Elapsed Time Counter for Tracking Stylus Life

A perennial issue for us anal retentive analog types -- how to know when to change out your cart. Some keep track of sides played, others use the time use trackers in their tube phono stages, while others don’t bother

Haven’t you asked yourself if someone makes such a thing? Turns out they do but mostly for industrial control applications and not available stand alone.

Given I’m now running two carts and have a habit of playing bits of sides (nor could I be bothered to record how many I’d played) I’ve decided to build my own based around this simple module -- two of these, with two on/off switches and two reset buttons, will do the job! Finally I put my EE degree to use 😉. Should be <$100 all in and I can make it look nice

I’ll report back on this project once completed -- potentially the same idea is good for those that need to track tube life and lack an built in meter as well