Show HN: Personal Storage System with a PI | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Personal Storage System with a PI

github.com

108 pointstimgrossmann57 comments

Why do so many projects go straight into a technical description of their solution without posing what the problem actually is. Here is the only justification of why they are doing this project- "I want to build an application, with which i can manage the items in my basement (preferably groceries)".

What does this even mean? This trend frequently happens especially on HN and it denies the reader a chance at weighing up the solution within context of the problem.

Because most developers are not all that familiar with design/marketing/etc. They make something cool, put up the code on github, and it usually stops there.

It does have the nice side effect that most projects are not polluted by marketing bullshit in their README.

He definitely could do a better job explaining what he is trying to accomplish, but I pity the person who has to use the barcode scanner he suggested, when you go below the $100 price point and are looking for a new in box handheld scanner, there is just crap for options and you will get to sit there and try to scan the same item repeatedly, until you give up and key every 8th item in by hand.

I would highly recommend buying a used Metrologic or Datalogic handheld scanner at or above $50, it'll work a lot better and (if programmed) can usually handle 2D barcodes. This is the major reason you see Fred Meyers spending $5k a pop on new Datalogic 9800i's, and why Walmart had the NCR 7878 custom built for them, scanning performance is a make it or break it deal.

On the Pi side, I'd sub in a OrangePi Plus 2E since it has 16GB of eMMC and has a fully libre stack now at a lower cost, and would likely nab a used monitor for $10 locally rather than pay for a low res 7" at a premium price.

Thank you! I definitely will explain it better/in more detail.

Thank you for the advice with the hardware, I'm not yet too familiar with the hardware side, but I'm learning and your feedback is really important to me, thank you.

I tested the barcode scanner with quite a few products and thought it to be pretty good for the money. I mean, for me it's a personal thing, so no need for super high performance. If the item is already in the system, you can scan 2-3 times per second, which is pretty good i think.

I'll definitely look up the PI and monitor part thank you !

> you go below the $100 price point and are looking for a new in box handheld scanner, there is just crap for options

Disagree. I have a very similar barcode scanner[1] to manage my book library, and it works perfectly over 99% of the time. It also scans every type of barcode I've thrown at it.

The bigger problem is grocery box designers who think it's funny to print the barcode onto dark backgrounds - I think that's where the el-cheapo scanners struggle.

Instead of investing in a tethered scanner, wouldn't a better option be to use a smartphone camera and an app?

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Link-Barcode-Scanner-Reader-Read...

(Out of stock now, but I think it cost me ~£30 [$37])

Could you provide a reference for your claim that the OrangePi Plus 2E has a fully libre stack? I was under the impression that it used out-of-tree kernel patches and binary blobs, which Wikipedia confirms.

I'm looking for any such (fully libre, no blobs, not even in firmware) hardware, but I haven't found anything so far except for some heavily modified old Thinkpads running Libreboot (sold by a vendor with shit customer support, as in delivering months late and not communicating for weeks at a time).

Why does there need to be a problem? It can be an open-source project that someone created just because their passion and creativity drove the to it.

Even if it is open source there was a problem he wanted to solve. We can just guess what it was.

No need to guess it, i will add the problem to the readme.

In short, the problem was, that we always had like 10 bottles of ketchup in our basement, because we never knew that we still have this many... So we ended up buying the stuff we already had and still forgot the things we needed. So we had to go again.

This way, you can easily VPN into your home network and search for the things you need and not the ones from which you still have enough.

You're completely right... There was a problem, for which this project was/is the solution. I will definitely add that to the description.

This seems like an over-engineered solution to a non-problem. Formal stock control is only useful if you have serious issues (eg. theft, very large inventory, unidentifiable packages). The author could solve his problem by simply keeping ketchup in the kitchen like sane people.

So in summary there is a barcode scanner, a Raspberry Pi and a screen. Where's the label printer? Not quoted: still more cost! It would have been far cheaper and more practical to install a new shelf.

Hey, you're right. But since I'm a CS student who likes to try out and learn stuff, over engineering is not a bad thing for me.

For a little home, we have an unnecessarily large inventory and it is really comfortable to just look it up on the smartphone than take the staircase to the basement and search through the stock :D

It's not just ketchup btw ;)

I'm still searching for an over engineered use case for my new label printer... The printing with this system is simply done with a Wifi printer nearly anyone (at least here in Germany) has at home. You can simply print a list of all the stock and if you want even a simple groceries list of which items are empty ;)

We installed a new shelf but once this one is full, you still got the problem. I mean, you could add even more, but at one point the room is full and you're back where you started :D

Now you just need a little robot to fetch the things from your basement and put them into a vacuum-tube delivery system.. :)

I agree with this. I am using a dead simple todo list to keep track of these things : www.mytinytodo.net It is more than enough for me, I am really happy of it.

It could still be useful to people running an online shop for example?

I disagree that this is a non-problem. In our household, we store ingredients that we need rarely under our bed. Weird chinese noodles, some exotic spice that I've never heard of but is only sold in huge packages in Turkish stores, red Quinoa that's very hip these days... you get the picture. It's easy to loose track of everything you have.

That said, it has never annoyed me enough to build and maintain a personal storage system like OP did.

Useful project.

How are you getting the product information ? Is there a public barcode database ?

