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| What is your solution for keeping and tracking parts? |
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| Avelino Sampaio:
Here on the forum I offer an inventory application, made in MS Access. * I have more than 1400 items registered and I find my pieces very quickly. * The program gives me a list of items that are under-stocked. * When writing off the stock, I get a list of the cost of a particular project. * The program calculates the cost of items by weighted average. * Open code. If you have knowledge of VBA, you can adapt the project to your needs. It's DIY and from the heart. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/a-small-(open-source)-inventory-control-application-using-ms-access/msg3639178/#msg3639178 |
| thm_w:
Countless threads on this subject. For moderate prototype quantities (cut tape of 100pc or less say), get the usleeve: https://www.eevblog.com/product/usleeve/ Have a few binders, have sections if needed using normal binder tabs and label them (eg, buck converters, opamps, etc.). Then order within each sheet. |
| james_s:
I generally collect all the parts related to a specific project and put them in a ziplock freezer bag labeled with what project it is, then I put those into cardboard boxes that I stack on a shelf. It's not ideal but it's been working ok. |
| jonpaul:
As EE for 55 years, Since 1960s have collected parts from surplus stores, ham fleas, then silent key friends... leftover prototypes, and from production of SMPS Category....passives, RC, L, pots, trimmers, lytics, connectors HV, magnetics, transistors diodes, FETS, heatsinks...... Bankers boxes of TH ammo packs axial R, C..... Used plastic parts bins, and modular parts organizers. 30 1' deep 3'..4'W Grainger industrial metal shelves. Occupies 100 m sq area. No inventory or software, it's all in my brain. Estimate I can locate one out of 1e6 parts. ........" We have built a very fine laboratory in Livermore " ( heavy Hungarian accent) Dr Edward Teller, 1960s ( about LLNL, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) Just the ramblings of an old retired EE Jon |
| David Aurora:
At some point a few years back I tried to set up an inventory system. Tried a few apps, tried my accounting software, tried rolling my own system, but eventually I realised maintaining it is a whole job in itself even for a small workshop like mine. I have a friend working for me as an assistant these days who I'm training up and at one point I got him to start sorting boxes of random parts into categories with the idea that I might get him to do a proper inventory once they were separated, but the reality is that you need a certain parts vocabulary to do that (e.g. to the untrained eye, is a 3 terminal device a BJT, a FET, a regulator, a voltage reference? Is an 8 pin IC an op amp, a charge pump, a regulator, a microcontroller?). I got him to Google part numbers as he went, but at a certain point it made no sense to be paying him to sit there googling parts one at a time when I could separate them by eye myself, but then if I was sitting there doing that it makes less financial sense because the workshop isn't doing billable work. So yeah, that idea has gone out the window even though I'd love to have everything in a database to avoid triple buying parts I'm sure I have but don't have time to look for :-DD Storage wise, after years of the old standard plastic drawers I recently moved everything to these types of things- https://www.bunnings.com.au/montgomery-12-compartment-organiser-storage-box_p2580706 Makes it way easier to take a handful of values to my desk or out to a job elsewhere. Resistors are sorted in E12 values with non-E12/trimmers/LDRs etc in the last box. Capacitors are sorted by most used values with less commonly used values thrown together based on ranges (e.g. 3.3nF, 15nF and 27nF poly would all be together. 56uF, 120uF and 82uF electrolytic would all be together. While I bought all of them at some point for a reason I've almost never used those values again so I don't mind picking through if I have to once in a while). Similar thing with ICs/transistors/diodes- parts I use a lot like 5532 op amps or LM317 regulators will have their own sections, whereas all general purpose n channel JFETs will be in one shared section and same goes for zener diodes. Big parts like power resistors/axial capacitors/transformers/connectors are in their own tubs. Vacuum tubes, heatsinks and all that other bulky shit lives on one particular shelf. Last but not least, about 2 years worth of parts orders are strewn across various cardboard boxes which I curse on a daily basis as I sift through them looking for parts that should be in the aforementioned storage solutions. |
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