RepairCompanion

[SimplyElectronics]

Hey EEVBloggers,

After spending a decade in the electronics repair industry, I realised the need for a central hub that provides all the essential tools for component identification and other digital resources we often search for on Google. From SMD Marking codes to datasheets, cross-references, and more – I present to you RepairCompanion!

Check it out here: https://www.repaircompanion.com/

Over the past 6 months, I've been passionately working on this Python-backed website, and it currently has nearly 1 million components in its database. I'm thrilled to announce that it's now in Beta! While I'm aiming to complete data collection and add more features within a year, I truly value your feedback at this stage, and if anyone could point me to publicly available datasheets, pdfs or other sources that contain information for marking codes or cross reference data this would make my life easier! I've seen more datasheets over the past 6 months than i'd ever seen in the last 10 years!

My ultimate vision is for RepairCompanion to become the go-to platform for anyone involved in electronics repair. Imagine having all your component identification, cross-referencing, and electronic calculators in one place!

So, fellow EEVBloggers, I invite you to explore RepairCompanion and provide your valuable feedback. Together, we can make this the ultimate tool hub for electronics repair enthusiasts! It will remain completely free and will be backed purely with ads to keep it running.

Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions. Cheers!

[fzabkar]

While you're still keen, I would suggest that you concentrate on logos. AISI, that would be the "easiest" database to work on. If you can make your site the go-to resource for logos, then you will get plenty of hits that way.

One feature that I have yet to see anywhere is a resource which shows typical "marking styles" from various manufacturers. I think this alone would set your site apart from others.

For example, Monolithic Power's ICs usually have an underline across the IC. Richtek markings often have an "=" sign, eg "AB=". In fact, just today I was able to identify a Richtek IC because I remembered an IC with a similar marking style.

[Shonky]

If you search for more than 3 characters in https://www.repaircompanion.com/smd_code_search you get an internal server error.

Can't find a simple BAV99 in https://www.repaircompanion.com/ic_search ? A7 does find it in the SMD code search.

BC847? I realise these are just discretes but often the sort of thing you're looking for. 8BA (onsemi BC847) in the SMD code search doesn't show up either.

Don't restrict searches to specific fields IMO. i.e. you have different pages searching different fields. Allow users to filter on which fields are searched. Allow users to filter further e.g. 229 hits for A7. Pin count in particular although sort of covered by package. Manufacturer too.

[SimplyElectronics]

Excellent advice guys. All feedback is much appreciated. I am very aware of many limitations in search in it's current version. Building such large databases is very difficult and time consuming, and this website will continue to be in its Beta phase until I feel that it's up to scratch. But the more suggestions and improvements I can add to my list, the better I can tailor my site to the needs of our community.

Thank You 

[fzabkar]

A database of IC packages would be useful.

[SimplyElectronics]

A database of IC packages would be useful.

Could you clarify? Perhaps something like a complete index of all IC packages along with an illustration and datasheet?

[SimplyElectronics]

While you're still keen, I would suggest that you concentrate on logos. AISI, that would be the "easiest" database to work on. If you can make your site the go-to resource for logos, then you will get plenty of hits that way.

One feature that I have yet to see anywhere is a resource which shows typical "marking styles" from various manufacturers. I think this alone would set your site apart from others.

For example, Monolithic Power's ICs usually have an underline across the IC. Richtek markings often have an "=" sign, eg "AB=". In fact, just today I was able to identify a Richtek IC because I remembered an IC with a similar marking style.

I aim to cover every IC manufacturer logo out there, even the most obscure. The logo database will expand over time as I grow the site. And i will definitely add marking styles to my to-do list. thank you!

[fzabkar]

A database of IC packages would be useful.

Could you clarify? Perhaps something like a complete index of all IC packages along with an illustration and datasheet?

Yes, that would be good. If you know how a manufacturer describes a particular package, it can help in tracking down datasheets.

