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Great tip! I've used spreadsheets to do basic circuit analysis or when I was trying to find just the right resistor set where I was having to constanly recalculate all the resistors to change one. It is much simpler than doing simultaneous solutions or even simulations! Later I would run simulations to veryfy the design was good before committing it to hardware.

There are pros and cons to using this method that others have brought up. Should you go this route my recomendation is to do a Save As before making changes to a file so you don't accidentally make changes and overwrite the previous version. When versiong by date, as I called it, I would use a yymmdd format and put it in front of the name so that the file names sort and stay together nicely.

Example. File name is MyFileName.docx:

SaveAs name: 200408MyFileName.docx

Using a zener is a quick and dirty way to get a regulated voltage using parts you may have around. I wouldn't recommend it for production boards for two reasons:

1. The zener voltage will vary from board to board and could lead to stability problems.
2. Noise rejection will be sacrificed. It could be improved by putting low ESR caps across the zener. The input and output caps should still go to ground and not to the zener-ground connection.

there power bank that has always on feature, we have to select one that has such feature if we want to use it

Never in a Billion Years. Just use a DB I put the code for mine down below.

Dear god! YASS (yet another spreadsheet)! you haven't learned your lessons yet. I use MySQL I have 3 tables: this might be overkill for some but I have a lot of military parts, so that why I have the NSN and others. why three tables you ask ok here goes

1. holds manufacturer information.
2. holds information about the part itself. The Key field is Info_ID.  such as pn, manufacture(id) and others that you might never use.
3. holds the history of the part such as the quantity, cost, condition (new, used, etc) and two location fields one is LOC for external storage and LAB which is my current parts.

I don't even have a front end for this it was all built inside phpMyAdmin.

LETS STAMP OUT THE PLAGE OF SPREADSHEETS!!!

1)

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Manufacture` (

  `Man_ID` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

  `name` varchar(100) NOT NULL,

  `CAGE` varchar(6) default NULL,

  `RN Number` varchar(10) default NULL,

  `Parent` varchar(6) default NULL,

  `ACTIVE` enum('YES','NO') default NULL,

  `Replaced` varchar(6) default NULL,

  `Logo` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `www` varchar(256) default NULL,

  `phone` varchar(20) default NULL,

  PRIMARY KEY  (`Man_ID`)

) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=390 ;

2)

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `info` (

  `Info_ID` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

  `Aircraft_ID` int(11) default '0',

  `Man_ID` int(11) NOT NULL,

  `Part` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `Alt_Part` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `UPC` varchar(20) default NULL,

  `Replaced` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `Description` varchar(200) NOT NULL,

  `PMA` enum('NO','YES') default NULL,

  `Spec` varchar(55) default NULL,

  `NSN` varchar(16) default NULL,

  `MRC Features` enum('NO','YES') default NULL,

  `MRC_ID` bigint(20) default NULL,

  `INC_ID` int(11) default NULL,

  `WPN_SYS_list` varchar(500) default NULL,

  `Model` varchar(25) default NULL,

  `ROHS` char(1) NOT NULL,

  `FSG` int(11) default NULL,

  `EEM_ID` bigint(20) default NULL,

  `Sort1` char(10) NOT NULL default 'U',

  `Sort2` varchar(10) default NULL,

  `Sort3` varchar(10) default NULL,

  `Sort4` varchar(10) default NULL,

  `Notes` varchar(5000) NOT NULL,

  `PRIVATE_NOTE` varchar(500) default NULL,

  `Pricing` decimal(8,3) default NULL,

  `Punits` int(11) default NULL,

  `Pwait` int(4) default NULL,

  `pdfs` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `Photo` varchar(100) default NULL,

  `Photo2` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `info_date` timestamp NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,

  `webcat` timestamp NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',

  PRIMARY KEY  (`Info_ID`)

) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=747 ;

3)

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `history` (

  `Info_ID` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

  `Man_ID` int(11) NOT NULL,

  `Quan` int(11) NOT NULL,

  `CC` enum('NW','NS','RP','BER','AR','SCRP','NIB','USD','OBX','SV','REFB','RFS') NOT NULL,

  `Serial` varchar(50) default NULL,

  `Cost` decimal(10,3) NOT NULL default '0.000',

  `db_date_stamp` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,

  `Notes` varchar(200) default NULL,

  `Location` varchar(500) default NULL,

  `Lab` varchar(100) default NULL

) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Thanks Mark,

That is something some one showed me at my local hackspace.

BONUS FACT:  if you are new at soldering or teaching a newbie, the washer acts as a head sink to protect the components that could be damaged from excessive heat.

I know, right? That washer was unexpected - such a simple yet useful idea!

It had some cool tips! I like the one to hold wires together in a plane by using a washer - stunningly simple but I'd never have thought of it.

I hadn't realized there was quite a collection in that ebooks location - they were interesting to read.

Thanks e14phil!

I had forgotten about submitting a tip.

I'm humbled to be included among the highly qualified E14 top members that provided their time tested advice.

All of the tips are spot on and very helpful.

My surprise favorite is actually your "Ring of fire" tip for adding some mechanical rigidity to wires that need to be soldered together.  I had not thought of that, nor had I seen anything like it in all my years in this business.

I have struggled with that very task many times, using multiple fingers and thumbs to hold the soldering iron, while guiding in the solder spool, while stabilizing the twisted wires, while trying to focus everything under a magnifying lamp. Argh!

Your tip will save time, improve safety, and preserve sanity.  Well done!

Mark A.