Hi all,

I wasn't sure whether this post is 'off-topic' enough for the current category .... other categories don't seem right for it.

The question of course relates to a knowledge in electronics field. For some it's a hobby, for some it's a job .... for some it's both

How do you manage/keep all your stuff (not physical projects/workbench/parts, but intellectual things) ?
(like future ideas, useful websites/forums, yours/useful schematics, datasheets, gained insights/knowledge...etc)

If you don't - please also write it

Thanks.

 

I do, sometimes, use a lab notebook for projects, though I always wish I had done more. This is mainly so that I have a record of all the calculations I have done so I won't come back to it later and have no idea how I got that. I also have a binder in which I place schematics and PCB transparencies for many of the projects.

Bob

 

How do you manage/keep all your stuff (not physical projects/workbench/parts, but intellectual things) ?
(like future ideas, useful websites/forums, yours/useful schematics, datasheets, gained insights/knowledge...etc)

Future Ideas: I maintain a text file listing projects I'd like to build and investigations I'd like to undertake. From time to time I add to it or delete from it as my interests evolve.

Useful Websites: I maintain an HTML file with links to web sites I visit frequently. My web browser is set so that file is my home page.

Schematics: they're in my Eagle projects folder, and in the folder for my Spice app (Intusoft's ICAPS4/RX). Some ancient schematics, created under other schematic capture programs, are kept in a folder as .png or .bmp files.

Datasheets, Application Notes & Personal notes: I download just about everything I encounter that's of possible interest and stash it away in an Electronics folder on my desktop. Right now it contains about 4 GB of "stuff."

 

1. I commit things to memory if I use them often enough to make that worthwhile.
2. Things not committed to memory, but used often enough to make looking up in the original documentation inconvenient, are put in cheat sheets (e.g. TO-92 transistor pinouts) or log books.
3. I keep a notebook with circuit ideas/work in progress and revise them as appropriate. I started doing this one year after graduating from college because I worked in an R&D lab (also learned to do this in school). I also keep a daily journal were I capture important/significant things, or things I don't particularly want to have to remember.
4. When I install utilities on Raspberry Pi, or other Linux machines, I record it in a notes file to facilitate reconfiguring if something bad happens and I have to start from some saved checkpoint.
5. I have an info.txt file on the desktop of my daily use computer where I record important things. It's organized as a journal with more recent dates at the top. All I have to do is remember the approximate date to find things.
6. I developed a system for remembering the location of information I think I might want to reference in books (hardcopy) by noting whether it's the right or left page and approximate location on the page (top, middle, or bottom). This doesn't work at all with PDFs and is a reason why I often prefer to read hardcopy.
7. I use schematics to capture some ideas. Once I was on a one shot "trip" and did all the circuits I could think of using inverters, NAND, and NOR. Indicated the trigger edge polarity and whether it was retriggerable. Now when I want a one shot, I just look at the schematic instead of "designing" it again. I also have one for all of the circuits I've designed using CD4007 (a versatile chip with 6 MOSFETs; 3 P and 3 N).
8. I take pictures of things I've assembled (e.g. breadboards). I take pictures of things before I disassemble them.

 

I take video's a lot for odd things I'm working on so I can always go back and reference what I did if needed.
For old and current projects they each have their own folders shared across all my pc's with notes,drawings and what ever else.
For future stuff I just keep it in my head. Figure if I cant remember then it wasn't worth doing.

 

My brain, my library and my PC.
My PC is organized.
My library is organized.
My brain...not so much.

 

In my brain. I never have to do backups. Power failures I don't have to worry about.

 

I let Google manage my knowledge for me.

 

My future projects are all in my head. There are quite a few of them.
My current projects are in folders on my computer. In each folder I save all my ongoing sketches, notes, photographs, schematics, wiring layout, PCB masks, construction details, datasheets and software. Each ongoing folder contains a simple progress chart which shows the state of the different parts of the project and what has to be done to complete it. Every time I change anything in a file it is automatically backed up on an external hard disk which can be accessed by my laptop, tablet and my other computers.
On the completion of each project, I clean up the folder by removing whatever was not included in the final project. The folder is then stored in my completed projects folder and backed up on CD or DVD.
I used to keep all of the printed documentation but it got completely out of hand.

 

Thanks for replies.

