Tag: Internet

Basic Inventory Management System Web Application

I’ve spent a great deal of time searching for the right inventory management system for my work.  I want the system to be relatively simple, straightforward, with only the necessary bells and whistles.  Perhaps, even more important to me is the ability to modify the system to suit my needs.  It’s rare to find an off-the-shelf product that can be modified or enhanced to suit needs.  Fortunately, there are several open-source projects on GitHub related to Inventory Management System projects.  I need to be able to customize the project to suit my needs.  Similar to WordPress, the project I have selected is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database.

Wired or Wireless?

Electricity replaces the sun, wind, and some natural processes as the dependency for plants to grow indoors.  

The first glaring problem with the typical indoor garden is that extension wires are annoying and a potential safety hazard.  On the other hand, wireless communications can lack the reliability of the wired variant.  Going further, should the system be available to the local network or should it be connected to the Internet?

Why Arduino when you can Pi?

The greatest advantage to using the Arduino family of microcontrollers for DIY electronics projects, is that they are ubiquitous.  Since they are so available, they are inexpensive and you can find open-source software to get started.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to work with an Arduino Uno microcontroller board, then you’ve probably executed the flashing LED example.  Going further, you might attach a button, or switch, to trigger the LED or to turn it off making the project interactive.  There are many sensors that could be connected to the Arduino Uno and setup to trigger events, such as the LED flashing, using threshold values that we would need to experiment with in order to figure out what settings work best for creating the effect we want.