From the Homer Simpson school of thought regarding inventions and design, I've thrown some stuff together and made a thing.

It's a small Dram pill bottle cap (with child-resistant closure mechanism) that is fused to a clicky counter to help count and track stuff.
Only works with a specific type of bottle used by certain pharmacies, such as Walgreens - or a 3D printed replica.
It can also be used as a top hat for your pill bottles if you want to make it more dapper.

The counter is based on Scottimus' Life (or anything) counter. And I'm leaning into the "or anything" part.

See the video for demo and assembly.
https://youtu.be/0ieLMUuaJZw

Ideas of things you can use it for:

1. Track if you took your dosage for the day.
2. Track how many dosages are left to take for your regimen? (Assuming you don't just keep taking the meds until the bottle is empty).
3. Keep an active counter to show how many items are in the bottle.
4. Perhaps you find yourself always taking your medication to your tabletop games and want to consolidate what you're carrying? (yup, I'm phoning it in on this one)

Selections

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This thing comes with a selection of choices for interchangeable parts. Sorry if sorting through the options is overwhelming, but I was playing with varying different features - and well, things got out of hand.

Rings

There are 2 different counter types (ring types)

• 0-9 digit counter
• day-of-the-week

They will either start with DayOfWeek or Decimal. Make sure to match the rings with the same type of springs.

DOW Stiffness

The day of the week counter has several springs that can be chosen for different stiffnesses. These determine the kind of interference and "snappyness" of the clicks and how difficult the ring will be to turn.

• Med_wCuts is recommended.
• Loose_wCuts can be used for people who have difficulty turning the rings (probably the same demographic that would need to use the bypass).

Glyph Fill

The rings and counters also have fill options.
Graphical features such as the cursors and glyphs can either be embossed, debossed, or printed with multiple filaments. Embossed features can also be used to substitute for not using a multi-filament printer. A dark permanent marker can be used on the top of the embossed single-filament surface.

Rings

• Glyphs do not have embossed versions.
• Print without fills for a debossed version.
• Print with the Fill model for multi-filament coloring.

** Cursors**

• Print a *_Added version for an embossed version.
• Print a *_Subbed version for a debossed version.
  • With a multifilament printer, find the matching Cursor[Top/Bot]_* for multi-filament coloring.

Cursor Type

There are several cursor types - choose one depending on your aesthetic preferences or requirements for saliency.
For example, a salient cursor could help the user find the cursor first thing in the morning before they have time to put their glasses on.

Printing

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The uploaded 3D models are already oriented the correct way, so the correct side is lying on the print bed. Do not print with supports. Some prints have overhangs that will briefly create overhang issues on their feature's first layer. This is expected and should be cleaned up post-print.

• Print your choice of Top, with optional cursor
  • x1
• Print your choice of Bottom, with your preference of cursor
  • x1
• Print a Tube.
  • x1
  • Print with a brim (3-5mm is recommended).
  • A longer or shorter tube can be used, such as if you want to use the original 3 digit length. But that's not included in this thing - but the original's and remixes found elsewhere should be compatible.
  • There's only one tube model included. It supports either two digits, or one day-of-week ring(s).
• Print a Clip.
  • x1
  • A longer or shorter clip can be used, such as if you want to support the original counter's 3 digit length. But that is not included in this thing - but the original's and remixed found elsewhere should be compatible. Also, the original clip has been known to have tolerance issues - the clip for this thing has extra tolerance modeled in and still needs slamming.
  • There's a thicker version included if the default one ends up being too fragile during assembly.
• Print one or more Ring(s) of your choice.
  • The quantity will depend on the type of clip and tube you decided on.
• Print Spring(s)
  • The quantity will depend on the ring type and tube length chosen.
    • MAKE SURE NOT TO MIX BETWEEN THE SPRINGS MEANT FOR 10 FACES RING (decimal) AND THE ONE FOR 7 FACES RING (DOW).

