Newbie advice for a lab project.

[JoseLuis]

Hi all!! My name is Jose and I would like to ask for some advice/ideas for my new project. I work for a spanish research center and I was asked to design a system to control the use of different kind of equipment which are quite heterogeneus btw (freezers, centrifuges, plate readers, distillated water systems...) that are being shared by all the scientists. The problem is that they want to know who is using the equipment and how much time.
I have thought about it and I have an idea about how it should be the system. The user should enter into the shared equipment room, go to the touch screen where the user will see the room schema/picture and touch on the device the user want to use. Then the user is validated using a fingerprinting device, card, username/password (still thinking about the options). For this step I will need scripting if I finally use hs to connect to the DB and check the user. Once it is validated, hs will let use the device to the user. I have thought about installing electromagnetic locks on the equpment because I can use it in the 90% of the devices. There are X10 multi relay controllers that could control the locks.There are other ones that depends on a computer or have an integrated computer with a rare operating system, but I am currently thinking about it. After the use of the device the user should go back to the touch screen and lock it. This is for be able to control how long the user has been using the device. Once I have the idea I need some advice to know which components are more suitable for my system because there are huge amount of them out there.

Thank you in advances guys!

[mrhappy]

It sounds a bit...complicated.

Is HS designed for more industrial setups? X10 has its own issues aswell, would a PLC be more suitable? Do you have to use fingerprints? I've got no experience of the fingerprint reader and reliability, but I would've thought issuing each person an RFID tag may be easier.

[Rupp]

It sounds a bit...complicated.

Is HS designed for more industrial setups? X10 has its own issues aswell, would a PLC be more suitable? Do you have to use fingerprints? I've got no experience of the fingerprint reader and reliability, but I would've thought issuing each person an RFID tag may be easier.

HomeSeer controls the lighting on a bridge in New York so I would say that it works find in an industrial setup.
The fingerprint reader is one of the most solid interfaces/plugins that HomeSeer offers so this is a good idea. The problem I see is getting the users to go back to a touchscreen to "log out". If they have to use some type of system login or access control to the room you could tap into may lead to a better system.

[Uncle Michael]

Have you considered using a commercial RFID asset tracking system?

[JoseLuis]

HomeSeer controls the lighting on a bridge in New York so I would say that it works find in an industrial setup.
The fingerprint reader is one of the most solid interfaces/plugins that HomeSeer offers so this is a good idea. The problem I see is getting the users to go back to a touchscreen to "log out". If they have to use some type of system login or access control to the room you could tap into may lead to a better system.

I know that it is an issue making the user go back to log out but it is the only way to track the time the user has been using the device. If the user do not log out it will be his responsibility if something bad happen in the device.
The RFID is not an option because we don't want user lending cards to others in order to use the equipment, that's why we will try to use fingerprint reader (eye reader sounds scifi isn't it?) I know, if people in my work were responsible enough nothing of this would be necessary but I can't help it.

[Rupp]

Sounds like a good plan then. Keep us updated on the outcome.