Spacekiosk

This is a kiosk-system, providing simple "prepaid" accounts for users with a RFID-Tag. Data is stored in an external mongodb and the ui is shown in a window.

Upon reading a tag-id with the connected reader (the implemented reader is a metraTec QR15) a corresponding account is seeked in the database. If no account for this tag-id can be found, a new one will be created with 0€ credit. Future readings of this tag open the associated account showing its credit and make it possible to change the credit by adding or removing different amounts.

Impressions

TODOs / Future-features

• Make the currency symbol configurable (€,$ etc.)
• Support for other reader models and better tagreader API for easier replacement of different reader implementation
• Possibility to migrate account to another tag-id (als possible with minor mongodb manipulation for now)
• More error messages in the UI (like e.g. "DB connection failed")
• Further separation between UI and Backend (by directories), to make it easier to change the theme in forks

Prerequisites

What do I need to have in order to use this directly?

• A metraTec QR15 RFID-Tag reader, others can be implemented in the tagreader.js file with simple serial commands
• The UI is designed to be used solely with a numpad (USB, Bluetooth or whatever connects well to your platform), I suggest one with a backspace key
• A monitor for the UI
• Something to run this software and connect the hardware to. From a Raspberry Pi to a beefy gaming rig everything that can run Node applications with the electron framework, a mongodb and has a few USB-ports and a video output should work

Installation

Installation is as simple as calling these in your shell:

git clone https://github.com/vspaceone/spacekiosk.git
cd spacekiosk
npm install
$(npm bin)/electron-rebuild
npm start

Before you do npm start you should check the configuration as described below.

Configuration

Configuration can be accomplished either by environment variables or a configuration file.

Keep in mind that environment variables overwrite settings made in the configuration file.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
SK_ReaderDevice	Device location of the reader (/dev/ttyUSB0)
SK_ReaderBaudrate	Device baudrate (115200)
SK_MongoDB	Connection string to the MongoDB (mongodb://root:example@localhost:27017/?authMechanism=DEFAULT&authSource=admin)
SK_WWidth	Width of the window (ignored if fullscreen option is true)
SK_WHeight	Height of the window (ignored if fullscreen option is true)
SK_WFullscreen	If true the window will be fullscreen
SK_WHideMenu	If false the top menubar won't show

Configuration file

To run this app a configuration file needs to be created like in this example:

config/default.json

{
    "mongo":"mongodb://root:example@localhost:27017/?authMechanism=DEFAULT&authSource=admin",
    "reader":{
        "dev": "/dev/ttyUSB0",
        "baudrate": 115200
    },
    "window":{
        "width": 960,
        "height":640,
        "fullscreen":false,
        "hidemenu":false
    }
}