BOM - an interesting improvement

[pdo59]

It would be useful to give the possibility to manage the number of PCBs in a BOM. For example, if you want to make a stereo amplifier and you need 2 amplifier boards (L & R) and 1 power supply board. In this case I have to manage at least 2 different BOMs, and the number of necessary components cannot be calculated. Anyway Binner is really nice software...

[replaysMike]

let me try to understand your suggestion. Currently, the BOM does handle multiple PCB's and inventory among each one. You create them using the Add PCB button, and add parts to them by setting the PCB in the Add Part dialog. When you produce PCBs it will reduce the inventory for the PCB(s) you are producing as you produce them, and assign them serial numbers if needed.

One thing I've noticed that is kinda missing, is that it tells you the maximum number of PCB's you can produce with your inventory, however it doesn't show this per PCB board.

In order to manage your PCB's you can go to the Edit Project page, but all you can really do is adjust the names and serial numbers, or delete PCB's.

This is a brand new feature, so if there's something in there that's missing definitely feel free to suggest features. In the next feature release, I plan to allow uploading of files for your PCB's (layouts, masks etc), and perhaps a little more UI for things at the PCB level.

[pdo59]

This is all very valid, even the idea of knowing the maximum number of PCBs that can be produced. Now let's consider this scenario:

• in my amplifier project I need 2 pcb boards (type A), one for the left channel and one for the right channel, the pcb boards are same with same components
• next I need a power board PCB (type B). So I would create a project with 1 PCB board type B and 2 PCBs boards of type A, but I should insert manually all the components for these 2 boards, or alternatively I should double the quantity of every single components of the board of type A. Maybe it's easier to indicate in the project that I need 2 boards of type A and 1 boards of type B. This way I should be able to verifiyng the availability of all the components of the entire project. In my case the PCBs production is not serialized. I hope I have clarified the problem, sorry but unfortunately my English is not very good

[replaysMike]

I think I understand. Sounds to me like there are 2 situations, one of them which would work with the current implementation and another would require an additional feature. Just so I understand, here's how I think it would currently work and then I'll explain what I think you're needing.

For making your project work with the current implementation:

Create a Project/BOM

• Add a PCB Board called (Right Type A)
• Add a PCB Board called (Left Type A)
• Add a PCB Board called (Power Board Type B)
• Add parts required to each board, even though the Type A boards require the same parts

When produced, each board would deduct the number of parts on each PCB even though the Type A boards use the same parts.

How you would like it to work: Create a Project/BOM

• Add a PCB Board called (Type A), with a quantity of 2
• Add a PCB Board called (Power Board Type B)
• Add parts required to each board

When produced, Type A PCB boards quantity would double the number of parts for the Type A parts so you don't need to enter them twice.

If I understand correctly, that would be fairly easy to implement on my end.

[pdo59]

Great, you got it right, this is an additional feature that would save me a lot of time.

[replaysMike]

I'm building it right now, it'll be in the next update :)

[replaysMike]

all done, it will appear in tomorrows release

[pdo59]

I tested the improvements for the BOM (unfortunately only in Windows) and everything is ok, thanks that's exactly what I wanted!