1st world problems

[Sensei Tim]

A few months ago i made a massive order from Tayda.  "these are all the parts for the pedals on my to-build list"

fast forward 2 months "what are all these parts for? i don't even remember what i wanted to build!"

sound familiar?

[Zanius]

Haha yeap!

I always keep a folder named "To do" with layouts inside. Those are the layouts I check out while ordering, so I know what's for what. Of course the list is alive and changes without notice lol, then things keep piling up.

[Marbles]

Nd then start building something totally different and realizing you miss 1 or 2 parts for that build :/

[notnews]

This exact thing happened to me just a few weeks ago!!

I ordered about 100 dollars worth of stuff from Tayda about 6 months ago.. right before a shitstorm of personal stuff came to a head, along with family health stuff... and all the parts were put away. About a month ago i decided to dive back in and came across all those parts, most of them still in the packaging from Tayda...

There are a few oddball parts that have helped me figure out what my intentions were though... a TM011 transformer means Bit Commander, matched jfets means a phaser, and a few CMOS bits are used in only a handful of circuits.... maybe you can similarly decipher your inventory?!

good luck! first world problems... (UMO song for the tagboard UMO fans out there!)

[Sensei Tim]

yeah i've tried that, but it seems like they're all generic parts. oh well, at least my inventory is going to grow a bit ;)

[Pavlos]

I can relate to this, it's so easy to lose track of what you've got and what you bought it for isn't it! For what it's worth, my own solution is that I print off the layouts I'm interested in, then every so often I put together an order or.....ahem, few......for a number of layouts which then go into the 'to do' pile. While the parts are on the way I get the boards ready, so bar the arrival of one or two specific parts, I always have a handy pile of layouts and boards pretty much ready to go depending inclination and available time. There are probably plenty of other ways to do this as well, but this is working quite well for me so far, only problem is that wish list keeps growing

[PMowdes]

Same here

I've started cutting vero to size and writing a name on it before putting it in the to do drawer so I don't forget what I want to make.

[Pavlos]

Yeah, I do pretty much the same, but I get the cuts done ready as well, mainly because I get a few boards done at a time from a single full piece of vero and like to be ready get on with things without any undue faffing about. And writing the name on it is a must! otherwise it's a real detective game to figure out what it's for and though I don'tmind a challenge or two, that just seems a bit too like psychological massochism to me

[Muadzin]

I use an excel spreadsheet to plan and order my Tayda orders, so I can always check them to identify a mystery parcel. But usually the first thing I do when I get a new Tayda parcel is to write the names of the intended builds on the back of the square Tayda card that is always inside them. Finally some good use for them.

[mug]

Same problem here - I have a bag of mysterious ICs I've ordered but have no clue what they are for... Could also be possible substitutes I read about that I intended to try out but forgot.

Sometimes a google search of Guitar FX Layouts helps - but it only returns hits from the description or comments of course.


And there are ALWAYS some missing parts

[Marbles]

I still hope that someday I have built up such a stock of parts cause of this that it's almost impossible to have missing parts...

[Sensei Tim]

it's good to see that i'm not the only one with Alzheimers lol

[scimitar]

I also do this regularly and since I order well ahead I often get distracted and build something different and then find when I get back on track that I am missing parts. Regarding working out the builds based on parts you have, this is one thing that I think the app proposed in the other thread could be fantastic for - you enter a component or set of components and the app comes back with a list of circuits that match.

[Pavlos]

I can relate to that, though I'm more likely to have ordered what I need for something on my wish list , then change my mind and not build it and end up with a few extra parts. And I'm quite strict with myself not to put anything in the build pile until I've ordered the parts. I also do a 'stock check' from time to time just to make sure I've got enough of the common components handy just in case I break my own rules  it's a bit frustrating to suddenly find you've run out of 1M resistors halfway through a board

The app idea is a good one though, it'd make it so much easier to put an order together, but I can see that it would be a lot of work to do for every existing layout.

[BassVD]

Another first world problem: I ordered some stuff for a few builds (among others: the Ezekiel 25:17, I wanted to have one ever since I had heared it a couple of years back). Today I got an e-mail that my order has been shipped, but some components weren't in stock (like the rotary switch), so I'll have to wait for that. And I don't know when it might get shipped to me...

[motterpaul]

I ordered three of those rotary switches and now I am not sure I even want to do the Ezekial anymore - but those switches have a lot of potential uses anyway.

Another trick is to run through your browser history and see which tagboard pages you were looking at (especially more than once) just before the time you made the order.

I now print out every circuit I want to build because i don't have a computer in my work room, so I can just file through and see what diagrams I have that I have not built yet.

[Kinski]

I DO THIS ALL THE TIME