Looks like it uses https://www.outpan.com

Like already written, the information comes from Outpan... If the product isn't already on outpan you're asked to enter the name of the product and a new entry is created.

It is a crowdsourced model.

I did check online for other API services [0..2] and GT1 [3] information.

[0] http://www.ean-search.org/

[1] https://www.barcodelookup.com/api

[2] http://eandata.com/

[3] http://www.gs1.org/barcodes/ean-upc

Finally, a use for my CueCat!

I thought nobody remembered that!

I used to have a couple I would attach to coworker's computers randomly to confuse them. Doesn't work anymore because no one uses desktops with PS/2 ports...

Time for an USB-to-PS/2 adapter!

Haha, why would you make it look like a cat :D

Those only work if the PS/2 device can 'switch' to USB mode. I very much doubt the CueCat could ever do this.

> which led to me having 10 bottles of ketchup in my basement

I went through this problem for a while, the same with salad cream and toilet paper :)

Could also be useful to add:

* an attribute that indicates how much of a thing has been used

* an item's age or purchase date

* the expiry date or best before date (yes, yes...I know these things aren't precise, and I decide if something is still good on the basis of does it look ok? does it smell ok? and common sense when it comes to fish/meat)

For example...when I occasionally make hummus, my part-used jar of tahini paste ends up at the back of the cupboard where it gets forgotten about but is still within its use-by date.

On the next trip to the supermarket, where I include ingredients to make hummus, I end up buying another jar of tahini paste because a) I can't remember if I still have tahini paste and b) if I do remember about that jar, was it opened? how much is left? and is it still good?

Knowing the state of perishables, whether unopened or part used would help save on waste and save money on unnecessary purchases.

Also I think a better name would be "Personal Stock Control", "Storage System" makes me think of disks and data storage.

Just a thought or two.

Haha, thank you for all the ideas. They are pretty cool! I knew I'm not the only one with this kind of problem :D

Thank you for the idea with the new name. You're right, it sounds a bit more suitable.

Now, just imagine if you could get it to order all the things you need and have them delivered :)

Cool. Looks like the housing/case is 3d printed, but it looked odd and I didn't know what the "washing station" thing was. Now I learned about Polyjet 3D Printing.

Thanks, the printer is an Objet30 3D Printer. The washing station is, like you probably already know by now, to get rid of the support material.

It might just be me, but I don't actually understand what the project is. The readme says since things about storage but I didn't get anything more.

I'm sorry, i didn't explain it very well, i'll definitely fix that. Basically the problem was, that we had a lot of groceries in large amounts while the ones we needed weren't there at all. If we went shopping we mostly forgot to check what we already have and bought even more of the things we already had, forgetting the stuff we needed.

The Project therefore is a simple tool to scan your products and keep a list of the things you have (with the amount). If you're on your way to the grocery store and you realise, that you don't really know if you need this or that product, you can simply VPN into your home network and check the stuff you have at home.

Did this make it any clearer ?

This is a problem I solved with a piece of paper and pencil (or a note keeping app on my phone) :)

"I'm low on ketchup, better write that down."

I like the project, don't get me wrong, but for me personally it would just add a layer of complexity.

Haha, yeah I absolutely understand that.

Interesting project. Though first thing I'd say would be that this seems like something that would be a natural for a touch screen. Given you're going to be pulling most of the info from bar codes, you're not going to be typing very long/often, and a keyboard would be added clutter for the majority of the time.

Yes, i thought about that in the beginning too. The problem i had was, that if a product isn't already in the database (outpan), you have to enter the name to add it.

I really dislike capacitive displays, especially writing on them and i think a onscreen keyboard is also really annoying.

Right now i have a keyboard which has a little touchpad, to get rid of the separate mouse.

But i also would prefer a touchscreen. Being spoiled from the nice keyboards on smartphones and tablets, i couldn't live with a PC onscreen keyboard.

Wow, that is one expensive case. The cost of the material to print that on default settings on that printer is 150 EUR.

Well, good point. Forgot to add that, good thing i hadn't to pay that :D

Where did you look that up?

The Objet software tells you how much material will be used, then just multiply with material price.

Yes ok, thought you looked that up online.

This reminded me of HomeMirror [0].

[0] https://github.com/HannahMitt/HomeMirror

Awesome project, would be interesting to add something like a leap motion to make it controllable without smearing the mirror :D

This is a cool project, but I guess it could be a phone app that your entire family could use collaboratively to scan, tag as used and add to a shopping list.

Thanks, these are some pretty nice ideas right there!

Looks like a cool project. But do I see this correctly that every time you're adding AND removing something from your inventory, you need to scan it? :(

Yes, that's the idea behind it. If you have an idea how to improve that, i would love to hear it

no finished picture?

A video wouldn't be out of order either.

Good idea, will record one and add it to the project, Thanks

Thanks to you my sir.

Oh, sry. Definitely will add that soon.

Basically it's just the screen put in the case and all the other stuff stuck inside the case.

Can you add captions to box making photos? I think that's an acetate bath at the end to smooth the edges but i'm not sure.

Sure, i'll add that immediately

Cheers, they make much more sense now!

Great project. Marking this as something to explore for our managing our office storage.

Haha, thank you. Let me know if you come across problems or bugs.

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