How do you know which components you have?

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
That's what I'm trying to avoid. Been there, done that... bought too much
The real hassle is suppliers minimum order charges, whenever I ordered from farnell I had to think of things to add on to make up the amount.

I have various instruments that use the tiny A23 keyfob batteries - it was the only thing I could think of when making up an order - now I have too many!
 

Thread Starter

nerdegutta

Joined Dec 15, 2009
2,684
The real hassle is suppliers minimum order charges, whenever I ordered from farnell I had to think of things to add on to make up the amount.

I have various instruments that use the tiny A23 keyfob batteries - it was the only thing I could think of when making up an order - now I have too many!
I had the same happening to me, with Mouser. 4 x AA batteryholder for a lifetime.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
Two mistakes I have made in the past four months and that is not to notice that the price quoted was for quantities of 5. In both cases I ordered five and ending up with 25 H-bridge drivers and 25 PCBs.
 

sirch2

Joined Jan 21, 2013
1,037
Here's what I do with small components that have leads; resistors, ceramic capacitors, diodes, etc. Just cut up some fine corrugated cardboard into strips and fold over the bottom inch and glue, write on the value and then push the leads of the components into the corrugations. There are a few advantages, it takes up a lot less space than drawers and containers, it is easy to add in new values in the right order and it is easy to see what is running low by just flicking through.
storeage1.JPG storeage2.JPG
 

sirch2

Joined Jan 21, 2013
1,037
Nice. What do you do when your quantities run into tens or hundreds?
I can get about 20 resistors into one card and I would like to say my stock control is such that I never get above that but for some very common values (e.g. 1k, 10k resistors) I have bought packs of 100 so I just have the spares in bags in a box but then I have to remember that I have the spares...

...no system is perfect!
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
I can get about 20 resistors into one card and I would like to say my stock control is such that I never get above that but for some very common values (e.g. 1k, 10k resistors) I have bought packs of 100 so I just have the spares in bags in a box but then I have to remember that I have the spares...

...no system is perfect!
The diversity of shapes and sizes for electronic components means you have to comparmentalise in a flexible way.

Most small parts are in a stack of drawers, bigger parts or bigger quantities end up in ice cream tubs - some of my component stock hasn't been harvested off scrap boards yet, these are in plastic tubs sold for tidying kids toys.

There's a stack of tea chests at the back of the garage, but I'm trying to phase these out.
 

RichardO

Joined May 4, 2013
2,270
I'm donig an invenory list in OpenOffice. To get an idea of what I have. I will not keep track of quantity, taking components in and out of projects.

Another thing I have that bothers me a bit, is when I'm breadboarding a circuit that involves resistors. I'm not good at putting the resistors back. It is piling up...
Once I remove parts from stock for prototyping I seldom put them back. I have containers on the bench for these parts.

Note that I have are over 4000 _different_ parts and nearly 1,000,000 total parts in stock. This includes hundreds of thousands of resistors so restocking resistors is not worth my effort.

Edit: Added why I don't restock used parts.
 
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Thread Starter

nerdegutta

Joined Dec 15, 2009
2,684
Once I remove parts from stock for prototyping I seldom put them back. I have containers on the bench for these parts.
How big containers?

I do have some small jars, that I intend to use for that. But often all resistors ends up in one. Without any kind of system...
 

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
How big containers?

I do have some small jars, that I intend to use for that. But often all resistors ends up in one. Without any kind of system...
After organizing some of my parts using the same kind of boxes, I can find them really fast.

If it gets too messy, I branch out further (for instance 3 boxes for DIL IC/To220, 2 for SMD ICs, one for FLASH ICs, one for CPU/EPROM kinds).

The less often needed kinds share larger boxes, some with bags smaller carboard boxes inside them.

Its maybe 35% to 40% of my small electric parts (for instance I have large box for DIL ICs, and controllers are seperately stored).
 

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RichardO

Joined May 4, 2013
2,270
How big containers?

I do have some small jars, that I intend to use for that. But often all resistors ends up in one. Without any kind of system...
The resistors are in 4" by 6" by 3" deep drawers. I have a drawer for each multiplier band (decade) of resistors: black, brown, red, orange, yellow and green. Resistors less than 10 ohms go into the black-band drawer and resistors greater than 999K go into the green-band drawer. I also have drawers for capacitors, diodes, transistors, IC's, and miscellaneous parts. The transistors are in small antistatic boxes that fit into the drawer. The IC's are pressed into anti-static foam and then layered in the drawer.

I generally do not reuse surface mount resistors or capacitors so I have no method for dealing with them. After seeing MrChips scheme using tape, I may change that.
 

ronv

Joined Nov 12, 2008
3,770
I don't try to save resistors anymore. I buy the stock values on the little tapes to get a price break and store those in groups. If I have 1 left I toss it. I never seem to have all the parts for a project so I just add the little ones (low cost ones) to the order so I don't have to search them out and have all the parts in one place for the project. (the box they came in.) :D The stored ones are for emergency use.
 

Thread Starter

nerdegutta

Joined Dec 15, 2009
2,684
Nice!

I have a bunch of 2l squared ice buckets. Some as big as 5l. (In the 5l it was Rum and Raisins ice. The best ice ever!) In the small I currently have SMD's and in the big, I got modules. Like Ultrasound modules, USB to RS232 and so on.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
I don't try to save resistors anymore. I buy the stock values on the little tapes to get a price break and store those in groups. If I have 1 left I toss it. I never seem to have all the parts for a project so I just add the little ones (low cost ones) to the order so I don't have to search them out and have all the parts in one place for the project. (the box they came in.) :D The stored ones are for emergency use.
Years ago I bought 0.6W precision film resistors in lots of 10, they weren't cheap so I also bought a couple of experimenters packs containing 10 each value of 5% resistors - but I still harvest resistors from scrap boards because thru-hole parts are drying up fast.

Neither of the new selections contained less than 10R or more than 1M - so salvage is essential for the less common values.
 

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
Nice!

I have a bunch of 2l squared ice buckets. Some as big as 5l. (In the 5l it was Rum and Raisins ice. The best ice ever!) In the small I currently have SMD's and in the big, I got modules. Like Ultrasound modules, USB to RS232 and so on.
I used these years ago but they arent stackable, at least not very well, and if they are all different size, its messy too.

If they can be closed in a way they could fall down and still keep shut, stacked 10 or more, it really helps a lot.

They are on sale here for about $2 each.
 
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