What'd you forget in your order?

Harry Klippton said:
So uhh any of y'all wanna share your spreadsheets?
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I mean I could, but it would be completely useless to you except maybe as an example of how to set it up. My builds are weird.

Basically the first tab is my "Master BOM" and then I have one tab per design. The Master BOM has a list of all of the unique parts used for everything (i.e. if I were to build one of each pedal but ignore duplicates, what parts would I need) and a list of the different designs in a column on the far left. I spent a few hours going through and putting in simple formulas, so for example: the FV-1 cell auto-fills with the number of Arachnids I'm building plus the number of Hydras I'm building, TL072 cell auto-fills with 2x the number of Arachnid plus 2x the number of Hydra, etc. for every single component on the sheet.

As I said it took a few hours as I have about a dozen designs I build regularly, but 100% worth the time as it takes me 5-10 minutes to figure out what I need to order each month. And you can bet the very first thing I did when I finished was saved a backup of the file in three different places, because I am NOT doing that again.
 
I was looking at my spreadsheet and this thread popped into my head, so here's a snippet of the first page. Each month I print this filled sheet out and compare it with my stock on hand and determine how many of what I need to order. So now I only forget things if I'm building something that isn't on this list (which happens just about every month).

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I have a *very* rudimentary spreadsheet system in google docs, where I have a tab for each type of component that lists what values I have (ie, "resistors" and a single column with all the values), and then I change the colour of the cell if it's low (orange) or very low/completely out (red). Red and orange cells get copy pasted into a different tab that's just called "next order" that also has handy notes like "don't forget jacks" or "you probably need footswitches."

I don't have a dedicated space for building in my apt, so everything is stored in a few tupperware tubs in my office that I pull out and set up a little station on the coffee table in our living room when I feel like 'crafting' as I like to call it. My significant other watches a movie or reads a book, I do some soldering, maybe we listen to records, it's very pleasant.

Since I don't have bins for resistors everything is kept in the little tayda ziplocs inside larger ziplocs so it can be a bear to find a particular value on the fly if I'm putting in an order - it means a real russian doll situation of opening up a tub, then finding the >10K resistor bag, then checking inside that bag to see what's inside the 56K bag. Much easier for me to update the spreadsheet every few months when I do a tayda order and just click over to the tab when I'm putting an order together.

Building time has been really scarce the past few months, so I've mostly been futzing with stuff on the breadboard, as I can do that on my desk in my office without much disruption or having to clean up anything. I've been able to work out a couple of "original" (more likely "new to me") distortion circuits, figure out eagleCAD, and get PCBs made that actually function. Not as zen as zoning out and building a pedal but satisfying for sure.
 
No matter what I almost inevitably need something that Tayda doesn't have so I keep a running Mouser cart as well that I don't order till a few weeks after putting a Tayda order through. It has saved me more than once. It's saved me almost every time, in fact!
 
peccary said:
No matter what I almost inevitably need something that Tayda doesn't have so I keep a running Mouser cart as well that I don't order till a few weeks after putting a Tayda order through. It has saved me more than once. It's saved me almost every time, in fact!
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This is how I roll but sometimes there's so much time before pulling the trigger and I'm so unorganized that I order things and have no idea what they're for when they arrive.
 
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finebyfine said:
Dm me your address :)
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Aw shucks. That's mighty kind of ya.

It's cool, though, I needed to stock up on 2n3407's and 10uf polymer caps. Love those little things.

Plus...ferrite beads, a hex inverter that I didn't have on hand, some ceramic caps in various values...gotta justify that shipping charge.

I'm sure I forgot something....still.
 
I have often forgotten a key part and either cobble up a couple resistors in series or caps in parallel if the shipping is prohibitive to order a couple parts each worth a few cents.

I have compiled parts for an extra pedal project or two in order to make the re-order worthwhile though.

Mostly, I buy extras (whatever gets me to the next price break) in order to have extra parts in my stash and it works for 99% of the time.

Oh and I'm a pencil and paper guy. I LOVE writing up a new order. Something about it is satisfying to me.
 
Just placed a big Tayda order finally. I’m almost certain I forgot plenty of essential things. Mainly it was things that I needed but weren’t available or things that I couldn’t afford to add to the cart.
Did 5 UV prints, and got most of the parts I needed for like 5 simple builds. Still wound up being over $200, and I wasn’t even able to get the JFETs 😓
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
Just placed a big Tayda order finally. I’m almost certain I forgot plenty of essential things. Mainly it was things that I needed but weren’t available or things that I couldn’t afford to add to the cart.
Did 5 UV prints, and got most of the parts I needed for like 5 simple builds. Still wound up being over $200, and I wasn’t even able to get the JFETs 😓
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Me too, I'm habitually good with not forgetting stuff and getting through my list 2-3 times to make sure of that. But in my latest order for 5 builds, it seems I succeeded in forgetting a cap or two for each, mostly because I forget them when I populated my excel file :rolleyes: Oh well, at least I already needed to order some stuff from a local shop, so I'll be able to add those.

Edit: I also missed that I needed 1 more strip for the Vero build I'll be doing, so a bigger stripboard would have been handy. On eBay for this one.
 
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