PiGates: Raspberry Pi based ticket checking tool for concert venues #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
willseph shared this project on imgur: a Raspberry Pi based system for checking tickets at a concert venue. Very cool and super useful!
I call them the PiGates. The main components are just a Raspberry Pi and a PiGlow LED board. The purpose of these is to check the validity of a customer’s ticket at the door of a show.
Traditionally the company I work for has used netbooks as the gate computers, but they’re relatively fragile and expensive. We use USB barcode scanners (pictured here), as well as magcard swipers and RFID readers depending on the event.
We did our first real test of them up in the bay area over Memorial Day weekend, a three-day show. Heart was pounding hoping nothing would go catastrophically wrong.
These pictures were taken on day 2 of 3, after we decided to run all of the gates using the PiGates, instead of half Pi’s and half netbooks like we did on day 1.
These things made the entry process totally smooth. The netbooks have an issue with tight spaces (we didn’t have tables at this event, we had to make due with lighting crates).
We had no significant issues at all over the entire weekend, and my company is moving forward with replacing the netbooks with the PiGates after the success.
It feels awesome being able to make something that really makes a difference in the company, and used in real-world applications. Plus, the ticket scanning staff thought the Pi’s were pretty cool too.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!