Everyone has their own way of storing things, and in the past, I’ve seen the various methods for project boxes as well as small components. But one thing I’ve never seen covered is development kits (or shields/hats/larger components/sub-assemblies). These obviously don’t tend to fit in small component storage solutions, but also need somewhere to go once a project is over if the client doesn’t want them (which is generally the case).
I personally store old project PCBs in a display box, so that covers custom boards I want to hold onto. But not necessarily all the development kits I have lying around which almost always are handy a second time around.
Was just curious to see what people thought was some good ideas. I am based in a coworking space with just a single desk space (a big desk, but a desk nonetheless) and a locker, but don’t constrain your ideas/thoughts/methods to my situation by any means.
I give them away to students if I have no further interest in them. if they are special unobtanium that I do want to retain, sometimes I’ll just remove the ICs I care about
I have a dedicated bin that they all just pile into. I use the Sterilite 15 quart boxes (the purple handled version), and have one dedicated to Dev Boards and single board computers (RasPi and the like). The reason I use that specific box is that they fit fairly neatly into the 12" cube shelving from Ikea.
Recently, I’ve had two large to-go orders from our favorite Chinese takeouts. Their plastic takeout boxes with clear lids have been good for organizing my various bits and bobs that I brought home so that I can mostly work from home.
For about a year before shutdown, I was taking advantage of our passes to the amusement partk. During meals, I would spot and intercept plastic lunch boxes (https://www.whirleydrinkworks.com/products/general/medium-kids-lunch-box-with-curved-handle/) headed for the trash bin when young families were done with their kids’ meals. The boxes have built-in handles on them, making them great for toting kits around. I usually put the devboards and associated cables and adapters in ziplock bags (recovered from Digikey packaging) and then these bags go in the box.
Some years back I saw a bunch of rectangular plastic food storage containers on sale at a small Mom & Pop grocery store around the corner from my office. I bought them out. Fortunately the size was a common one and I’ve been able to add matching containers to my collection as needed. They’re stackable, transparent and inexpensive, and available in a variety of sizes. These were a Korean brand called Lock-N-Lock, a comparable US brand would probably be Rubbermaid.
The plastic Lock-n-lock was very popular here (Los Angeles) for a while. But the plastic ones have mostly disappeared, likely due to the BPA worry. Now, most lock-top boxes from Korea that I see tend to be glass.
Snapware are quite similar and are far more available in the U.S.
Some years back I saw a bunch of rectangular plastic food storage containers on sale at a small Mom & Pop grocery store around the corner from my office. I bought them out. Fortunately the size was a common one and I’ve been able to add matching containers to my collection as needed. They’re stackable, transparent and inexpensive, and available in a variety of sizes. These were a Korean brand called Lock-N-Lock, a comparable US brand would probably be Rubbermaid.