Chipseasy parts storage system... oh dear....

[mikeselectricstuff]

Talk about sledgehammer to crack a nut.... 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfacture/chipseasy-smart-electronic-component-organizer?ref=home_recs

It _might_ just have some use in a commercial outfit that does small volume hand assembly jobs but that really is it.

Cost utterly unustifiable for hobbyist, or most commercial development lab type use

Requires you to de-tape parts, which is usually stupid
 
 

[sleemanj]

Talk about sledgehammer to crack a nut.... 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfacture/chipseasy-smart-electronic-component-organizer?ref=home_recs

It _might_ just have some use in a commercial outfit that does small volume hand assembly jobs but that really is it.

Cost utterly unustifiable for hobbyist, or most commercial development lab type use

Requires you to de-tape parts, which is usually stupid
 
 

They were spamming the forum with this a couple weeks back, I think all their posts got deleted.

[thm_w]

I would disagree that its that expensive. Digikey has a 45 component drawer for $40 USD for example: http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/flambeau-inc/U45P/510-1024-ND/616282
The chipeasy is 512 bins, so you'd need about 11 drawers or $440. It would  be more compact as well, useful for an apartment or small workspace. Although of course the drawers are smaller in size.

There is no mention of ESD I saw, so for commercial use it would only be useful for passives.

But their spam was annoying, they could have simply made a thread here.

[sleemanj]

The chipeasy is 512 bins,

Teeny tiny bins.

How does the actual usable storage volume compare with the digikey one.

It might be different if those bins were configurable in size instead of just being teeny tiny awkward tweezer-access-only affairs.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Tweezering parts out of relatively deep bins can be tricky - parts will inevitably get dropped into adjacent bins

[Richard Head]

I actually quite like the drawer concept but I don't think the software or PC control is required at all. I probably wouldn't have the discipline to keep the quantities up-to-date anyway.
I wonder if the drawers can be removed from the housing as I don't like the smd devices in the tweezers for any longer than necessary. I use the "BOX-ALL" storage units from Aidetek which are great.

[Inflex]

There's no lids on these trays?  Pass. That's just asking for a disaster when the drawer is extended fully out and excited Freddy accidentally knocks you causing you to fall against the fully extended tray which flips everything over or spring-boards  (if the unit is bolted down) the parts into a nice 1980's random-bag mix.

[EEVblog]

Talk about sledgehammer to crack a nut.... 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfacture/chipseasy-smart-electronic-component-organizer?ref=home_recs
It _might_ just have some use in a commercial outfit that does small volume hand assembly jobs but that really is it.

Yep, a solution looking for people with a problem.
It would be just as quick to setup as labeling an identical tray of small bins, and the convenience factor is minimal.
I'm surprised it doesn't have integrated Digikey and Mouser ordering.
In any case the stock counting system is going to get out of sync pretty quick as tiny SMD parts get dropped and lost etc.
Maybe there are enough organisational OCD freaks out there though?

[Inflex]

In any case the stock counting system is going to get out of sync pretty quick as tiny SMD parts get dropped and lost etc.
Maybe there are enough organisational OCD freaks out there though?

Last thing I want to be doing when R&D'ing (or even just building) is burning extra brain cells keeping count of everything, especially, as you say, with anything smaller than 1206 SMD.  My limit was "Oh, down to the last reel of 10K 0603, better order another 2".  Now, if there was a detector/scanner in the individual tray cells that did the counting for you, well now, then they'd be on to something (complete with automatic reordering).

[mariush]

Am i the only one that uses matchboxes (safety matches) as containers ?

Small boxes for smd stuff , i can buy packs of 20-40 boxes for a couple of dollars (in local currency)..

There's also packs of 3 supersize boxes (equal to about 10 smaller boxes) for about 1$, great to store through hole inductors, capacitors etc .. double cardboard walls, slides in and out, you can easily stick a label on the edge of the box.
 

[PeterZ]

Am i the only one that uses matchboxes (safety matches) as containers ?

Nope, not the only one I've been using them for over 20 years to store parts, recently, after looking around for alternatives... meh,  made some new ones. Somehow they work the best for me, take a little bench space and the entropy takes care about right component orientation while picking them with a vacuum pickup. A 5000pcs wheel of 0805 100n caps fits easily into one small matchbox.

[f4eru]

Drawers with no lid have 2 big problems
1) very small components will pop from drawer to drawer once closed because the closing mechanism needs some play. 0603 or 0402 are so common. There's a reason their demo does not show 0603.  Coz it doesn't work. That is not a problem on standard boxes coz the lid is shut by a spring removing any play on the whole seam of EACH box.
2) when you open thedrawer you will from time to time drop a part to some adjacent drawer. That's especially bad when similar parts are in the nearby drawers. Traditional drawers don't have this problem, you open only one lid.

So, Appart from cost, shake, and detaping issues already discussed, this thing is really a fad.

[wraper]

When de-taping parts on the video, easy way how to mix parts in the nearby bins as they don't have any covers. And what if I need like 20 of the same parts being put one the pcb? If the bins were individually removable, that would be fine, otherwise just unusable. Now imagine, you need to remove 200 resistors from the bin  . Also, closing the shelve and accessing software every time you need a single part  ? WTF. What is easy and fast, take a bunch of shallow bins, put nearby to the PCB you are assembling and just do the do the job. I can do up to about 600-800 parts/hour on a panel with multiple familiar PCBs (depends on how many parts of the same type are used).

[julianhigginson]

It's actually impressive how much work has gone into something so fundamentally

I was looking at it, trying to work out what the LED patterns on the front meant, but then I realised I didn't actually care what they meant, and I would never need to know anyway.

As for alternative solutions, I also like the aidetek antistatic boxes as a general solution, but nowdays I like the wurth component kits best. They might cost more per compartment, but they come pre-filled, and they send you refills whenever you tell them your compartments are running a bit low.