I don’t eat that much potato salad, but these stacking bins came from the dollar store
4 Likes
(any 1N400x works there; the lowest one, 1N4001 is rated for 35 V which is plenty of margin)
3 Likes
Yep, checked the datasheet and it said that and it oddly enough did not say “the rest of your 4004s are in a bin with the other parts for this build, dumbass” so I used 'em.
4 Likes
I also have yoghurt buckets 
. I also started to create a Google table, at least for the important parts, ICs, transistors and pots. But I often forget when I use something to remove it from the list. I have to be more careful …
1 Like
I suppose you’d have to ask me after I’ve built something worth mentioning. At first sight, however, a lot of non-working boards discussed here seem to be due to lack of organisation. So I plan to knoll my components. See here for an example where I instinctively knolled a power supply kit before describing the parts on the mail day thread. As I’m colour blind I’d be a fool not to measure my resistances. This is especially important when for example you’re constructing a voltage divider.
Capacitances, I’d be inclined to trust the label, but I’d check polarity carefully and make sure I understand any annotations on the board and that they agree with the schematic.
Oh boy, transistor and IC pinouts. I’m actually paranoid enough to construct a simple test circuit on a breadboard just to make sure I’ve got it right.
Another step on from this would be arranging all the parts in order of construction. Maybe I’m careful enough to do that too.
4 Likes
At this point i wouldnt be surprised if people organized their parts in used Go-Gurt tube now.
Whatever works is whatever you should use.
3 Likes
I recently switched my resistors and ceramic caps to small brown pay packet envelopes and stack them all in a caddy.
I tried the card sheets (threw out the Pokemon cards : didn’t. Relax) . But too many and they fall out. Same with ziplock bags.
Envelopes work for me and im pretty sure I got the idea here.
I also put everything for a project into trays, some made from old polystyrene packaging (watch your ICs)
As for measuring? Yes. Only because I cannot read the codes and colours without a loupe or zooming in on my phone. I go through a project bom and check.
3 Likes
Impressive 
I do more building than repairing, so my “production storage” is a bit more compact 
I use 3D printed low-profile 85×40 mm boxes, that (of course) snap together. Here’s one:
(90’s toy pin for scale)
The first six hold ranges of resistor values, sorted by first pair of digits, and then there’s a few more with bypass caps, common diodes, pin headers, and a selection of IC sockets. Work through them from left to right when populating a board, restock from the component shelf (bags in a small ikea box, sorted in a similar way) in multiples of 5 or 10, and once you’re done all that’s left is to get the caps, transistors, and ICs you need to finish the build.
7 Likes
I had some BOM boxes when I first started building modules. But now less so.
I did have a annoying moment yesterday morning when building the Midi-2-CV . There was no 78L05’s in the Regulator drawers. I was convinced I had more than a couple as I had built the FC PSU with one for 5V… Bu they were not in the drawers. So I ordered a pack of ten, and then found 4 2 mins later…
I ordered a DC-DC 5V isolator for a project 3 weeks ago, and yesterday realised it had already been purchased in June… But I can’t find the original (yet).
I am waiting for Aldi ( UK Budget Supermarket) to get more of their component drawers in as they are reasonable quality for very low price. But space is the major issue.
3 Likes
Yeah — @devicex is fortunate to have gotten those drawers, but also fortunate to have the space for them.
3 Likes
yes absolutely ,though when I pay for that space every month …
2 Likes
I realize they’re in the UK too, but saying they’re a UK market feels off. It’s one of the most quintessentially German stores on the planet to me 
3 Likes
And there’s one a mile from my house in upstate New York
2 Likes
There are 10000 stores world wide in 20 countries according to wikipedia …
2 Likes
I measure almost (not the ICs) all parts because I hate to find out if a circuit is not working that this is because of some broken component and I often can’t properly read the colors on the blue resistors.
3 Likes
yes they can be mismarked and from the wrong bins when shipped, or getting .01 uf handfuls for example and some are .22 or 1 nano because people dont put things back in the right bin for those parts. Also 5% resistors can be way off, hope that helps
1 Like
obwas putting together the Bounce yesterday and came to the 4n7’s
Got the packet out and put one in my tested and it was near 8n … All the rest in the packet were similar and were all marked as 4n7… waiting on some more to see if they are any better.
Rob
2 Likes
Some ceramics are specced as -20% +80% tolerance. But you should be able to find ±20% easily and ±10% or ±5% with a little more searching, or use film caps which tend to be something like ±5% or better.
4 Likes
YIkes, that’s some margin!
2 Likes