As the Hive continues to grow, it seems that we may need to block out time on certain machines as a courtesy to others. Driving 30 minutes down to the Hive only to find the Big Laser tied up on a 4 hour job could be frustrating.
I’m all for easy first;
Perhaps a web page with the major machines and a place to have “busy till 3:00pm” typed in by a user? If someone doesn’t update the status we could make them empty the rain bucket with a teaspoon.
We could duplicate the “open/closed” gizmo on each big machine. A person could flip a switch to at least show the unit is being used (doesn’t show expected time though)
Next level might be an Arduino with a keypad by each big machine where someone could type in “3” hour and it would count down and get sent to a webpage.
Finally we could have a super fancy reservation system site where people could reserve a piece of equipment and there would be a cool calendar type display showing what is available.
As a separate topic, please don’t tie up the equipment 6 hours every day to make widgets for your business. Sure, there are long projects that happen, but try and be courteous to others. My cross over point is “are you making money with this?”. If you are selling stuff, then you should think about some dedicated facility as we are a hobby group that does this for fun/learning.
Before the flame war begins, I’m talking about inconveniencing the group. If you are making Xmas ornaments on 5 minute runs and happily get out of the way for others I see that as OK. Using the BigCNC to cut out elaborate 3D sculptures and selling them on Ebay (tying up the machine for 6 hours every day) is NOT OK.
Thanks,