I've got a fairly good collection of electronic parts/ICs.
It's not unusual for me to buy a set of parts for several projects, then work on some part of project, then put the remaining parts away. Later, I'm not sure what project they were originally acquired for, or worse I might rebuy similar parts or not be 100% sure I have in 'inventory'.
What do you use or recommend or keep track of electronic parts? Digikey and octopart have a way to store parts but it's not really an inventory or notekeeping system.
The ideals system looks a little like Octopart's part manager but understands that I already own these parts and allows me to put a note on why I bought this part and a quantity (and perhaps where I ordered it from before). It would understand a 'wish list' for future projects and perhaps the notion of a project itself. I could just use a plain excel file (or even wordpad file) but I like the integration with datasheets.
Yes; they are called Inventory Management Systems - they range in price from "free" to "2nd Mortgage on Home" (really, though, those are for business to business transactions).
Check around; here's one I found that is free and -extremely- basic:
Its from a portugal, and the forum is writen in protuguese, but i think that google translate can handle it, and if someone as any doubt you can ask in english that almost everyone will reply to you, here it is, the component organizer:
I use a spreadsheet, each tab is for different type of component, e.g. displays, resistors, capacitors, etc. I have almost everything noted, supplier code, last price paid, values, current, voltage, RoHS, data sheet number (also have a file of data sheets, etc). Also keep a copy of it on google docs so I can look at it on the mobile phone.
I also tend to buy parts for several projects at the same time, however long ago I was introduced to two products that when combined have revolutionized how I store and package the various components so that they don't get lost or misplaced or whose original purpose gets forgotten.
The two products are called Sharpie markers and Ziploc freezer bags.
Once I have secreted my new contraband past my wife and safely made it down to my workshop, I label a Ziploc bag with the name of the project and possibly the source; then place the required components into the bag . . . sometimes including a copy of the schematic or magazine article. If I have already acquired a suitable enclosure, I place it in the bag if it is small enough . . . otherwise if it is too large, then I tape the bag of goodies inside the enclosure.
A $1 for a Sharpie and $3 for 25 heavy duty (reusable) Ziploc freezer bags is money well spent and eliminates both confusion and the tendency to buy twice . . . build once.
Inventory mangement system? That sure is getting origanized.... With all my parts it would take a LONG time to enter everything.... but I sure do need something like that.
I think I'll work on a spreadsheet - I do like those.
I was cleaning up my workshop this weekend . . . the first hour plus was cleaning up the mess left by my teenager . . . the next two hours was spent sorting and tossing enough stuff to fill two garbage bags and I am still not done.
My wife was just dying to join in and really show me how to do it, but there was NO way I was going to let her in to see how much stuff I really have squirreled away down there. Even my teenager is constantly amazed to see me pull something out of nowhere that he had never found before.
I was cleaning up my workshop this weekend . . . the first hour plus was cleaning up the mess left by my teenager . . . the next two hours was spent sorting and tossing enough stuff to fill two garbage bags and I am still not done.
Wow, something I can seriously relate to.
There MUST be a "tinkerer" gene we have that contains a "recycling" aspect that makes us look at old defunct stuff and say... I need to save that and see if I can salvage the good stuff out of it.
For the past 30 years I have worked as a model builder, product designer, sales manager and project manager in the prototype, injection moulding and automation industries.
Consequently I come into contact with a lot of interesting customer supplied materials that are used for testing, but then discarded at the end of the project. Over the years I have rescued from the dumpster 1/32” dia aircraft cable, flexible 1/32” Baltic birch plywood, 100 feet of A2 hard spring steel, Teflon coated fabric (for high temperature applications), 1000's of O-rings (only in one or two sizes), bits and pieces of high-temp ceramics, Delrin, nylon, etc. . . . plus so many other materials that I couldn't list them all.
They are all crudely stored (but not catalogued) in banker's boxes and large Rubbermaid bins. Can't have the wife sorting through all that, she'd never believe that I hadn't paid for all that stuff.
Lots of good ideas. I too use the sharpie and ziplock combined with the sneak past wife approach. Ziplock also makes plastic food storage containers that work well.
One thing I have found is that if I am too organized, I lose things. If I have to do a little sorting to find what I am looking for, I usually find some other things that I should have been looking for as well.
There MUST be a "tinkerer" gene we have that contains a "recycling" aspect that makes us look at old defunct stuff and say... I need to save that and see if I can salvage the good stuff out of it.
Resisting it is nearly impossible for me - especially if it is something that I don't know if I will run across again. Just this weekend I had to pass up two different ebay auctions (one for a ton of old components, and the other for a parts-only Big Trak; I hope that one went to a good home) because I had already spent too much, bills were due, and I really don't have the room (but I coulda fit it somewhere!).
I had already bought on eBay an old "parts-only" Armatron, that I hope to (someday) build an interface to (likely using the Arduino, based off the Popular Electronics schematic I have from the mid-80's - maybe adding feedback pots as well).
When "bulk-trash pickup" comes around in our neighborhood, I am always spying other people's junk to see if there is anything I want (it doesn't have to be robotics or electronics related either; I have been known to pick up old steel parts for welding, as well as old wood or tree limbs for burnin'!).
Get me into a Goodwill and there is no tellin' what I will bring home (for instance, this weekend I spent 2 dollars picking up an old Polaroid Sun 660 for the ultrasonic sensor).
All I need is infinite cash, infinite time, and no job...
