Equipment Inventory Guide

QSAR’s gear — drones, controllers, beacons, radios, batteries, Starlink kits — is tracked in one shared inventory so we always know what we have, where it is, and what shape it’s in.

Using the inventory app

The inventory is a simple web page (ask the project admin for the address, or see For developers to run it on your own computer).

Look something up

The front page lists everything. Narrow it down with the dropdowns (category, location, status) or type in the search box (a serial number, a person’s name, “thermal”, …). Click any item’s ID to see its details.

Add an item

1. Click ＋ Add item.
2. Pick what kind of thing it is (drone, beacon, battery, …).
3. Fill in the form. Fields marked * are required. Dropdowns only offer approved choices — if the village or status you need isn’t listed, tell the project admin; don’t improvise spellings.
4. ID format matters: each kind has a prefix, like drone-03 or swl-02. The form shows the right pattern.
5. Click Save. If something’s wrong, the page tells you exactly what.

Counting vs. tracking

• Things with serial numbers (a drone, a beacon) get one entry each.
• Interchangeable things (drone batteries, chargers) get one entry per village with a quantity — update the count, don’t add rows.

When gear moves or breaks

Edit the item and change its location, assignee, or status (in-service, in-repair, missing, loaned-out, …). That’s the whole job — keeping those three fields honest is what makes the inventory useful.

Backups (admins)

The Export YAML button downloads the inventory as a text file with serial numbers shortened (***1234) and only first names — this is the version that’s safe to commit to the public project repository (save it over equipment/inventory.yaml). The small (full) link exports everything unshortened for a private local backup — never commit that one. Re-importing the shortened file later won’t erase the full details stored on the admin computer.

Why the app won’t let you type certain things

Every dropdown comes from one reviewed list (the schema). That’s deliberate: it means “Quinhagak” is always spelled one way, categories can’t multiply, and reports stay trustworthy. Adding a new field or category is a quick change for the admin — ask.