Part-DB: open-source inventory management system for your electronic components | Hacker News Reader

Part-DB: open-source inventory management system for your electronic components

github.com

109 pointsthunderbong11 comments

PartsBox founder here. I get asked about this sometimes, so I'll answer here: I'm quite happy with open-source solutions appearing in the same problem space. I bought ECDB, but left the open-source software available on GitHub for anyone who wishes to take it further. My software will not be open-source for a number of reasons, most importantly I cannot afford to take on the chores of a project leader/maintainer. That said, I'm all for diversity, and happy to see others stepping in.

PartsBox (https://partsbox.com/) is and will remain free for hobbyists and makers. It takes quite a bit of effort to keep it that way (data sources aren't free!), but I am a hobbyist myself, and keeping a free version around was always one of my strategic goals. I don't have VCs breathing down my neck and clamoring for "hockey-puck growth", so I can keep it that way.

> My software will not be open-source for a number of reasons,

Just to clarify which exact software is not open source? PartsBox looks to be AGPL.

> In-browser camera scanning is available in commercial plans only (due to licensing costs).

I wonder if you checked out https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Barcode_Det...

I think you are confusing the original Link (Parts-DB) which is AGPL, with the grand parent, PartsBox a different project in the same space, and is not AGPL

Ah, right. Indeed, the naming is super similar. Thanks for mentioning that PartsBox is not open source.

Your guest appearance on The Amp Hour podcast was the first time I heard about PartsBox and I've been using it ever since.

https://theamphour.com/542-component-management-with-jan-ryc...

"Hockey-stick" though, right?

Nitpick: your site has some annoyances in a mobile browser. Clicking links seems to drop me at the bottom of the new page instead of scrolling to the top. Some elements render off screen, and in particular the text formatting inside the live demo is very bad. On the projects page, I get a column of text about 6 characters wide, and some button labels seem to be missing.

Otherwise, this looks like something I desperately need at work. I'm particularly excited about the barcode scanning. Inputting stock is the hardest part about using a system like this, and this is an elegant solution.

The user count is a lot lower than I'd have thought. I work for a startup, and we have two engineers, two assembly techs, two purchasing managers, and several other people who would need read access. That's already more than your largest package. I don't understand why the limits are so low unless you're expecting people to have shared accounts like 'engineering', 'production', and 'purchasing'.

I'll have to give this a try sometime! It sounds super promising

How does it compare to Inventree (https://docs.inventree.org/en/latest/)?

It looks like an amazing app, but the more time goes by the more I think the best way to manage parts is to have fewer of them.

It seems wasteful to put a S2 mini(Or some other D1 mini standard board) in literally every project like I do these days.... but they're $5, and they can be low power, and they are reusable for probably decades even if I no longer need the original project. If I want to run on 12v, I use a 12v to USB module, and I assemble it with Wagos. If I want to run on a battery, I'll probably try to hide a powerbank somewhere, unless it needs to be really small, in which case.... USB C combo protection/charge/boost modules!

I learned a lot back when I used to do things more low level, and I've had jobs where that stuff has been useful. It's pretty cool to do a bare MCU project.

But by staying high level I have fewer parts, and I can make anything I want with stuff on hand, because everything is so flexible, I can try out things without soldering, reconfigure and reuse, and casual weekend projects are actually possible, as opposed to only being able to do things by setting aside 18 hours.

Unfortunately I still have stuff lying around from when i was more into low level stuff that I don't know what to do with. Perhaps I should inventory it all!!

Bom import is available for KiCAD BOM list https://github.com/Part-DB/Part-DB-server/issues/202

Neat. I wrote my own set of SQLite-based scripts for this and one of the things I'd miss using Part-DB is the ability to import BOMs to 1) see if I have all the parts (maybe they support this but I didn't see it in the docs) and 2) use a BOM and a barcode scanner to source a bunch of parts with audible feedback about if a part I just scanned is indeed something I need, and to tell me (audibly) when I've scanned every part I need.

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