A little tool I built for planning out builds

[bobson dugnutt]

I love building pedals, but I hate ordering parts, especially if I'm planning out several builds at once, or need to take inventory of the parts I have. Large builds can have a ton of resistors and caps, and I end up spending longer than I should counting how much of each value is needed.

Today, rather than count up everything I threw together a quick little web-based tool that lets me copy/paste the parts in and keeps a running list of what's needed for what. Computers are way better at counting and I am, and their attention spans are longer than mine, so it all sorta works out. It's a little janky, but it gets the job done!

I didn't feel like taking on more than the basics for parsing the parts, so for now it can't handle copying more than the component name/value pairs (see the directions). Maybe one day! For now it solves the problem I wanted it to, so I'm happy. I'm not sure if anyone else even has this problem.

Enjoy:

PedalPCB Shopping List

 

[Gordo]

Damn sam, aren't you the crafty beaver. Very slick little utility. Madbean and Aion usually have shopping list and this is a very cool workaround. Thanks for doing this and thanks even more for sharing it!!

 

[bobson dugnutt]

Thanks!

One tip I learned just now: go through and mark the electrolytic caps with asterisks (or however you prefer) before clicking add so you don't have to go back through and figure that out after adding several builds to the list

 

[lcipher3]

Hey that's pretty cool. I dumped in few parts lists and it's very handing for adding everything up!

 

[Moltenmetalburn]

Thanks!

 

[CodyTheWizard]

How do you check out the list after adding everything to it?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Cool idea! I do it with EXCEL. I have a master list with my existing parts inventory, including where I got each part. For each build I create a parts list in EXCEL, it helps me keep track of mods and substitutions. I also mark off parts as I place orders, receive them, kit them and install them. Sure, it's a bit A/R, but it helps prevent screw-ups and missing parts. I can also create shopping lists for each vendor, as req'd. I even use EXCEL to do "Ghetto CAD" drawing front panel layouts, drill templates and annotating Vero layouts.

 

[jspake]

very helpful!

 

[cooder]

Very nifty tool there, thanks!

 

[bobson dugnutt]

How do you check out the list after adding everything to it?

It should just appear over in the right hand side after you click the button; it doesn't do much more than de-dupe everything you throw at it for now, but maybe I'll add to it in the future

 

[bobson dugnutt]

Cool idea! I do it with EXCEL. I have a master list with my existing parts inventory, including where I got each part. For each build I create a parts list in EXCEL, it helps me keep track of mods and substitutions. I also mark off parts as I place orders, receive them, kit them and install them. Sure, it's a bit A/R, but it helps prevent screw-ups and missing parts. I can also create shopping lists for each vendor, as req'd. I even use EXCEL to do "Ghetto CAD" drawing front panel layouts, drill templates and annotating Vero layouts.

I like the excel idea! I use a note-taking app that has checkboxes; when I'm shopping the part only gets checked off once I very it's in the cart on Tayda or wherever I'm ordering it from. Checklists are so helpful, especially when there's multiple days of planning (I get distracted constantly).

What I want to get around to doing eventually is setting up a full inventory in a spreadsheet or some sort of custom software so I can plan everything in one sitting (or somewhat automatically!) without having to dig through my parts drawers. That, of course, would mean keeping the inventory up to date, so it's tough to tell how much trouble it'd save