In order to get a better hand on what we have, what has walked away, and just to better inform members, potential members and lurkers we need to have a better indication of what’s in the room and ways to access the items easier.
My hope is to have an inventory complete, things properly stored and labeled and just in general have a better flow to the room before September 17th. It’s a lofty but obtainable goal.
My point. I’ve made a google form to coincide with the blue labels placed on items around the room. I’m hoping some members who want to donate 15m of time to better the space might do one when they can. When done all the info will be in a spreadsheet for everyone to access, labels, ordering blah blah blah you get it why am I spelling it out?
Link to the form: https://goo.gl/forms/dDKrzDDPjnOpqkPo2
It is a simple form. It will help us in the long run. It will take many people working on it. Ask questions if you have them.
The painters tape is temporary and ugly. I’m going to print up traditional label - labels and I of course we gotta rock some sassy well placed professional vinyl.
PS Bales is working on the files to cut out for the big items in the room. I’ll cut it out and slowly (possibly on the cleanup day in September) we will get them put up nicely. Can’t wait to unveil Creative Arts 3 Point Oh!
An idea: As much “stuff” as the Space has, maybe we should get something like these and use throughout the Space. I’m not sure if we have a bar-code reader for these, but it would be nice to have a standard format. It would also make taking “inventory” a heck of a lot easier. So if we don;t have a reader it would be a shared asset of the Space
We can get them made with the DMS logo if we want - or each Committee could get their own roll with their Committee name or it (everything seems to sprout legs here).
We could actually dye sublimate the right info onto a self-adhesive metal tag - and fairly inexpensively. I considered doing this with QR codes for reporting machine status.
I agree you could do that - but a roll tags is much easier and when needed just peel, stick, add to spreadsheet-database. Person doesn’t have to know how to use the Dye Sub.
But I’m not familiar enough with how QR codes are generated/assigned but it seems like they are somewhat cloud based, whereas bar codes aren’t.
Then again most most smart phones can read a QR code - assuming info is in data base that app connects to. (Also assume neo-Luddites such as myself can figure out how to use it meaningfully)
They’re not “assigned” (you can put in whatever content you want: just text, URL, whatever) and people only use online tools to generate them strictly out of convenience.
I suggested the Dye Sub tags only because they are more durable. I had put a sticker-type label for reporting tool status on the FSL (laser) and it rapidly became so scuffed up it wasn’t readable any more.
This might not be an issue in CA, but I think it is an issue out in the shops.
But I do agree with you that the stickers would be easier.
Learned something today, so its a good day. How easy would it be to connect the QR code when read to a DMS database for our inventory? (I know, easy if I’m you’re not the one doing it). I assume we have a bar code reader because the tubs have bar codes on them - so the system design is already in place.
@Photomancer I see the possible connection with the larger machines in the space but what would be the benefit to putting barcodes on things rather a number?
My thought is to have a large list:
Tub 3 - soft pastels (tub is labeled soft pastels and has a large 3 on it)
We stack them up via number - easy cheesy pudding pie
Teach me the ways of barcodes. I use QR codes quite a bit.
The difference between a barcode and QRCode in the amount of effort involved are near identical since the biggest effort would be data entry into a database for everything you want to inventory (which is no small task) and keeping said data up to date. The QRCode can store more data than many barcode types, but I don’t think you’d want to use that as the storage mechanism for data (this guy has a lot of data for instance: QR code - Wikipedia). You’d still want to use some sort of ID for each item probably a URL that brings up that item (something like https://dallas.ms/inventory/1234, which is fake obviously).
We do have a barcode reader, but I have no idea what functionality that has. If I had to guess, the powers that be hook it up to a laptop to serve as a virtual keyboard to type data into some other application (Google spreadsheet or something else). I think the barcodes they use are comma separated values or something. @ESmith might be able to answer that part.
Everything would be a single database and doing and inventory would be automated … maybe. Now we use spreadsheets held and updated by whoever.
Also a common DMS system would actually let DMS know what we have - listed in a single space. We will be getting some special asset tags for tracking property that is tracked in our financial system as capital assets.
But then again, if someone walks into the CA room, “Hey you, get some blue tape and start numbering things” has a simplicity that seems to work - at least it did on me:innocent:
The first time entry is always a nasty affair. It IS DMS so keeping it up to date is probably a major challenge, although it would be limited more to smaller devices. Thanks for the update and explanation.
Barcodes generally encode text. The 2D barcodes on bins in the galley are basically a line of CSV that replicates the information on the label with a little additional information. They’re static - no URL, no clever lookup into some database. But they could be with some ingenuity - and the generation could also be automatic.
It would be great to have QR codes that link to tutorials, or wiki instructions on using the machines like threading patterns, material settings, demos, etc like the QR on the Rex that links to the tutorial.
I love the idea of qr links to further independent learning and I want to make that something at the space. It was my hope once we generate this list I could divide and conquer to have everyone find appropriate links. We can start with leather because it’s so complex.
I feel the bar codes/scanner is a very complex thing. Although it’s not ideal a Google form will generate a quick excel file. I think I’m not understanding the bigger picture that can be gathered with a barcode rather a list associated to a number still.
The Babylock Embroidery machine has QR links posted on the case, linking to the detailed usage notes from the class, and to a tutorial on how to program a design.
