raspberrypi.org/magpi The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book 45
PIORDER Projects
>STEP-01
Tablet interface
Waiting staff place orders on a webpage, viewed on
Amazon Kindle Fire tablets. A Raspberry Pi running
Apache serves up the webpage over a WiFi network.>STEP-02
Kitchen printer
The order is printed out in the kitchen using a
Raspberry Pi connected to a Pipsta printer. A
Camera Module scans the order as a backup
and sends a push alert to the manager.>STEP-03
Remote management
The manager can keep an eye on how many orders
have been placed. The system also enables them to
view the kitchen-monitoring and security cameras.BUILD A MENU
ORDERING SYSTEM
Camera Module takes a photograph
of the order to ensure it has
printed out correctly (and to act as
a backup). More Camera Modules
are used by managers to keep an
eye on how busy the kitchen is.
As well as making their
waiting duties easier, PiOrder
saves on costs.“Just Eat charges
approximately £699 + VAT just for
signing up,” reveals Ehsan. Then
it charges around 11% per order, an
amount that rapidly racks up.
More importantly, “we have
control over our software and order
flow,” adds Ehsan.
The system is a mixture of PHP,
JavaScript, and jQuery, with Bash
scripting used to communicate
between the Raspberry Pis. “The
great thing about Unix files is just
how reliable they are,” says Ehsan.
The other waiting staff and
Ehsan’s father have completely
stopped using pen and paper.
There were some teething
troubles: the original WiFi
system occasionally dropped
the connection, and the Pipsta
struggled to print large orders.
But after sorting those issues,
the system has “been resilient.”
There’s an automated test every
day at 5:30 for a single popadom,
“so the chefs and waiting staff
know the system is up and
working,” explains Ehsan.
There are even spare Raspberry
Pi boards in case of failure. “But
I’ve not needed them yet after two
years,” Ehsan reveals.
As a result of all this tinkering,
the restaurant is incredibly high-
tech. As well as the ordering
system, they are using Raspberry
Pi Model B boards as smart CCTV
cameras. Ehsan has even set up aRaspberry Pi 3 to act as a remote
monitoring system, “so my father
can see how busy the restaurant is
from home.”
Ehsan isn’t finished. He plans
to enable customers to order
food from their table using a
smartphone or tablet.
“The chefs and my father were
not convinced at first, but slowly
they saw the benefit.” The waiting
staff love the ability to update
orders with just a few taps. And the
chefs would not go back to reading
handwritten orders ever again.The chefs would not go back
to reading handwritten orders
ever again
Raspberry Pis with Camera Modules
provide CCTV for the restaurant, which
can be viewed using the system