Have any helpful maker tips? Send them my way!

Hi Daniel,

That was a cool e-book : ) Here are some new ones that spring to mind for me:

1. Heatshrink often : ) Never fun when there are shorts.

2. It's interesting keeping old books around. Sometimes there is inspiration there, even if you choose to implement things in a more modern way.

A better example is below, hopefully error-less : )

3. Component books are useful. Another way that sometimes works is to get hundreds of small paper envelopes (kids lunch-money envelopes since they are cheap!) and organize your basic resistors and capacitors, so you are always ready to prototype. I'm using this storage casethis storage case for several hundred envelopes, it's really low-cost.

4. Push-on Banana-to-croc/alligator adaptors are really useful. I don't need to store so many cable variations as a result! Here's me repairing a car amp.

I'm using these croc clips herethese croc clips here.

The cables I use most are banana-to-SMD clip and banana-to-pin-header. Especially the latter are very useful for breadboarding.

For storage I use something similar - I got some boxes from IKEA which are about 4.5 inch wide and about 10 inch deep. When you get some antistatic bag in a matching size this works quite well:

(I use thick paper as separator).

Another tip: use thread / yarn spools for storing oscilloscope cable. The coax will not like if you bend it too much (e.g. by hanging it over a regular cable rack).

Even better would be if you hang the cable by the BNC connector, but I don#t have enough room above my desk for doing so.

Thanks Hendrik, and great images!

Hi Hendrik,

That's really interesting! I'm going to do the same thing this weekend, with my ICs. Currently they are all in a large box on a shelf and only roughly sorted, but I plan to stick them in the resealable shielded bags and was looking for a larger storage box just wide enough - looks like I need to check IKEA!

Also very neat idea with the yarn spools. I may copy that too : )

Hi Hendrik,

That's really interesting! I'm going to do the same thing this weekend, with my ICs. Currently they are all in a large box on a shelf and only roughly sorted, but I plan to stick them in the resealable shielded bags and was looking for a larger storage box just wide enough - looks like I need to check IKEA!

Also very neat idea with the yarn spools. I may copy that too : )

Be aware that you need _many_ of these bags. I think I'm currently in my 3rd batch of 200 bags (but I also sort quite a lot of my discretes like transistors and diodes).

I just looked at the IKEA online store - the particular box I used is not available anymore (they were from the TJENA series), neither in the US nor in Germany