I’m in the process of re-organizing my growing collection of components, which has turned out to be difficult in several regards. First of all, finding proper containers for the various types of parts is proving frustrating, since each part type requires a completely different type of container (Aide-Tex Box-All cases are great for chip resistors/caps/inductors/etc. but I still haven’t found a good solution for SMD IC’s other than the baseball-card-page type organizers like SF sells…). But now, I’m finding an even more frustrating challenge ahead of me. In the past, my organization has been sorely lacking or completely nonexistant in some cases, and now I have a lot of small SMD components whose marking codes don’t actually include part numbers. Most of the larger SOIC’s and QFP’s include a complete part number on the package marking, but the smaller SOT-23’s, for example, typically DON’T have the part number, or even a manufacturer logo, and instead contain some cryptic 3 or 4 letter code that doesn’t really help in identifying the part via Google. Does anybody have any experience with identifying parts by these codes? Right now, the best I’ve been able to do is pull up my Digi-Key order history along with my sample part orders from all of the various companies that I’ve ordered samples from and pulling up the datasheets one by one and hoping that they include package marking information in the datasheet, which is less than fun. At the very least, I do know that these are all commercially-produced chips, not some obscure, obsolete part. Any ideas? I have a pretty decent pile to sort through, so any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Considering the amount of work I have ahead of me, I figured it was worth it to at least ask.
Kids, label and organize your chips as soon as you receive them, or 6 months down the road, you’ll really wish you had. Some parts don’t even have any markings at all! Let’s just say I’m REALLY glad I kept my 0805 capacitors organized :o
I use those little plastic lego-type cases from Adafruit that you can assemble together. The black ones are static dissipating, so theyre perfect for sensitive components.
As for new parts, I usually keep them in the Mouser/Digikey bags they came in…Ive also got 0805 and 0402 resistor/capacitor binders for regular use items.
As for answering your question of IDing IC’s…you ought to know what they are from the code on them. Try using octopart.com to search. Are these salvaged chips? Also you might want to buy some electrostatic bags and label them. ICs are very sensitive to a whole host of conditions including humidity and temperature. You dont want to risk damaging them by leaving them exposed to open air for too long. For ICs with pins, get some electrostatic dissipative foam to stick them on before putting them in the antistatic bags. At least thats what I would do…
Ugh, I’ve been going through the exact same tedium of decoding those 4 digit codes. The best luck I’ve had is to just google search the code and the package type and hope I get lucky. Ultimately I gave up, put em all in one bin, and swore to label components as I received them from now on, especially expensive ones (I also use card pages for organization.)
I rationalize it like this: If I spend 20 minutes identifying a 24 cent component I am effectively making 72 cents per hour; even my free time is worth more than that! However, that policy does break down when your talking about $5+ ICs.
Digikey web order history + datasheets. Once I go through my Digikey history, I’ll probably move on to sample order histories for some of the companies I’ve ordered from (TI being the main one). TI, at least, has the top markings listed in their datasheets, but I have to at least have a vague idea of what datasheets to start looking through, so order history is a decent starting point there. After that, it’s probably a complete shot in the dark
qwertymodo:
Digikey web order history + datasheets. Once I go through my Digikey history, I’ll probably move on to sample order histories for some of the companies I’ve ordered from (TI being the main one). TI, at least, has the top markings listed in their datasheets, but I have to at least have a vague idea of what datasheets to start looking through, so order history is a decent starting point there. After that, it’s probably a complete shot in the dark
Thats always a good way to figure out parts Well let me know if you need any more help identifying parts!
Well let me know if you need any more help identifying parts! 
