Laser Queue System
The Laser Queue system is designed to help laser users login to the various Laser machines operated by Team Laser, track statistics about machine usage and let waiting users know when a machine is available.
Contents
Current Features
- RFID Login with makerspace tag/fob/card
- Raspberry Pi Touch Screen Interface
- Wall timer for assisting with three hour limit per session
- Displays cool committee shark logo
Planned Features
- Usage tracking to assist with paying for a session
- Electronic Queue
- Remote Queue Monitoring
- Statistics collection
Current Implementation
The current implementation uses a Raspberry Pi 3, Model B+ for each Laser. The Raspberry Pi is fitted with a SmartPi touch case and the official Raspberry Pi screen. Each screen on the lasers acts as a client to the laser queue server. The laser queue server is also currently implemented using a Raspberry Pi 3, Model B+ running Apache, PHP7 and MariaDB. The RFID login feature depends on the same script used for the RFID_Member_Info_Portal.
Machines Operational
- Blitzen (Installed 2dec2018)
Known Issues
- Login Field Loses Focus (fixed 26dec2018)
- RFID Reader Generates Garbage (WIP - replacing original USB reader with Wiegand Reader)
RFID Reader
The original implementation used a low-cost RFID reader from Amazon that plugged directly into USB and emulated a keyboard. This reader works fine, however, it occasionally starts generating garbage rather than the tag number. The plan is to replace it with this reader and use a Teensy 2.0 microcontroller running this code.
