Summary of Create A Giant Meter Using Arduino
This project involves creating a giant meter resembling a speedometer to visually display website response time. The meter is CNC carved from 1/4” bi-color HDPE, with a needle made from 1/8” orange acrylic. It uses an Arduino UNO to control a micro servo motor that moves the needle, providing a dynamic indication of site status. Optional LED displays show additional metrics. The design files were created using Inkscape and Easel, and the project emphasizes ease of assembly and a visually engaging way to monitor website performance.
Parts used in the Meter:
- Arduino UNO
- Micro servo motor
- 1/4” bi-color HDPE sheet (12 inches square)
- 1/8” orange acrylic sheet
- 2x Adafruit Quad Alphanumeric Display - Blue 0.54” (optional)
- Adafruit Bicolor LED Square Pixel Matrix (optional)
- Misc jumper wires
- Screws
- Scrap wood for test cuts
The Meter
The whole idea of this project was to create a giant meter to show website response time almost like a speedometer would. The result is something that’s both fun to watch and provides a meaningful ‘heartbeat’ of current status. After several revisions and different designs along the way, I ended up with what you see here.
Construction & Design
The meter is carved using my CNC machine from 1/4” bi-color HDPE (12 inches square). This is a great material to cut signs or other carvings with because anything carved out is the alternate material color, so there’s no painting/masking/re-painting needed. The needle is cut from 1/8” orange acrylic which worked great for the speedometer theme. For mounting the micro servo, I designed a hole matching the shape of the outer plastic casing which the servo I chose had (see parts list for a link). I designed the whole thing using Inkscape and Easel, mainly because they are free and fairly easy to use. Check out my bill of materials if you are interested in using the same HDPE and acrylic.
Electronics
I decided to power the meter using the Arduino Uno microcontroller since it handles servo control really well. The Raspberry Pi would be another option, but I’ll detail the Arduino setup for now. My implementation also uses a few LED displays to display detailed metrics, but the servo is the main piece you need. Here’s a quick parts list:
- Arduino UNO
- micro servo motor (my design has a specific hole for this exact type, but can be modified)
- 2x Adafruit Quad Alphanumeric Display – Blue 0.54” (optional)
- Adafruit Bicolor LED Square Pixel Matrix (optional)
- misc jumper wires
- screws, scrap wood for test cuts, etc.
For More Details: Create A Giant Meter Using Arduino