[Swake]

Nice initiative and good start. Have found some interesting things already.
Here are some remarks:

- Home page logo is gigantic on a 32" screen. Please reduce.
- On scrolling down all logo's and top bar with home menu disappears from the screen. You might want to keep that at all times.
- IC Search. Searched for "4011" and was a bit slow because of many findings. many many similar chips found with minor differences. Try grouping these somehow.
- SMD code search: PDF logo not aligned when there is no package image. On a 4K 32" screen I can see only 2 and a half items in the list, please screen real estate consumed (this is a general remark btw)
- Philips and Siemens are missing from the IC logo's. Intel also has the 'i' only logo.
- Would be nice to have a search on pages with large lists such as the IBGT page (ctrl-f works, but that is not what I mean)
- Resistor color code: not very user friendly as too many clicks required. When everything is selected calculate automatically. Provide info if this fits E12 E24 or E96 series. Do not reset entries when changing number of bands. Bands are on a different place on the 'real' resistors.
- Calculators: click calculate without entering data and there comes a server error. It only accept a 'dot' as decimal and not the 'comma' sign. Results should be shown below. Keep the Data in the fields to facilitate a second calculation with similar parameters.


tomorrow.io weather is wrong. It's raining here and it indicates sunny. Probably because it could not figure out our place very well.

[tggzzz]

If your "AI Tools" is going to be based on ChatGPT or another LLM, I suggest you drop the concept until you can prove that the statistical parrot won't merely "hallucinate" the probable next words.

I have a strong preference for a website (or shop) that does one thing well as opposed to doing several things poorly. If your site's USP is component identification, then adding a motley collection of calculators can only pollute the USP and distract the user.

[Swake]

Some calculator ideas:

General:
- Add a range and a chart representation instead of having only 1 calculation.
- Use the calculators with data injected from selected transistors or chips. (power dissipation for example)

Some simple calculators:
- ACG to mm² convertor, example:
- Voltage drop of length of cable .(copper and aluminium) (with maximum length calculation based on maximum drop)
- Drop resistor for LED.
- AC Power calculations (Active; reactive; ...)
- Serial/parallel capacitors and resistors.
- RC filters
- Voltage divider based on E12 E24 E96 series resistors.
- For a given resistance show the nearest resistance in the E12 E24 E96 series build it out of 1 or 2 resistors.

[Swake]

battery sizes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes but add some relevant calculations, capacity/load/time/charging time

[SimplyElectronics]

All this feedback is excellent. I love this community! And rest assured every bit of feedback is being added to my huuuge list! It's a lot of work but I'll keep hacking away at it ☺️

[tggzzz]

All this feedback is excellent. I love this community! And rest assured every bit of feedback is being added to my huuuge list! It's a lot of work but I'll keep hacking away at it ☺️

Focus is important; you can't do everything.

Is it worth spending your life duplicating the results of bog-standard gurgle searches?

[SimplyElectronics]

Focus is important; you can't do everything.

Is it worth spending your life duplicating the results of bog-standard gurgle searches?

A lot of information isn't always a single Google search away, especially obscure or obsolete components. The idea behind RepairCompanion is to have everything easily available via a single service and I genuinely have a passion for providing this as a service for the Electronics Repair Community. So I'm happy to do it, and it has been an excellent project for development of my Python programming skills. It's a win-win for me 😁

[Berni]

That looks really nice, especially the SMD code search, that one google is not so good for.

Tho it would be nice to be able to specify the number of pins in that search. You often don't know the exact package name (as there are often a lot of very similar packages), but you can easily count the number of pins since these chips usually have a small pin count.

[bookaboo]

Nice idea, I'd concentrate on the part number search, do one thing and do it well.

There are plenty of calculators out there, no need to swim in the red ocean.

[andy3055]

Quite an interesting site.  Hope it will take off well. Thanks for your efforts.

[SimplyElectronics]

That looks really nice, especially the SMD code search, that one google is not so good for.

Tho it would be nice to be able to specify the number of pins in that search. You often don't know the exact package name (as there are often a lot of very similar packages), but you can easily count the number of pins since these chips usually have a small pin count.

