[ezkcdude]

Yeah, I know, long title, but I think it's basically self-explanatory

. It's such a PITA to keep track of components and which projects/BOMs they belong to, and what I need to order, that I'm ready to give up the pencil and paper, and adopt some sort of software solution. My first thought is just use Excel, but there are some features I think would be useful, that would probably be hard (and not elegant) to implement in Excel. Therefore, probably a SQL solution is warranted. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for this kind of software for the DIY community? Here are some general features that would be useful:

• user-friendly GUI
• cross-platform
• open source

 

[balou]

freshmeat.net -> search for 'inventory'
109 results, there should be something for you.
95% of freshmeat projects are open source

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by balou /img/forum/go_quote.gif freshmeat.net -> search for 'inventory' 109 results, there should be something for you. 95% of freshmeat projects are open source

There are quite a few projects, so many that it's hard to know where to start. A lot of them are out of date, and none of them, of course, are geared toward DIY.

However, what I'm thinking now is actually a little more broad or grand in scope. It seems to me that it would be useful for the DIY audio community to have a centralized BOM management website+database. This would enable DIYers to a) sign on as users and manage their own BOMs; b) cross-reference parts from different projects; c) discover new projects using similar components - thus, perhaps, enabling us to ask the very same questions that pop up on this forum and ones like it all the time - namely, "What alternatives to OPA627 can I use for my...?"

Maybe I will create this site in my spare time.

 

[jcx]

http://www.openoffice.org/product/

the "calc" is a excel work alike and is fine simple for BOM tasks

I haven't use the database tool but its free too

 

[dsavitsk]

Not exactly what you are looking for, but GlassWare has a program that might work for you: http://www.glass-ware.com/programs/T...s/page0001.htm

Until you have a lot of parts, a few of these might be more practical

Quote:

Maybe I will create this site in my spare time.

You have a lot of spare time.

It would be neat if someone did it, but boy is it a lot of work.

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsavitsk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not exactly what you are looking for, but GlassWare has a program that might work for you: http://www.glass-ware.com/programs/T...s/page0001.htm

That looks pretty good actually.

Quote:

You have a lot of spare time.

I wish

.

 

[vixr]

I would pay to be a member of a BOM website...although the project manager at Mouser works pretty good for me...

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vixr /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would pay to be a member of a BOM website...although the project manager at Mouser works pretty good for me...

Cash is a great motivator. Actually, I just took a look at the Mouser project manager, and that would be a great help, if it were able to import digikey/newark BOMs as well, or at the very least, suggest alternative part #'s. It looks like digikey has a similar service that lets you have a public BOM for digikey parts. I haven't checked Newark yet...

 

[pddjsteve]

Hmm, interesting idea. If I wasn't up to my eyebrows in development work right now I'd be tempted to whip something up.

Have you seen http://octopart.com/? Its a part search engine... dunno how well it works.

 

[threepointone]

Yeah, I was thinking about making one too, but I've just been way too busy. My parts collection is absolutely crazy right now--they're literally packed away in like 15different boxes across my house. I really need to get them organized. . .
I usually find myself unsatisfied with commercial solutions for this type of stuff--I've had some experience with fundraising software for a non-profit organization, and it was quite clear that the commercial fundraising management software was complicating procedures, and a custom program would have easily made things 10x easier (unfortunately, some internal politics prevented that from ever happening). Anyway, maybe if I have some time this summer, I'll work on it. . .

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pddjsteve /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm, interesting idea. If I wasn't up to my eyebrows in development work right now I'd be tempted to whip something up. Have you seen http://octopart.com/? Its a part search engine... dunno how well it works.

It works pretty well. That kind of engine would definitely be necessary for what I'm thinking. They let you create BOMs (or "parts lists"), as well. Here are some more ideas:

1) let you keep track of your personal inventory
2) create a community repository for BOMs
3) Enable users to submit new BOMs/projects to the repository
4) Allow users to subscribe to existing BOMs/projects
5) users could modify BOM by suggesting alternative (yet compatible) parts - and these mods would propagate to the community!
6) generate detailed reports detailing what you need to order to complete a build (based on a particular BOM) - even suggesting alternative parts that you have in your personal inventory as substitutes
7) receive alerts (maybe RSS) whenever a BOM subscription changes
8) provide information about bulk discounts - maybe even enable group buying when users subscribe to the same BOM
9)Must be open source and free to users!

 

[pddjsteve]

The more I think about this, the more I kind of want to do it. I think the best route to go would be like you said, a web site. BOMs could be shared, edited, tagged, searched, have RSS notification, etc. There could be some integration with octopart and even maybe digikey/mouser/etc carts built. Let me give this a little thought over the weekend... I might be able to whip up some basic specs and see if anyone wants to go forward with it.

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pddjsteve /img/forum/go_quote.gif The more I think about this, the more I kind of want to do it. I think the best route to go would be like you said, a web site. BOMs could be shared, edited, tagged, searched, have RSS notification, etc. There could be some integration with octopart and even maybe digikey/mouser/etc carts built. Let me give this a little thought over the weekend... I might be able to whip up some basic specs and see if anyone wants to go forward with it.

Cool! What framework would be your choice? I'm trying to learn a little bit about this, and I'm considering django/postgresql or RoR. I'm leaning towards django, because I already know python.

 

[pddjsteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezkcdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Cool! What framework would be your choice? I'm trying to learn a little bit about this, and I'm considering django/postgresql or RoR. I'm leaning towards django, because I already know python.

I'm really not sure. I've used PHP, Java/JSP, and ASP.NET (right now at work we're developing in .NET) but I was thinking of going with RoR for this one because everyone I've talked to loves using it, it seems to be used in more and more web apps, and I've got a book on it but need something to use it for. I was going to rewrite a site for a webcomic using Ruby, but the friend who draws it is more comfortable in php, so we're sticking with that.

As far as the database goes, if we stick to writing platform-independent SQL, we'll be fine.

I think RoR/MYSQL is probably my first choice.

 

[error401]

Just to throw in my two cents, I've thought about doing this myself a little bit, but really don't have the time to put in. Mostly for the BOM management side of things, the effort of managing the leftover parts from my builds eclipses the cost of just purchasing them again the next time I go to build something - mostly I'm left with lots of extra small resistors and caps that are pennies anyway. Even a simple centralized BOM site that can generate DigiKey/Mouser orders and possibly support grouping of components (e.g. to allow for 'minimal' and 'no holds barred' configuration options for the same BOM) would be ideal. If inventory management were added, it could be set up fairly easily to match your inventory up with the BOM and then generate an order for just the parts you need. Nifty.

I have to comment and say that MySQL is absolutely the most horrible 'database' ever conceived, and I really despise that so many open-source webapps are MySQL only with no thought at all put into database agnosticism. If anyone goes ahead with this, please don't commit this sin. If you're going to restrict yourself to a single DB, at least choose something decent like Postgres. Better to make it easy for your app to be db-independent though, since so many hosting providers have MySQL installed.

And if this is going to be a centralized site for the community, I've got a decent machine colocated that's not seeing much use right now, I'd be more than willing to host this.