Chapter 11. Final Project

Over the course of this book you have studied a number of subjects, including:

We are now going to build a project that brings many of these ideas together. In this chapter, we are going to construct an inventory management device. This will use a combination of SQLite, Python, the GPIO pins, a web server, and an LED.

Our project will store information about items stored in our kitchen. It will then allow us to update this inventory through a web interface. When an item gets low, for example when fewer than two are left, it will trigger an LED to switch on.

Once we have our basic software and electronics in place, some ideas for extending the project further will be presented.

Let's start by getting our Raspberry Pi hardware set up.

Choose your storage mechanism

We recommend you store the website and inventory management system on the external hard drive. Of course, if you wish to skip this step, you can, and can simply use the SD card. However, this will give you the chance to experiment with the information provided in Chapter 5, Expanding on Storage Options.

We are now going to create a sub-directory called final_project to store our source code and database. This will either be on the external HD or on the microSD card, depending on what you choose as your storage mechanism. All of our development work will have in this directory.

Once this is done, navigate into it and you will be ready to start building the website.