Post by thread:[OT]: Length of a spiral

I wasn't sure whether to label this question as [OT] or [EE] as I want to know how many components I have left on a reel without nailing one end to the letterbox and walking down the street. Does anyone have a quick method at their fingertips ? Steve. ====================================================== Steve Baldwin Electronic Product Design TLA Microsystems Ltd Microcontroller Specialists PO Box 15-680, New Lynn http://www.tla.co.nz Auckland, New Zealand ph +64 9 820-2221 email: spam_OUTstevebTakeThisOuTtla.co.nz fax +64 9 820-1929 ====================================================== -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList .....piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspam@spam@mitvma.mit.edu

At 09:13 AM 1/22/02 +1200, Steve Baldwin wrote: >I wasn't sure whether to label this question as [OT] or [EE] as I >want to know how many components I have left on a reel without >nailing one end to the letterbox and walking down the street. > >Does anyone have a quick method at their fingertips ? > Weight might be more accurate, if you know the weight of an empty reel. -- Dave's Engineering Page: http://www.dvanhorn.org Got a need to read Bar codes? http://www.barcodechip.com Bi-directional read of UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, JAN, and Bookland, with two or five digit supplemental codes, in an 8 pin chip, with NO external parts. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu

> >I wasn't sure whether to label this question as [OT] or [EE] as I > >want to know how many components I have left on a reel without > >nailing one end to the letterbox and walking down the street. > Weight might be more accurate, if you know the weight of an empty > reel. And the weight of a full reel. These are SMT parts so the carrier tape will weigh more than the bits. I think I'll start recording the weight when they come in, though. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. That still leaves the parts that I have about 5 years supply of. Steve. ====================================================== Steve Baldwin Electronic Product Design TLA Microsystems Ltd Microcontroller Specialists PO Box 15-680, New Lynn http://www.tla.co.nz Auckland, New Zealand ph +64 9 820-2221 email: .....stevebKILLspam.....tla.co.nz fax +64 9 820-1929 ====================================================== -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList EraseMEpiclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu

At 10:05 AM 1/22/02 +1200, Steve Baldwin wrote: > > >I wasn't sure whether to label this question as [OT] or [EE] as I > > >want to know how many components I have left on a reel without > > >nailing one end to the letterbox and walking down the street. > > > Weight might be more accurate, if you know the weight of an empty > > reel. > >And the weight of a full reel. These are SMT parts so the carrier >tape will weigh more than the bits. I think I'll start recording the >weight when they come in, though. >Hindsight is a wonderful thing. > >That still leaves the parts that I have about 5 years supply of. > >Steve. With the weight of an empty, you should be able to weigh 100, and make a good estimate from that. Otherwise, I think you have to start hiking. I think you would have a very hard time working out the spiraling interval properly. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList piclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTmitvma.mit.edu

Steve Baldwin wrote: > > I wasn't sure whether to label this question as [OT] or [EE] as I > want to know how many components I have left on a reel without > nailing one end to the letterbox and walking down the street. > > Does anyone have a quick method at their fingertips ? Philips brand digital kitchen scale; 5kg max, 1g steps, repeatability about 1g cost about $35 US new. I use it for counting parts quite often, on the parts drawers you can write the weight of 100 transistors etc, and just weigh them for stocktaking. It should work ok for your reels, better than measuring reel width and definitely better than unrolling to measure. :o) -Roman -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList @spam@piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu

>That still leaves the parts that I have about 5 years supply of. To which my response is "why worry until there is only a couple of turns left on the reel" ;) -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Weigh 2 meters of carrier with parts and same without (on a letter scale probably), then the empty reel (on a scale good to 1gram), and the reel with the remaining stuff on it. You can move parts reel2reeel, no need to hike. Think film spooler (you can adapt one), the kind that comes in 2 parts and each screws onto the edge of a shelf. You can make an optical counter (using a PIC) and count the parts while spooling reel to reel. This is in fact the technique used in small parts warehouses (big ones just throw the remaining reel if incomplete). Note that when you spool the direction must be reversed so the 'right' side of the parts remains outside and the unwinding direction remains the same for the target reel. Keep this in mind when you go to find the film spoolers, there are some with a 1/way clutch. You don't want those. hope this helps, Peter -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

Can you provide: Diameter of roll Diameter of hub number of wraps component spacing? That should provide enough data to make a pretty good estimate. John Ferrell 6241 Phillippi Rd Julian NC 27283 Phone: (336)685-9606 Dixie Competition Products NSRCA 479 AMA 4190 W8CCW "My Competition is Not My Enemy" {Original Message removed}