[hackerspaces] Re billing for laser burn hours. Webcam+OCR software. - lazzzorauth

[Overflo]

hi,

at the metalab in vienna we have the same issues..
we have an expensive EXT36 lasercuter from epilog and from time to time
people put PVC in it or come and use it without knowing what they are doing
and without proper introduction.
this is of course not a good thing and therefor i implemented an
autenttication service that was running in testmode now for two months and
will be officially launched this week.

we wanted:
 - reproduceable hardware/software for future projects
 - unobstrusive (no soldering on the machine)
 - compatible with our existing authentication method (iButtons)


i made:
 - embedded linux system (els) with network connection
 - MCU for ibutton reading 
 - display
 - button

the ELS gets a list of authenticated buttons from the server and caches it
locally.
this happens every 2 minutes or so ..
when an authenticated button is scanned the ELS displays a text "id $blah
authenticated. user $foo logged in sucessfully"
user is logged out by pressing the button or automagically after a timeout
of 15 minutes.
user auth/logout is logged in a local database.
the laser offers no interfaces to read when a job starts/ends therefor i
connected a hall-sensor next to the valve switch.
the electro-magnetic valve on the air compressor is turned on when a job
starts and turned off as soon as the job finishes..
this works very reliable.

when the user is logged in the ELS turns on the network forwarding. ( echo
1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward)
usually forwaring is disabled.

the lazzzorcutter has an ip that can only be reached from the lazzzorauth
system.


on the windows box instead of the lazzzor the ELS is used as "printer".
this works for all network enabled devices alike.

i will install it into live mode today and plan to document it in detail
on the metalab wiki.
contact me if you are interested and let me know what you need/want to use
this project.


tje sector67 project looks also very promising.

remember: next time i start something i should first ask here to join
forces BEFORE investing a ot of time :)

:*
-flo







On Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:00:36 -0500, James Arthur <iam at jamesarthur.info>
wrote:
> I would be most interested in how you got here, and following your
> progress.
> 
> I can see if I can't get some folks on our end [CEMI.org in Somerville,
MA]
> interested in helping out.
> 
> James
> 
> On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Bob Baddeley <
> hackerspace-discuss at bobbaddeley.com> wrote:
> 
>> We recently set up a system at Sector67 to handle this issue. We have
>> RFID
>> cards for building access already, so we hooked up an RFID reader,
>> Arduino,
>> and Raspberry Pi inside our laser cutter. A person swipes their card,
>> which
>> checks a web service that has a list of acceptable (trained) users and
>> will
>> enable or disable the laser. Our system also logs job time, so we know
>> how
>> long each job runs, and we are charging $20 an hour. A camera mounted
>> inside the cutter takes a photo at the completion of each job. All of
>> this
>> data is stored both on a local database on the Pi and via web services
>> to a
>> remote location. We also added a billing token feature, so that a
person
>> can log in with their personal RFID token, then swipe a second one so
>> they
>> can distinguish between different projects for a certain person.
>>
>> We're currently working on building a better web interface to handle
the
>> billing and do metrics. It appears that there may be a need for this
kind
>> of thing at the other spaces as well. We have not yet hooked this up to
>> our
>> 3D printers (we have a scale and cash box and formula on the wall for
>> that
>> right now), but we may hook this system up to other machines like our
>> CNCs.
>> Some we may not charge to use but would like to measure time spent and
be
>> able to hold people accountable for breaking things.
>>
>> Is anyone else interested in joining forces to build a billing and
>> analytics system for tool usage? Does anyone know of one that already
>> exists?
>>
>> Bob Baddeley
>> Sector67
>>
>>
>> On 01/20/2013 03:55 AM, Matt Joyce wrote:
>>
>>> There are simpler solutions.  This isn't some new problem.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 6:03 PM, Oren Beck <orenbeck at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Last resort first.
>>>>
>>>> Webcam and some OCR software.
>>>>
>>>> Slot for member card in cam vision near hours display.
>>>>
>>>> Potentially closer to solved?
>>>>
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