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Good inventory program to keep track of my DEC parts and stuff

BitWiz

BitWiz

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2021
Messages
420
Location
Glen Ellyn, Iil
I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of my PDP-8 stuff.

I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision, board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.

If you have any good ideas, please let me know.

I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.

Thank you.
 
I don't know of any programs that provide this. But it sounds like you need a database back end. Why not use MySQL with PhpMyAdmin? It would take a bit to set up tables and all. You should be able to import anything you have from your spreadsheet with a bit of thought.
 
I use InvenTree for my parts and components, might be overkill for what you want though.
 
I could always do it in access and sql but the point is to not take the time to write it myself. Access and VBA are not my favorite environment to program in. I could also do it in Visual C++ .net and SQL but again I would prefer to spend time on my PDP-8 rather than writing an inventory program.
 
Possible someone has created something already, did you try searching for "free small business inventory program" or something similar?
 
I've been considering using an inventory WordPress plugin to create the inventory database there.

 
I know you are looking for already written, but Python + Sqlite3 are pretty simple to get going, you probably won't need anything fancy. Export/Import from CSV pretty easily and possibly Excel XLSX with openpyxl or something similar.
 
That was my thought. Creating the database should be easy based on your columns from the spreadsheet. Importing the data should be easy too. And you can create some basic queries for what you wish to know you have.
 
tradde said:
I don't know of any programs that provide this. But it sounds like you need a database back end. Why not use MySQL with PhpMyAdmin? It would take a bit to set up tables and all. You should be able to import anything you have from your spreadsheet with a bit of thought.
Click to expand...

Scrub said:
Possible someone has created something already, did you try searching for "free small business inventory program" or something similar?
Click to expand...
Yes, I did that first.
 
I think you should store it in DATARIEVE.

(Also fondly remembered as Dataheave)
 
Some people would like to add pictures and other information. Yes I know you can add pictures to spreadsheets, but then you have to load everything, where as a database would be faster.
 
I use Excel for my inventory which has been quite adequate for my needs. Fields for each item are:
  • serial number in my collection, starting with 1 for the first board. A yellow sticky dot with that number is on every board.
  • DEC part number
  • etch revision
  • ECN of the board
  • DEC option part number
  • Description
  • Purchase date
  • Aquisition date
  • Cost
  • Date of assembly or date code of the youngest IC on the board
  • board status- good, bad, or unknown
  • system number where the board is being used or blank if it's in the spares collection
  • brief description of the present status
  • a column for each of the popular board types so I can easily have a count of how many of each that I have. Types that are tracked this way are: M8300, M8310, M8320, M8330, M8357, M8357'r, G104, G227, G619, G111, G233, G646, RLM-1 (memory board), the front panel boards, 32KW memory board
  • Source
  • name of seller
  • other notes
Usually the list is sorted by "serial number in my collection". I fairly often will sort by DEC part number and look at the quantity of a particular board type to know how much I might need or might not need to purchase a new item.

I use a less rigorous system for tracking PDP-8/L boards but can determine whether a board was an original in the machine or if it came from the spares kit, and whether a board is good or bad or has been repaired.
 
czunit said:
I think you should store it in DATARIEVE.

(Also fondly remembered as Dataheave)
Click to expand...
Actually I use Datatrieve on my PDP-11/83 to keep track of my QBus and UniBus boards. I used Datatrieve back in the day to keep track of all kind of things. I don’t know of an easier database program syntax that the one it has. One advantage is has over a spreadsheet is a one to many relationship, think parents and family members.

Datatrieve is preinstalled on PiDP-11/70s in the RSX11M+ operating system. It is also available in Johnny Billquist’s new RSX11M+ disk image for the PiDP-11/70. There all you need to do is use his RPM layered software installation tool. (RPM INSTALL DTR).

Johnny uses Datatrieve and his web server to host a web page from RSX to manage the 1,000+ node HECnet (Hobby DECnet network). A Datatrieve server can be called from remote DECnet nodes and from languages including F77, BasicPlus2, C, Cobol, and Macro-11.

A full set of PDP-11 Datatrieve manuals is available on Johnny’s site as well. If the project is too big for PDP-11 Datatrieve, one can also run VAX Datrieve with RDB but the VMS installation is tricky.

Mark
 
pbirkel@gmail.com said:
Great list of fields. I don't see "where located" among them, which is particularly relevant for non-installed modules/subsystems. Perhaps you store that information methodically in "other notes"?
Click to expand...
Thanks! The "where located" is in "system number where the board is being used or blank if it's in the spares collection". "1" is in the PDP-8/M chassis, "2" is the mini-backplane debug system, and blank is in a file cabinet where I keep the spares. It turns out that an Omnibus board in an antistatic bag fits perfectly in a hanging file folder.
 
I have been using "MyStuff 2 Pro" on the phone. It can export the database in various formats. There is a sqlite3 database in backup which can be used if one would like to manipulate the database directly.

I think is quite convenient to be able to add pictures and notes on the fly. I have been using a barcode printed on adhesive labels which I then attach to each item to get an unique ID. The HTML export looks like this: http://forum.datormuseum.se/categories.html
 
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