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How do you manage "on stock" component on your personal lab?

strb

I was just wondering, how do you keep track of components on a personal lab?

I started by simply not doing it but pretty quickly found myself searching among an increasing amount of small component bags in search of the most close resistor value or the best op. amp. I have on hand for the job. For general passive components (resistor and capacitor) I've bought a couple of cheap kits but I suppose they were too cheap because values are scattered without an apparent logic (some E12 component, some E24 value, missing E12 values etc...).

I then started tracking available components in a simple Excel table and that for me was a big step forward: I could search any available component at "design stage" without needing to bring out the component box. A couple hours of inventory once saves me from needing to search among bags of component each time I'm designing something or drawing a scheme.

Less than a month ago I switched from Excel to "DB Browser for SQLite". I'm still learning it and using at most basic level but I'm quite pleased with the result even at this early stage.

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This is my experience so far and I'm not regretting doing it. What's your experience on this matter? Do you have any hints?

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  • I admire the commitment of those who maintain a documented list of stock part numbers and quantities. I have so much stock, just doing an inventory would involve a scary amount of work. I do have a system though, which more or less works. I standardize on common parts and and when designing assume they are in stock. After designing a PCB and sending it out to get printed, I collect the parts kit into a project box and order anything I don't have in stock. Resistors and capacitors don't go in the kit box, because they are organized in dispensing systems that make it easy to grab the correct value during assembly. When I use unique or non-standard parts, I often order more than I need and end up with a few extra parts. I leave these in the project box where I hopefully can remember to find them. My CAD system helps, because I often reuse "known good" portions of schematics so I know which project box to look in for the parts. However knowing whether I have the parts is still the easy part of the system, Knowing where they are located is the harder part. Good labels are important. This year I will be reorganizing, purging and consolidating, mostly to free up some space.

  • in reply to dougw
    dougw said:
    Knowing where they are located is the harder part. Good labels are important

    That's a good point. I don't have this problem at the moment due to limited number of components, but it's definitely something I will keep in mind

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