Hi Trent and Aubrey,

I like the idea of a PIC resistor sorting display.

I have unskilled (young) student help (paid), sort 5% resistors back into single value bins.

There are 169 standard values (1 Ohm to 10 Meg-Ohm 5%).

Either they have to sort by color code or use a digital meter.

Digital meter:
When they get a value, they have to calculate which standard value is within 5% (prone to errors!).

And, in the teaching lab.
I could even place one at each student (learning) lab station to avoid the same human error problem Aubrey (TheMadMan) mentioned for the auto-placing robot. It would help the students building projects.


A nice “go / no go” method would be great, too.
I have visions of 169 LEDs. One over each bin.
The student labor could “swipe” the resistor (from the pile to be sorted), an LED over a bin would light. Bingo, less error, more speed. The LED would stay lit till the next value is “swiped”.

Now all I have to do is teach them not to touch both leads on the higher resistance value.

I do not have the PIC skills or the programming skills to know how to begin either of these interesting projects.

Any Ideas?

I have occasion to sort several thousand resistors. Every few months.

-Adam-