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Help with medication timer design

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gernith

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I take so many meds that I sometime can't remember if I took one or not. What I would like to do is make a medication bottle holder that will start a stopwatch any time the bottle is picked up. That way I could look to see when the last time I lifted the bottle was.

So I am thinking of using an up timer like this https://www.amazon.com/Samshow-Countdown-Stopwatch-Reminding-Flashing/dp/B01N9FKZXY and some sort of trigger for a bottle moving, like maybe a reed switch connected to the start/stop button on the timer, and a magnet on the bottle. Reeds like these: **broken link removed**. or just a pressure switch. I would like to set up probably 4 bottles.

Does this sound feasible or is there a better way?

Thanks for looking,
Gern
 

I take so many meds that I sometime can't remember if I took one or not.

Me too!

But my medicines do not come in bottles; they come in Al foil strips. And I need to take them at different times. All but one are to be taken once a day but I forget one or the other quite regularly.

I tried to put dates on the strips but that too did not work well.

Any solution should be rather flexible. I store all of them in a plastic box and I too am interested in a simple solution.
 

Hi,

Use optical sensor for detecting the bottle/box/ strip. Use a LED/display to show it's state.

Use a timer and display the time for each item. All can be controlled by a single low performance microcontroller.

Klaus
 

I could look to see when the last time I lifted the bottle was.

A big challenge is to open the housing and find out how to activate the internal switch. Then you must attach wires (very thin gauge) going to your external reed switch.

Your Amazon link appears to be a stopwatch. Set the time to count upward continually. You pick up the bottle, your hand activates the switch, and the time resets to zero, then continues the count upward.
 

Well I ordered one of the timers from amazon to experiment with.

A couple of things I hope to learn:
1. what is the default timer? Does it start as a count up timer, or a count down? Would it need extra button pushes to get in the count up mode.
2. How feasible is it to solder wires on the circuit board?
 

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