My solution to the problem of being a collector - i.e. packrat - was to
write an Access database program that allows me to locate items by
description, location or part number.  I have 2200 different items in my
database, so you can see how it would help.  I have a number of drawer
cabinets, large and small, that are numbered.  I also have a number of boxes
that I also number as "Box 1, Box 2", etc.  My database is available online
at http://www.dv-fansler.com/David/stufffor.htm.  Click on Inventory
Database and you can download the mdb file.  You can delete all my entries
and fill them with your own.  The version on my website is for Access 97,
although I have run the mdb file through the Access 2000 conversion and it
works fine under Access 2000 also.

David V. Fansler
DFansler@MindSpring.com
www.DV-Fansler.com

 -----Original Message-----
From:   pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]
On Behalf Of William Chops Westfield
Sent:   Saturday, October 19, 2002 1:36 AM
To:     PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject:        [EE]: organizing your junk...

Maybe I'm just getting too much and my problem is unsolvable, but...  How do
y'all organize your parts collection (from a hobbyist/researchy lab
perspective, not "production parts")?  Some things I've got enough of for
them to justify their own little boxes, some things are in tubes, there's
the nominally nicely organized jameco set of resistors, there's the bags of
harvested caps (currently divided into "high voltage" and "low voltage"),
there's assorted chips from assorted families that might get grouped either
way, there's big and heavy inductors and transformers, there are LEDs and
light bulbs and reels of SMT parts and ammo packs of caps and new
transistors and harvested transistors, and all too many heatsinks and fans
and boxes and board that have yet to be harvested and who knows what else.
And no matter what I'm looking for at any one time, I can never seem to find
it!  How do you organized YOUR junk?

(I THINK I'm particularly interested in ways you group and/or separate new
parts from harvested parts and such - that seems to be one of the big
complications ...)

BillW

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