Number of Pins can now be specified 

[SimplyElectronics]

If your "AI Tools" is going to be based on ChatGPT or another LLM, I suggest you drop the concept until you can prove that the statistical parrot won't merely "hallucinate" the probable next words.

I have a strong preference for a website (or shop) that does one thing well as opposed to doing several things poorly. If your site's USP is component identification, then adding a motley collection of calculators can only pollute the USP and distract the user.

There are limitations when it comes to chat, even with GPT-4. However, I do have a fully functional page that allows you to upload a manual and then effectively ask that manual any question. And the responses are accurate and amazing! However, given the cost of running this via the API, I can't release it until i figure out how to fund it, I do have a fully functional version of this site which allows users to log in to use this tool, but would need to implement payments to fund it. So this is currently on hold.

[Shonky]

Focus is important; you can't do everything.

Is it worth spending your life duplicating the results of bog-standard gurgle searches?

This was certainly my first thought. SMD code markings, IC logos sure, but there are a million pages for resistor colour codes. I'd rather have a table too than have to select the colours one by one and click calculate.

Also the logo is way too busy for my liking.

[TERRA Operative]

Having the upper and lower tolerance limits in the resistor calculator would be helpful (at least to me), it gets tedious calculating by hand for each resistor when testing older gear for resistors that have drifted in value over the years.

Also, having the resistor value auto calculate would streamline its use.

[Berni]

There are limitations when it comes to chat, even with GPT-4. However, I do have a fully functional page that allows you to upload a manual and then effectively ask that manual any question. And the responses are accurate and amazing! However, given the cost of running this via the API, I can't release it until i figure out how to fund it, I do have a fully functional version of this site which allows users to log in to use this tool, but would need to implement payments to fund it. So this is currently on hold.

Don't think it is worth putting all of that together.

People who have a ChatGPT subscription can probably already do that by feeding it a file and a prompt, so don't think your website can add much to that. Tho how good straight up ChatGPT at taking things like PDF, i have no idea since i never bought the subscription. For programing tho GPT3.5 certainly is amazing, it has pretty much replaced stack overflow for me.

[Kim Christensen]

Neat site, but everything is too big. You have to scroll too much. Maybe you're trying to make it mobile friendly, but on a PC everything needs to be scaled down.

[SimplyElectronics]

Nice initiative and good start. Have found some interesting things already.
Here are some remarks:

- Home page logo is gigantic on a 32" screen. Please reduce.
- On scrolling down all logo's and top bar with home menu disappears from the screen. You might want to keep that at all times.
- IC Search. Searched for "4011" and was a bit slow because of many findings. many many similar chips found with minor differences. Try grouping these somehow.
- SMD code search: PDF logo not aligned when there is no package image. On a 4K 32" screen I can see only 2 and a half items in the list, please screen real estate consumed (this is a general remark btw)
- Philips and Siemens are missing from the IC logo's. Intel also has the 'i' only logo.
- Would be nice to have a search on pages with large lists such as the IBGT page (ctrl-f works, but that is not what I mean)
- Resistor color code: not very user friendly as too many clicks required. When everything is selected calculate automatically. Provide info if this fits E12 E24 or E96 series. Do not reset entries when changing number of bands. Bands are on a different place on the 'real' resistors.
- Calculators: click calculate without entering data and there comes a server error. It only accept a 'dot' as decimal and not the 'comma' sign. Results should be shown below. Keep the Data in the fields to facilitate a second calculation with similar parameters.


tomorrow.io weather is wrong. It's raining here and it indicates sunny. Probably because it could not figure out our place very well.

Changes:

- The Layout for marking code results has now been updated to display 3 columns per row, so more results for screen real-estate on desktops. Mobile interface has one result per row.

- Resistor Colour Code Calculator now automatically calculates when any colour band is changed, entries no longer reset when changing band count.

I will be moving the IGBT table to the SQL Database for search functionality in the near future once I have collated more equivalent data.

visual aspects of the site are being updated as I go along to accomodate various screen sizes and make things prettier.

IC Logo Data still being added frequently.

IC Search will speed up once i've moved it to the SQL Database.