<div dir="ltr"><div>Wow, that's some great info. I was thinking of a small computer with (the hammer that I'm familiar with) a Ruby on Rails application which contains one table that describes the items, linked to another table for the unique data (where the unique RFID codes are), and perhaps a table for users, etc. Not really a difficult database. I might even use SQLite as the DB. The point of the app is simply to store what's supposed to be in the truck, so that when they finish a project and prepare to leave, they can find out what's missing. We could use the antennas by each door, and do the in/out approach, but I think it would be equally acceptable to wave a wand all throughout the truck, when they want to account for things, and have the application tell them which items, if any, were last scanned more than # minutes ago. I think that our project managers have iPhones, so they could be used to interface with the Rails App, and possibly with the wand (if necessary).<div>
<br></div><div>The small SBC sounds interesting. I'm pretty sure they have power, but I need to get some more specifics about the environment. Your SBC with a wireless card is intriguing. I don't have a lot of experience with SBCs. (Just my Raspberry Pi.) If you can send me some links to the equipment you're thinking about (both SBC and antennas), that would be SO helpful. You sound like you've had some experience, so if you can recommend certain hardware that you've had success with, that would be awesome. A quick Google of SBCs give me too many options to be useful. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Much appreciated!</div><div>Doug</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 7:54 PM, Alex Carver <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:agcarver+ale@acarver.net" target="_blank">agcarver+ale@acarver.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">A tiny SBC on the back-end is probably all you'll need to do live inventory. Put a wireless card/dongle on it and set it up for AP mode to let any WiFi enabled smart phone, laptop or otherwise access it, no cell connection needed. It also would give you persistent storage which you could save and transfer later to do things like determine what equipment is used (or not used) and how (in)frequently it gets used (useful for space management on the truck).<br>
<br>
The best thing for inventory is to put RFID antennas on the inside and outside of the truck doors (one pair per access point to the gear). As the equipment enters and leaves, you get tag information and direction (outside before inside, item going in; inside before outside, item going out). That makes it idiot resistant and doesn't require any user to actively think about scanning/wanding/etc. I was setting up a similar system for chemical inventory at a semiconductor research fab. The chemical bottles were all tagged. A bottle going into the chemical cabinet registered +1 inventory and a user pulling out a bottle registered a -1.<br>
<br>
Some of the higher quality readers will report multiple tags at once which means a Pelican case full of individually tagged items can all be inventoried in one pass through the antennas.<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 5/21/2013 17:20, Doug Hall wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5">
I'm researching the use of RFID tags for inventory control for a truck full<br>
of expensive video equipment. At the end of a project, our employees need<br>
to be able to do a quick inventory of all the equipment on the truck, and<br>
be able to quickly account for its contents. Ideally, the system could<br>
leverage an iPhone front end but be served by an open-source back end -<br>
perhaps a Rails application that I can write. They may not have internet<br>
access, though. Sometimes the truck is needed in locations without cellular<br>
access. So, if the application could work offline, that would be great.<br>
It's not mandatory, though. Perhaps all I need to do is learn how to do<br>
local storage in html5.<br>
<br>
Any advice or suggestions would be welcomed - especially if you have direct<br>
experience with RFID. I've written an inventory tracking system which uses<br>
bar codes, but for as many (sometimes small) items as they need to track on<br>
this truck, that would take too long. Also, it can be a separate and<br>
simpler system than what I've done.<br>
<br>
Thanks for the advice.<br>
<br>
Doug<br>
<br>
<br>
<br></div></div>
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