How do you organize all the information you collect? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 06:45:04 pm
content: I'm just wondering what other people do to keep all of the data they refer to at hand.My own situation is in desperate need for some kind of overhaul. I have multiple web browsers all with tons of bookmarks.Its time for me to put this all into a database of some kind and I am wondering what other people do, particularly with binary files. Do you just put them into a file tree, or a network drive, or do you use some kind of CMS?At this stage I have a lot of datasheets, they are just all on my main machine now, thrown into a folder I have called "Components" thats divided down into the usual "capacitors" "semiconductors" "ICs"and so on. its not well organized at all.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 07:07:57 pm
content: Dropbox for datasheets organized in folders by manufacturer. This is sufficient for me, but I don't keep datasheets for jelly bean parts.Links and bookmarks - a plain-text file in Dropbox. Sections in the file are marked with text comments, which are searchable by any text editor.More involved notes, tricks, code snippets - all in their own text files.I don't use browsers for bookmarks of anything important I don't want to lose.

author: nfmax
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 07:22:56 pm
content: For published documents (journal articles, books, conference papers etc.,) I use Zotero (www.zotero.org). It also works for web pages, audio, video, and just about anything else. Free to use, supports syncing between multiple computers, works on Mac, Linux & Windows. It comes with a huge library of 'connectors' for different web browsers so you can create a catalogue entry from a journal index web page or a library catalogue page with a single click. Alternatively you can just type in an ISBN or DOI and it will look it up for you (though sometimes it gets things amusingly wrong)Stuff I have on paper I am in the process of moving into files, roughly organised by subject, but with each paper given an accession number (catalog number) in Zotero. Thus a paper might be 'B024' which means it is the 24th entry in binder B. Each entry is stapled together and labelled.One day I will finish this process...

author: peteb2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 08:00:11 pm
content: I'm seeing the same annoying issue. I kind of muddle along, throwing everything onto Dropbox into specified general folders and each month or so when i"ve a spare moment, pull it all back onto my NAS and collate it to more refined structure. Mostly datasheets or white papers on design discussions/proposals/concepts.This i always thought was what computers were invented for so i'd loved to know of a cost effective database system. For a long while i used a little iPad App called Chip Tracker that auto searched for and stored off device datasheet .pdfs and let me track stock levels of parts for my experiments. Then some reason a few datasheets became inaccessible, protected i guess for some reason and with Apple OS upgrades and no support from the original App supplier all that work is now lost... I've also have stuff spread across multiple devices and in multiple storage spaces from legacy period. Not good at all...

author: rfbroadband
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 08:43:22 pm
content: Datasheets, PDF files and project files in regular folders.Everything else (even some kind of a lessons learned on projects) on a local Wiki (MySQL) on my laptop. The Wiki turned out to be extremely useful due to the search capability. I was sceptical at first but I use it on daily basis now for more than just technical topics.+ the traditional engineering notebook....

author: CopperCone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 08:49:54 pm
content: in my head

author: Messtechniker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2018, 08:55:52 pm
content: To me careful renaming of all electronics related files with key wordswhich can be searched later on, is the key though which I keep thingsa bit organised without too much effort.For searching, I use "Ultrasearch" which is very fast because it goes through themaster file table of local disks instead of sifting through file name by file name.But network drives can not be searched in this way.For searching key words contained in files of all kinds I use "Agent Ransack"

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 06, 2018, 10:09:00 pm
content: Whenever I order a part I save the datasheet for it. Also relevant app notes, reference designs, etc. I drop this into Google Drive, which gets replicated to all my computers, a tablet (perfect for to view a datasheet with e.g. pinouts next to me on the bench), and a Synology NAS. I also drop 3D models and footprint info for mechanical parts (like connectors) there.Board designs go into a private repo on github, usually with firmware in a subdirectory. When a board is ordered I save the gerbers, exact zip files uploaded, BOM (csv and a gsheet sorted by part type and value to streamline assembly), etc - and then git tag it. This way if I decide to make changes to a board for an upcoming rev I an always easily check out all files that correspond to what I actually have in front of me. The git tag is the board rev (which is on the board silkscreen either top or bottom depending on where it fits).The github repo usage is very convenient; if you wanted to collaborate I could easily give you access to fork it and go to town, then when done you submit a pull request, I review it, and (squash) merge it if/when good. Of course, being git makes it easy to work on on any computer, or access files with a browser. If I want to make something public I'll just go drop in a license file, reset the commit log, and mark the repo as public.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2018, 03:06:21 am
content: Thats really horrible about your app going away. Did it store the data on your local machine?Data formats can always be translated, it may be a PITA but where there's a will there's a way.I used to be really good at that. One usually can figure out how to extract the data from file formats given a bit of time. Have you tried opening up the files with a hex editor?Quote from: peteb2 on February 05, 2018, 08:00:11 pm

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:31:24 am
content: As i do all my layout in kicad, as I add parts to my library i add in yhe datasheet and other info in the same folder structure with the same names,

author: larsdenmark
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 02:59:29 am
content: I use Evernote. It works everywhere (all browsers, iPad, Iphone, Android tablets and phones, even email).You can choose to store links or entire documents and images.Notes are stored in books and you can assign keywords to notes. Search is easy and fast.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 11:41:57 pm
content: Datasheets and Appnotes organized in a file tree by companies and topics. Where I need to have a pointer except in my head, make a 'see also' text file in the applicable directory.Beyond that, I've collected/organized topical information in .txt and Word files (such as 'Electronic Loads', 'Current Measurement' etc.), pointing at the sources with some abstracts.Large collections (such as Printbooks/Ebooks list, MilDocIndex, Appnote-Index) are partially Word (older) partially Excel. I've tried some special tools, such as various MindMaps, Wiki, Database, but gave up on it because I could not use it anywhere (Home/Office). Slowly converting the older ones to Excel.Table has two 'category' columns as well as another one for Keywords.Complementary to this I keep a well ordered link repository (for example Industry/EEcomponents/passive/inductive) which is done in IE, because that is what I can use in the most places.

author: not1xor1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 08:12:34 am
content: I suggest you to have a look atcherrytreeI use the linux version (I tested it succesfully both with 32 and 64bit linux) but it looks like there is a windows version too

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 08:26:55 am
content: I keep it all in a series of folders which i then add to the start menu as a 'tool bar'I reduce the length of the bar until its just a small up arrow.Its small and out of the way but with a few clicks you can access a massive array of folders within folders containing text files, pdfs, webpages etc..