My newborn offspring took over what was once the spare room where I had a bench and dumbbells. I hadn't used them in a while, and now I am getting seriously out of shape. So I had to build a compact exercise machine.

The concept is really simple, put a hoist on a plank on the ground, stand on said plank and fight the hoist.

An overly expensive microcontroller kit I got a few years back got commandeered for the project because I never want to feel like I need to use it again.

Basically a set starts by doing one rep and the board measures the rep time. Then you hold down the retract button for 5 seconds and the machine will go through a set of 8 reps.