[Elecraft] Inventory

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I won't get very far tonite with my inventory but I'm wondering, whats
the easiest way to do it? What worked for you?

Jerry - NR5A


It's been a couple of years, but my K2 came with all the resistors on
tapes in the order they are needed. So don't take them off of the tape! 

I did a "total parts" count of resistors -making sure I had the right
total. I didn't worry about checking each value until I installed each
part. Then a quick ohmmeter check confirmed that I wasn't seeing things
when I looked at the color bands - and that they were really in  the
right order! I also popped each cap into the meter before installing it.


Other parts just got found and checked off of the parts list. Most of
the small parts I left in their bags until needed. While building I'd
see that a mob of caps would be installed, so I got the bag again at
that point and spilled them out into a little tray where I again sorted
them by values. 

I'd say that one of the biggest values of doing the inventory is in
confirming the identity of each part. A LOT of the problems that occur,
according to reports from the Elecraft gang, are in mis-identifying
parts. So at some point you find that you are "missing" a part. You
aren't, but you don't know that. You wait for the replacement from
Elecraft, put it in, then start troubleshooting a weird problem that
turns out to be caused by the wrong part you installed earlier. If you
are sure of the identity of the parts you won't fall into that trap. I
did go through all the caps, semiconductors and the toroid cores and
made sure I knew which was which for that reason. 

It's been suggested that I am just a bit obsessive about getting it
"right", but I haven't put anything together in years that required
removing and replacing a "wrong" part. I hate "backtracking". What I
did, once I had inventoried and was quite sure that I knew what each
part was and marked the envelopes they were in, was that I
triple-checked each part as I installed it like this:.

I read the instruction. 

Got the part. Read the value and checked it on the meter.

Inserted the part carefully in the right holes on the board.

Checked the value again by looking at the markings.

Checked the placement AGAIN (Amazingly, a part sometimes will "jump" to
a different set of holes during the above process it seems. This is the
moment to coax it back to the right place on the board).

Solder the part in place (I believe it is easier to solder the parts as
I go, and I don't miss soldering a lead that way nor do parts fall loose
on the top side while I'm fiddling on the bottom with a mass of leads).

Check the part value and placement one last time and check off that step
in the book.

Go to the next step. 

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289