Repair Cafe App

The Repair Cafe App was designed and built by Repair Cafe Pasadena to manage repair tickets for our repair events. It was built around the idea of being simple, easy to use, and to be free of internet dependencies. This means it can run on a self-hosted network entirely through battery power!

Quick Start (Local Testing)

First install necessary system packages. This command is specific to Ubuntu.

sudo apt install python3 python3-venv python3-pip libbluetooth-dev nginx libffi-dev libssl-dev network-manager

Next, clone the repo and cd into the directory.

git clone https://github.com/LeStarch/repair-cafe-app
cd repair-cafe-app

Next, setup a virtual environment with setuptools version no greater than 58.0.0. Versions after that break the installation of dependencies, which have not been maintained. The following command assumes bash.

python3 -m venv rc-venv
. venv/bin/activate
pip install setuptools==58.0.0

Always activate the virtual environment when developing . rc-venv/bin/activate

Finally, install the requirements listed in requirements.txt.

pip install -r ./requirements.txt

To run the application in local testing mode:

cd src
flask -a repair_cafe_app.app run

Design and UI

This app is setup for a distributed repair cafe model which consists of multiple rolls:

Check-In: checking in repairs, taking basic notes on name and item
Teams: each repair team (tinkerers, tailors, etc) may triage and assign repairs
Check-Out: checkout the repair after a sucessful (or unsuccessful) repair

Each of these roles is expressed in the app as a function in the app. In addition, the app tracks repairer skills to aid in assignment of repairs.

The app is distributed with a central database such that users see update in almost real time!

Try it out: Repair Cafe App Demo. Note: the demo version uses local-storage, each user gets a "clean slate". Refreshing your browser will also clear the state.

Hardware and Network Requirements

Although designed to be small, this app requires a local WiFi network, a server computers, and user computersi/laptops/tablets/phones. The system is coordianted through the local WiFi.

To do this, the user should get a travel-router and configure it to setup some WiFi network (e.g. RepairCafeWifi). The user can get a laptop or raspberry pi running linux to act as the webserver and database. Users can use whatever browser they'd like to. All of these can use the WiFi to talk in a closed-network.

In Repair Cafe Pasadena, we run the travel router and raspberry pi webserver via a battery-pack such that the system requires no power, and no internet. Our users use phones, tablets, and laptops so there is no external power requirements there either. Note: we always need to remember to charge these things beforehand.

Optional Hardware: if you want some resilency in the database, you can setup a cluster of computers to run ElasticSearch. Pasadena uses 2x RPIs to do this. It is (probably) not necessary as hardware failures likelyhood is low during the event, but we wanted to see if we could.

Software Requirements

The repair-cafe app requires three software requiremnets:

nginx, a lightweight webserver to host the page
elasticsearch, the database storing the ticketing information
A web browser for accessing the page

nginx and elasticsearch must be setup on a host or server machine to provide the app. This system should function on a system as small as an arm64 computer running with 4GB of RAM (Raspberry PI 4 or equivalent). A linux laptop or linux VM running on a laptop would also surfice.

The web browsers run on the users laptops, computers, tablets, or even phones. Each connect to the served app just like any other webpage.

Optional Software: a router with configurable DNS or hostnames can make the app run with a nice URL. At pasadena, we run a local DNS lookup such that users navigate to http://app.repair-cafe-pasadena.org/. Note: this endpoint is only available when attaching to our network.

(In Progress) Parts List to Build the Repair Cafe Pasadena "In a Box" Setup

Travel Router: (TODO: link)
Computers: Raspberry PI 4. See "Odroid M1" for alternabtive as RPI4s are hard to get
Battery Pack: 50000mAH, 2 x 5V 3A output

The travel router uses the RPI 4's USB power. We have 2x RPI 4's plugged in to the battery pack's USB output. Each has a USB cable with power switch so they can be turned on independenly.

LeStarch / repair-cafe-app