How should I organize electrical components?

Question

I have just gotten into electronics and have tons of resistors, capacitors, IC chips, etc. I want to keep them organized and bought some plastic trays with dividers but I am not wondering about static electricity and what that could do to harm them. Also, I have a feeling that my collection of components will be very dynamic and I will gain and lose certain components per project. How should I organize them so that I a) done destroy them with static electricity. and b) cope with the ever changing inventory. I know that I cannot put them in order from say highest to lowest values.

Answer 1

Order then any way you like.

suggestion, by component type, eg, 1/4 watt resistors, 1/2 watt resistors, power resistors, signal diodes, rectifiers, ceramic caps, electrolytic caps, NPN transistors, PNP transistors, digital ics, analog ics, etc.

Inside each catagory, sort by groups of value, depending on your inventory. 1/4 watt resistors you can sort by decades, such as 1-9 ohms, 10-90 ohms, etc.

Those that are static sensitive, ICs and transistors, store with the leads stuck in anti-static foam.

Answer 2

Bill Russel's ideas are good.  I organize mine alphabetically by function from left to right across a shelf at the back of my workbench, with a board below that carries the busses from the power supplies.

So the capacitors are to the left of the inductors, which are to the left of the resistors, and so on.  I keep semiconductor devices in a second series.  So the Zener diodes are all the way against the wall.

Most of your components are not static sensitive.  Only those that contain a semiconductor gate need protection from static, and the answer to that is to accumulate a collection of bits and pieces of conductive foam and keep everything stuck in that stuff.

Good luck, and invent something wonderful for the rest of us.

Answer 3

Obtain some conductive foam and insert all static sensitive components into it. Cut the foam around the component and then it can be stored just like all the rest. Ali foil also works but not as good as it is time consuming to wrap and unwrap.

Resistors come in preferred groupings. This is usually known as the E24 range (for example). Decide on a range and stick to it. E24(100, 110, 120, 130, 150, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240, 270, 300, 330, 360, 390, 430, 470, 510, 560, 620, 680, 750, 820, 910, (1000 ....)) is quite good but makes little allowance for high tolerance resistors.

You could use E96 Range (if you have plenty of room)

100, 102, 105, 107, 110, 113, 115, 118, 121, 124, 127, 130, 133, 137, 140, 143, 147, 150, 154, 158, 162, 165, 169, 174, 178, 182, 187, 191, 196, 200, 205, 210, 215, 221, 226, 232, 237, 243, 249, 255, 261, 267, 274, 280, 287, 294, 301, 309, 316, 324, 332, 340, 348, 357, 365, 374, 383, 392, 402, 412, 422, 432, 442, 453, 464, 475, 487, 499, 511, 523, 536, 549, 562, 576, 590, 604, 619, 634, 649, 655, 681, 698, 715, 732, 750, 768, 787, 806, 825, 845, 866, 887, 909, 931, 953, 976, (1000 ....)

The E96 range is generally only manufactured in precision (1%, <100ppm/°C or better) grade resistors. However, you don't have to fill them all. Just allow empty drawers.

Drawers are quite expensive and take up a lot of room. You might like to economise by using less drawers and so the 5% E24 might be the way at first.

Capacitors can use a similar scheme but using values based on 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 5.0, 10 etc. up to 1mfd. A few electro's as well, maybe but not many (low voltage, low capacity).

Some people just get the drawers and fill them as they go, using only what is bought in for projects. Gradually you will establish a stock of commonly used types but none of the seldom/never used types. I have never gone this way, preferring to have the rarely used ones on hand, even if they do use space.