Serial Port Based Mechanical Hit Counter

Overview

The purpose of the mechanical hit counter is to physically count the page hits of a website instead of using software only while being interfaced through serial port.

Explanation

Through a few electronic components that perform as a counter driver and power supply circuit, the counter will be connected to RS232 port. A mechanical counter is used as the counter or from an old coin game machine, an electromagnetic counter model SC-212 can be taken which will require 12VDC power supply as specified in the counter’s nameplate. Also indicated in the nameplate is the maximum speed of 15CPS.

There are three parts that comprise the counter including PHP hit counter list, PC software, and hardware interface. The PHP hit counter script is running on web server where the script is placed into web pages. The number of times a page is called will be counted by the timer and the number is stored into a simple text file. The software runs on the computer that performs the fetch text file and a break signal over RS232 serial line to the counter driver circuit. Sending a break signal would increase the counter by 1.