AcksessManager
| Project: AcksessManager | |
|---|---|
| Featured: | No |
| State | Active |
| Members | Adnub |
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| Description | System and software to manage Acksess 2.0 door controller |
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Contents
Purpose
We would like to have a more convenient way to manage the door controller and keep track of who exactly has which badge
Goals
- Able to securely manage tags from local LAN
- Menu driven UI (ncurses?)
- Keeps track of when someone was added and which UID somebody has
- You must present an admin tag at an Ackess door controller before any changes are applied.
- Keeps a versioned backup of its CSV database on a network storage location
To be determined if in scope or not
- Log access times of space. (Do we need this? Do we want this? Privacy vs. access management debate. Would require a modification on Ackess 2.0 as it currently does not output this information)
Not in scope
- Manage system remotely from the internet
- Open door remotely / without presenting a tag
Hardware
I've settled on using a Dell Wyse Cx0 C10LE thin client.
Using a Raspberry Pi was considered, but it is more powerful than required and costs us money, while this donated Wyse device is sitting in storage and could really use a purpose in life. :-)
Specs
- CPU: Via C7 @ 1GHz
- RAM: 256MB
- Storage: 100MB (!)
- Video: VX855/VX875 Chrome 9 HCM (Max resolution) 1920 x 1200 @ 60Hz Colour:15/16/24/32bpp)
- Power: 12V 2.5A, Coax 5.5mm/2.1mm
- Power usage: Off: 1W, Idle: 5W, Running: 7W
Source: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/cx0/ (with a correction)
Operating system
Since we only have 100MB of storage to work with, the choises for an OS are limited. Yes I could have installed on an external USB flash drive, but where's the fun in that? :p
After some research and looking around, I've settled on using SliTaz Linux. An installation without a GUI takes up a footprint of merely 25MB, which accomodates our main hardware bottleneck on the Wyse hardware.
SliTaz homepage: https://www.slitaz.org/en/ SliTaz documentation: https://doc.slitaz.org/en:handbook:start SliTaz community documentation: https://slitaz-wiki.readthedocs.io/start.html
Installation and configuration
Exact steps for installation and configuration of the OS goes here
Software
- Will be written in plain C. Python was considered but the storage overhead of the Python packages was deemed too great.
- Database will be a plain CSV file
- Will have a menu driven UI using ncurses