I started to use Trello for this

• Future ideas - listing and prioritizing
• Current project - to list the concerns/open issues/missing knowledge/additional ideas
• missing Knowledge - a list of 'to-read' articles/topics (that aren't related to the current project)

And a cloud folder (dropbox- to make it reachable on all the devices) - currently is only for datasheets/Books
(I guess the schematics and some project descriptions will be added too).

I found out that the best way of learning electronics is by actually building projects.
The electronics fields has a lot of interesting directions and a lot of ideas keep popping into my head...I found myself drifting from current project to other interesting stuff/topics or exploring possible solutions for my future ideas.
Since I don't have much free time to invest in all this, so by organizing and prioritizing (currently in Trello) all the ideas/current project/and 'to-read' stuff, I hope to achieve a much greater 'stickiness' rate to the 'one-current' project and all other things will be listed aside immediately (without being 'afraid' of forgetting them) .

 

I started carrying an audio recorder in the vehicle. My mind works differently when I’m out and about. Helps me capture ‘bigger picture’ ideas, which reduces downstream waste.

 

Most of my current projects involve controllers/computers so I designed and built a suite of general hardware platforms (much like standard software libraries) for rapid development of ideas. The total documentation/knowledge of each projects software, schematics, pcb and hardware is embedded in each project folder with each major change archived using the 'git' revision software that allows easy branching, experimentation and merging of ideas. I try to self-document the code as it is written using comments and a revision history of major changes in the source code for each required module. Using a CAD program like Eagle makes it easy to create/save/use a fully debugged hardware block from one of the hardware platforms into a new board with additional hardware debugged on a prototype board connected to a standard hardware platforms I/O pattern. The trick is to not specialize or optimize software or hardware early so that new ideas can be incorporated into existing platforms easily.

Take pictures, lots of pictures. It's not the actual picture that's most important, it's the mental preparation and act of doing it that matters. Taking pictures of things as you built them helps to create mental visual clues that improve idea/knowledge retention IMO by providing a series of steps instead of one big leap from start to finish.

 

You said take pictures. Here's one of my current project: lol

 

In my brain. I never have to do backups. Power failures I don't have to worry about.

I work the same way. I am lousy at transfering things on paper and am always working on multiple "projects" in my head. I have only recently stumbled on a flaw in this. I met someone like me. We were working on a project together. He came up with a really nice idea, but it was all in his head... So I had to wait until about 50% into it to see what we were actually doing...

That takes a lot of trust and patience

Turned out well

 

Most project that looks like it is going to last more than a couple of weeks get their own HTML project notebook. In there goes all of the working schematics, code snippets, photographs, vendor information, test results and other things needed to document the project. Such documentation can come in very handy when for example two years after you finished working on something the client asks for a modification or an addition.

Source code is also archived and with luck has the same project name assosciated with it as that used in the project notebook, which references specific versions of the code being used with the hardware at various points in the project.

Also customer specifications and notes of important point from conversations are recorded.

I have some books on Electronics, Math, and Physics and those are well organized. The other stuff -formulas, methods, procedures and such I try to remember but maybe more importantly I remember where to find references for those things.

 

In my brain. I never have to do backups. Power failures I don't have to worry about.

"We old guys often have to dredge back through forty or fifty years of life's detritus to remember our basics and our RAM isn't completely non-volatile"

 

Source code is also archived and with luck has the same project name assosciated with it as that used in the project notebook, which references specific versions of the code being used with the hardware at various points in the project.

If you don't already, try Git for this. It's magical.

 

Project notebook for each project. Currently I have documentation for:

• Fireflies
• MRR Controller
• Animatronics
• Voice to Servo
• Etc...

Plastic sheet protectors hold loose paperwork.

Parts and their documentation, go into a plastic sweater storage bin

Notes are in a related folder on my phone, backed up to the cloud.

Detailed documentation and/or published articles in a related folder on my desktop. Backed up to the cloud.

Each organization method is used at different times of a project. I’ve listed them in chronological order.

 

In my brain. I never have to do backups.

 

In my brain. I never have to do backups.

Lucky you.

I once had a bout of Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) which affected my short term memory. Short term memories weren't being transferred to longer term memory. I also lost memory for things that happened a few days prior; though most of that returned in time. Longer term memory was unaffected.