My bench and What can I build

My bench

Press + My bench on a circuit's page to keep it. A note field opens under the buttons for anything you want to remember (“try 2N5088s”, “order with the Klon parts”), up to 300 characters. Kept circuits are tagged Bench in every circuits table, and On my bench at the top of the Circuits filters lists only them.

Workbench → My bench lists them with their notes and the date you added each, and lets you:

• Open in Circuits, to filter and sort your bench like any other list,
• What can I build from it, to match your parts against only these circuits,
• Copy share link, a link that opens the same circuits for someone else, who can add them to their own bench. The link carries the circuits, not your notes.
• Export and Import, a file holding your bench, your notes and your What can I build parts list. Importing merges: circuits already on the bench keep their note unless it is empty, and parts are added to your list.

Because the bench lives in this browser, it is gone if you clear the site's data, and it does not follow you to another device or browser. Safari also clears it after seven days without a visit unless Akashic is added to the home screen or the Dock. Export it now and then if it matters to you.

What can I build

What can I build takes the parts in your drawers and checks them against every parts list in the library.

Listing your parts

• Type a part number in Your parts; the suggestions show how many circuits use each. Click one to add it, or press Enter to add the first.
• Paste a list separated by commas (TL072, 2N5088, 1N914, B100k) to add them all at once. Anything the catalog does not know is listed so you can check the spelling.
• Give a quantity if it matters. Left empty, a part counts as enough for any board.
• Only parts named by number are counted: transistors, ICs, diodes, pots, switches and the like. Resistors, capacitors, LEDs, jacks and the footswitch are taken as on hand.
• Take as on hand stops counting a whole kind of part. Switches start switched on; turn on pots if you keep a drawer of them.

Reading the results

• Ready to build, 1 part away, 2 parts away and 3 parts away sort the circuits by how many counted parts you are missing.
• Parts shows how many of the board's counted parts you have, out of how many it needs.
• Missing lists what you lack. Click a missing part to add it to your list once you have bought it.
• Finishes the most boards suggests the parts that would move the most circuits up to ready to build. It is a short shopping list.
• + unread rows on a circuit means some rows of its parts list name nothing the catalog knows. Check those against the build document.
• Filter narrows the list (fuzz, Big Muff), and Surprise me opens one of the listed circuits at random.

The matching is generous where builders are. A row that offers alternatives (“2N5088 or 2N5089”) needs only one of them, a plain part number matches its fuller spellings (BC549 and BC549C, 4558 and NE4558N), and a zener given by voltage matches the zener parts of that voltage.

The rest of the Workbench

Sourcing, Building and Links are one builder's notes: where to buy which parts, the order to build a board in, and the books, forums and calculators worth keeping open. Unlike the rest of Akashic, they are opinion. If this is your first pedal, start with the Workbench overview.