Hi All
At our recent meeting I said I’d have something to demo the tool control system shortly.
The main tool control software – (the part which grants permissions according to members’ permissions) was written in February. There has been much discussions (and progress) about how to connect up different parts using various networking technologies (ethernet, wifi, whatever) but my principal aim was to get something to try end-to-end testing of the server and associated parts, so I’ve made a number of relay control and RFID reader boards. The actual hardware we put in place might differ, and vary, but this is enough to get us to get the overall system properly designed.
There are many complexities to do with resilience: for example if you unplug something and plug it back in, everything should restart properly without manual intervention. Also logging, so we can get good statistics on how much use everything gets, and also to find any faults in the system. It is easy enough to read an RFID card, but much trickier to make sure a dozen or more readers are all properly working at all times.
I have a working standalone system on a board to experiments and discussions.
- Permissions server
- Master relay control board
- Two RFID readers
- A toy ‘lathe’ and ’ table saw’.
A number of people have had a look at the mockup this weekend and have been kind in their comments, suggesting maybe a show and tell would be a good idea. If there’s sufficient interest, I’d be happy to have an evening demonstration the week beginning 28th.
Kind regards to all.
J.
Many thanks Mark @lewisss for helping put it on a board, Joe @joeatkin2 for helpful discussion about mains wiring in the space.