10 minutes and done nothing, so he just slams down on a big button and displaying on big Nixie Tubes is a dollar amount of how much the previous unneccessary dialog has just cost, as an indication to get the act together, as good money is being paid for this. Gotcha.

bonxer said:

and displaying on big Nixie Tubes

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"Nixie Tubes"? - have we fallen into a time warp?.

bonxer..thats what I'm on about exactly....corperate guys billing large amounts to come up with solutions to problems...spending hours in meetings...a few sketchy answers/solutions maybe large bill presented...push a button and say" and you justify the bill how?"..worked out from there capitation rates/per minute/hour/ however...problem is me in paperclip land as an admin type not knowing enough to know where to start.....

DirtyLude said:

Can we have a meeting on this? My billable rate is $160.00 /h..

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So the first function should be to display the cost to make that clock.

I like the idea though. I've seen ego meetings before, it's painful. "I can measure how important I am by how many important people I can draw into a room".

If you are wanting to make a dedicated box for this display purpose, I suppose you would want to use a microcontroller with a built-in analog to digital converter. The first thing to do would be to make a little program to flash an LED at a rate of once per second. Once you're comfortable with that, then connect a potentiometer to it, and make a program that will read that value. Merge those two ideas, and allow that potentiometer to control the blink rate. Have more potentiometers for other things: hourly rate, number of people at the meeting, etc. The higher the number of X, the faster the device counts. Then make a small circuit to output the data to the seven segment displays, most likely with a common data bus strobing them one at a time lots of times per second.