Fabman

LOG · WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

Fabman manages access to the machines in a shop, specifically the dangerous buddy-system ones (machines you can only use with another person present in the shop), to ensure safety: people who aren't trained on a machine can't use it. Each machine gets a box with a button, a small display and a badge reader, that switches the machine's power: press the button, tap your badge, and the machine runs for 15 minutes, extendable up to 5 hours, with warning beeps before it stops. Each box keeps its own copy of who's allowed, so a Wi-Fi outage never locks the shop out, and a web app (Supabase and Vercel) manages who can use what.

WHY

3 days before the summer program started, my bosses at Rev asked me to make our very own Fabman, with the possibility of adapting it across Cornell, to make sure we're safe with some of the shop machines and untrained people won't use them, as we have a cohort of incoming people in the summer. I said sure, since I don't shy away from a challenge.

WHAT I WORKED ON

Full stack: hardware, software and design. The first version was made in 3 days; later iterations uncovered flaws in my 3-day design (duh).

WHAT CAME OF IT

Made and in use: it's actively used in our own shops.