Assembly

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1. Inspect parts and clean up any overhang issues. Also, cut and clean the brim from the tube.
2. Push the clip through the cap's top.
   • Make sure it's pushed from top to bottom. There is a bar at the end of the clip that should fit with the cap-top's counter on its top face when pushed in.
   • I recommend finding a rigid and durable slamming surface and using that to push the clip past any stubborn parts. See video for demonstration.
     • To minimize the risk of breaking, slam as parallel as possible to the surface.
     • Strike repeatedly, with incrementally more force. After the stubborn part slides through, the rest can be pushed in by hand.
     • Make sure to protect the floor or table. Slamming forces may travel through your rigid surface and damage the supporting surface below it.
   • This takes some force and finessing. Luckily, the clips are quick to print. If it breaks, remove it from the top and try again with another printed clip.
3. Slide the tube through the clip.
   • There are notches on the cap parts and the tube to ensure the tube is keyed the right way.
   • Make sure the tube is fully pressed into the cap. Any excess material from the brim may create interference that needs to be forced through.
4. Slide the springs through the clip.
   • Again, be aware of the notches for keying the parts together the right way.
   • Any orientation, as long as it keys correctly (but more on this at the end of the section).
5. Determine the orientation you want to use for the rings. Take into consideration if you're left or right-handed and how you naturally hold and read the bottle.
6. Slide the ring(s) on.
7. [OPTIONAL] Take a small wad of paper and pack it down into the clip to help the prongs from deforming.
   • Not sure how much this helps (it might even damage the clips 🤷‍♂️), but it feels like a useful thing to do.
   • Do not pack in too much material. The clip's prongs should still be moveable.
   • The paper should be packed back far enough that it clears the ends of the prongs.
8. Attach the cap bottom to the subassembly.

The cap can be disassembled by gently bending the top and bottom parts from each other. This can be done to replace parts.
Because of how much effort it takes to connect the clip to the top (the slamming and whatnot), the connection of these parts should be treated as irreversible.

Rings may be difficult to turn but may loosen over time.
Also, turning the springs around may change how smoothly/stubbornly the rings click. By design, the orientation of how the rings are placed onto the tube shouldn't matter, but from testing, it seems to make some difference.

The springs may wear out over time, giving less interference and satisfying clicking noises. Replace as needed.
When not rotating the rings, ensure that they are not left in an in-between position. That may contribute to creeping deformation in the springs.

Disclaimers and Caveats

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• Same ol' things I mentioned in the original Dram bottles thing.
• The taller cap changes the bottle's center of gravity, and it feels a little different when handling it. It's not a big issue, but it is noticeable and takes a short while to get used to.
• This thing uses the original design for the "spine" of the object (the tube and clip), which was not designed for the constant twisting forces of also being a threaded bottle cap. It seems fine during personal testing, but it is something to keep in mind.

Source Files

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There are two Blender source files (Blender 4.0) included because it was easier to split the remixing efforts into two separate documents:

• Integrating the counter into the bottle caps and
• Making the 7-sided rings and springs

Because the counter's diameter fits the small medicine bottles the best, only the small bottle's cap is supported. This also means there is no support for parameterizing the bottle cap or ring dimensions.

But things that can be changed in MedicineCapCounter_*.blend:

• The geometry nodes for some of the ASM_* objects have checkboxes to toggle different features.
• ASM_2Ring_Clip has a shape key parameter ShrinkFlexWidth to make the back of the clip thicker.
• DECAL_BotCursorLonger has a shape key parameter Desnake that can be set to either 0.0 or 1.0 (do not assign it anything else) to switch between a long cursor or a (longer) salient cursor.

Changes

2024/12/21

Original Upload

2025/01/22

Fixed the thread winding for CapBot_LongCursor_Subbed, CapBot_SalientCursor_Subbed and CapBot_ShortCursor_Subbed. CursorBot_Long, CursorBot_Salient and CursorBot_Short were also updated to ensure they still register with their CapBot parts. Thanks to elliott9 for bringing the issue to my attention.

License

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The license has been set to be the most permissive attribution license that respects the original counter's Non-Commercial license.