D said:
I put my leftover parts in a shoe box.
I make use of the original digikey bags and labels for my lazy system.
In the event I actually feel like looking for a part,
...I just flip through and read the digikey labels off the bags.
2 sections...passive and active.
Often I forget what's in my junk collection so I just order parts
anyways...even though I might have it in stock!
I pay Digikey to be my stock room.
The costs are not significant enough for me to track, catalog,
organize or even look at my junk box.
I like to put more time into design work and less time maintaining a
mini stock room.
How long do you think it takes to look at cabinets full of labeled
drawers, opposed to searching online for a part? Don't you ever get an
idea in the middle of the night and have a working prototype by dawn? I
play the odds. Say I need six of a part but the break is at ten, and
ten are cheaper than six? Do you order just the six, or all ten? I buy
the ten, and put the free parts into a labeled drawer. I had a computer
database of my inventory, but the software won't run on a PC. One of
these days I'll write a conversion program to export the data in a comma
delimited format, and write it to a PC formatted floppy. I would keep a
clipboard next to the parts cabinets and make a note of anything used
that week, then update the database every Saturday. I printed out the
inventory every 90 days and left it in the same clipboard.
--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida