An organization I’m a part of is trying to keep track of who is in our building what nights. Easiest would just be to have some sort of card scanning system that records whenever people come in, but that costs money.
Anyone know of a free alternative? Maybe something that scans QR code based badges that we print out? Something similar?
Currently we just have a cheap laptop at the door and an open google form for people to type in their name each time, so most approaches would be easier!
What type of physical security is used at night? Are the doors locked, and those needing to enter given their own keys? If so, then the laptop, or even a paper logbook, combined with a security camera covering the door & sign in area would help. Provided you limit keys to authorized personnel only.
No real security. Currently about 80 people/ night and only 5 or so have keys, so it is open. We used to just use a log book, but to get stats we want it electronic now.
Thinking outside the box here,
I’d give everyone an RFID animal ear tag set up to be a keyring and then just scan them at the door to the entrance. I know that Shearwell’s sheep counter SW will do it. This is the sample ear tag/key ring I am thinking of.
If you want to try it e-mail me with an address and I’ll send you a couple of free RFID ear tag/keyrings to test it.
Sheep counter can produce a file with the date and time scanned for every tag.
Buying EID tags from Shearwell runs under $1 each. You don’t need them to be official US animal ID so if you go that route ask for “Farm Tags” with the manufacturer number in the di header not the official US country code.
I’ll tag this with: “Coolest thing I never knew existed until right now”
Thanks for sharing.
The sheep counter idea is great. It will tell you “what” was in and out, but not “who”. People can hand off the printed QR code, RFID tag, etc., to someone else.
Great idea, thanks! We’re ok with counting what not who (both our old and current methods were trust based sign in - just trying to remove friction).
And I have a bit more info. You can build an EID tag reader for under $100 from our plans at my GitLab account. Sheep counter runs on Android devices. I’ve run it with our sheep on a Kindle Fire so for less than $150 you can get the hardware and SW going. Then it’s only tags as recurring costs. Depending on how many you need I have a bunch of the sample ones in my picture from an event I did in 2014.
