LabSENSE

A comprehensive IoT laboratory monitoring and management system integrating sensor data collection, chemical inventory tracking, and environmental monitoring for intelligent lab operations.

Features

• Sensor Monitoring: Real-time data collection from multiple sensors (distance, light, proximity, strain gauges)
• Chemical Inventory Management: Track chemical stock levels with traffic light warnings
• Water & Fume Hood Monitoring: Real-time tracking of water consumption and fume hood operations
• Environmental Monitoring: Temperature, humidity, pressure, and gas monitoring
• Data Management: Multiple database backends (SQLite and SQL Server support)
• Azure IoT Integration: Stream sensor data to Azure IoT Hub
• MQTT Communication: Publish/subscribe messaging for distributed systems
• Excel Integration: Auto-generating reports and inventory tracking sheets

Project Structure

labsense/
├── Balance Comms/          # Balance communication interface
├── ChemInventory/          # Chemical inventory tracking
├── Consumables/            # Consumable tracking systems
├── Labsense_Excel/         # Excel report generation
├── Labsense_Sensors/       # Sensor interfacing code
├── Labsense_SQL/           # SQL Server integrations
├── Labsense_SQLite/        # SQLite database operations
├── RaspberryPi-4/          # Raspberry Pi 4 deployment scripts
├── RaspberryPi-Pico/       # Raspberry Pi Pico firmware
└── SQL/                    # SQL query documentation

Dependencies

This project uses Conda for environment management. Key dependencies include:

• Data Processing: pandas, numpy
• Databases: sqlite, pyodbc (SQL Server)
• IoT/Networking: paho-mqtt, azure-iot-device, requests
• Hardware Interfaces: RPi.GPIO, gpiozero, VL53L1X, ltr559, hx711-multi
• Excel Operations: openpyxl
• Configuration: python-dotenv
• Scheduling: schedule

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/labsense.git
cd labsense

2. Create the Conda environment:

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate labsense

Configuration

Environment variables should be configured in a .env file. Required variables include:

• Database connection strings (SQL Server)
• MQTT broker details
• Azure IoT Hub connection strings
• API authentication tokens

Usage

Different modules can be deployed based on use case:

Desktop/Server Scripts

• Labsense_Excel/: Generate and update inventory reports
• Labsense_SQL/: SQL Server data operations
• ChemInventory/: Chemical inventory management

Raspberry Pi 4

• Azure IoT streaming (RaspberryPi-4/Azure-Stream-*.py)
• Sensor data publishing (publisher.py)
• MQTT subscription and logging (subscriber*.py)

Raspberry Pi Pico

• Lightweight microcontroller firmware
• WiFi connectivity and MQTT
• Onboard sensor reading

Hardware Requirements

• Sensors: VL53L1X (distance), LTR559 (light/proximity), BME680 (environmental)
• Microcontrollers: Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi Pico
• Interfaces: I2C, GPIO, Serial
• Databases: SQLite (local) or SQL Server (centralized)

License

See LICENSE file for details.